Fresenius, a German healthcare company, is set to more than double its biosimilars portfolio through an exclusive development agreement with WuXi Biologics. The deal, announced on November 2, gives Fresenius option rights on up to 37 potential first-to-market biosimilar candidates over the next decade.
The candidates are aimed at originator drugs with more than €370 billion in list-price-based sales. Fresenius will choose which candidates to develop, scoring each against its established criteria, including market attractiveness, development risk, and expected returns.
Fresenius will pay WuXi Biologics on a fee-for-service basis for each candidate it selects, with research and development spending growing only as chosen programs advance. Fresenius will hold exclusive global commercialization rights, including marketing authorizations, and the full economics of every product it brings to market under the deal.
WuXi Biologics, a Hong Kong-listed contract research, development, and manufacturing organization, will run development through its network in Europe, the United States, China, and Singapore. The first two programs target blockbuster biologics from Roche and Amgen: Polatuzumab vedotin, sold by Roche’s Genentech as Polivy, and Teprotumumab, sold by Amgen as Tepezza.
Fresenius expects the WuXi Biologics portfolio to span 13 therapeutic areas, adding neurology, nephrology, and cardiopulmonary medicine to its oncology, immunology, and gastroenterology franchises. The portfolio will include monoclonal and bispecific antibodies, ADCs, and fusion proteins.
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Fresenius Kabi’s six U.S. biosimilars reference Humira, Prolia, Xgeva, Stelara, Neulasta, and Actemra. The addition of Polivy would put an ADC into a portfolio built on antibodies and other proteins.
The WuXi Biologics agreement follows a month after Fresenius took full control of mAbxience, a Spain-headquartered biosimilars unit within Fresenius Kabi.
The company expects to fund the agreement from operating cash flow, with its full-year 2026 guidance standing unchanged. The structure of the deal resembles recent licensing deals between multinationals and Chinese drug developers, where the Western company chooses the targets and the Chinese partner builds the molecules.
Fresenius said the number, timing, and choice of candidates that enter development will depend on options it exercises one candidate at a time over the decade, starting with the Polivy and Tepezza programs. The company’s goal is to roughly double Biopharma revenue from its 2025 level at an EBIT margin of about 20% by 2030.
