On 20 March 2025, Alvotech announced its acquisition of Xbrane’s Swedish R&D operations, as well as biosimilar candidate XB003 referencing UCB’s Cimzia® (certolizumab pegol). Xbrane will retain some pre-clinical development programs and will continue to operate as a listed company.
According to Alvotech, the deal is worth approximately USD$27M and is expected to close in April 2025, subject to approvals from the relevant authorities and Xbrane’s shareholders.
In August 2024, Xbrane commenced its out-licensing process for XB003 and in October 2024, announced that it received the first non-binding proposals on XB003. In that announcement, Xbrane said that it had successfully scaled up the production process to clinical scale, analytical similarity to the reference product had been demonstrated, and scientific advice from EMA and FDA on the clinical development plan was expected in Q1 2025.