Teva and MedImmune Invest in FredCo Bio?

In two separate articles on the news wires this morning, Israeli pharma Teva (also a factor in MoCo Bio although I could find no mention of this site on their web site) have teamed with Lonza, parent of Lonza-Walkersville, to develop “biosimilar” drug compounds.  According to this press release:

Teva and Lonza will cooperate to develop, manufacture and market a number of affordable, efficacious and safe generic equivalents of a selected portfolio of biologic pharmaceuticals.

“We had identified biosimilars as a major growth driver for Teva in our long-term strategy and have been augmenting our knowledge base, capabilities and infrastructure to position Teva as a leader in this market”, said Shlomo Yanai, Teva’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “This strategic partnership bolsters our biologics capabilities. Lonza is an ideal partner for Teva in this field with its deep knowledge and experience in biopharmaceutical development, large scale manufacturing and state of the art manufacturing facilities. Combined with Teva’s global leadership and expertise in clinical development and marketing of generic pharmaceuticals, the joint venture generates significant opportunities and benefits for both companies.”

Not sure if or when any of this will “trickle down” to FredCo, but one would think some of the biologicals and models may be developed at the Walkersville facility. I’ll try to get more information.

In another story which may or may not have implications for FredCoBio, the MedImmune venture of Astra-Zeneca raised another $22MM in series D financing for the acquisition of Hydra Biosciences of Cambridge, Mass.  They are were a private company that exploit ion channels, although they have never initialted a clinical trial.  Likely this would be more of an interaction with the R&D side of things in MoCo, but this activity may be the next round of manufacturing expansion in FredCo a few years down the road.