Biosimilar Deals: M&A and Licensing in H1 2026

Sandoz/Just-Evotec Biologics EU SAS: Announced November 4, 2025, closed December 5, 2025. Sandoz acquired 100% of Just-Evotec Biologics EU SAS from Evotec SE, including the Toulouse, France, continuous-manufacturing site, together with an indefinite license to the Just-Evotec continuous-manufacturing platform. Sandoz paid approximately $350 million in upfront cash, and Evotec is eligible for license fees, development revenues, and success-based milestones that the parties stated could exceed $300 million over time, together with royalties on a portfolio of up to ten biosimilars in early development. Sandoz and Evotec had partnered since May 2023, and Sandoz secured long-term supply from Toulouse in July 2024, so the transaction removed a contract-manufacturing dependency that Sandoz had already built its supply plan around. The transaction is the only one of the three to have closed by September 2026, and it set the pattern that the two larger H1 2026 transactions followed.

Amneal Pharmaceuticals/Kashiv BioSciences: Announced April 21 to 22, 2026, not yet closed (as per September 2026). Amneal Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: AMRX) agreed to acquire 100% of Kashiv BioSciences for $375 million in cash and $375 million in Class A stock at closing, plus contingent payments of up to $350 million tied to United States (US) regulatory milestones and royalties of 25% of gross profit above defined hurdles on certain products for 12 years after closing, giving total potential consideration of approximately $1.1 billion. The structure places approximately 32% of the maximum consideration behind US regulatory and commercial performance, and the equal split between cash and stock limits the cash outlay at closing to $375 million. The transaction illustrates this shift directly, because Amneal Pharmaceuticals acquired the developer it had been licensing from, having taken FYLNETRA^® pegfilgrastim from Kashiv BioSciences in 2022 and the omalizumab candidate ADL018 in 2024. Amneal Pharmaceuticals is targeting more than 12 commercial biosimilars by 2030 and expects the transaction to close in H2 2026, subject to shareholder and regulatory approval.

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries/Organon: Announced April 26, 2026, not yet closed (as per September 2026). Sun Pharmaceutical Industries agreed to acquire Organon for $14 per share in cash, at an enterprise value of $11.75 billion, in the largest overseas acquisition by an Indian pharmaceutical company to date. The offer represents a 103% premium to the unaffected Organon share price of April 9, 2026, before deal speculation, and approximately 24% over the last close before announcement. Against $6.2 billion of FY2025 revenue and $1.9 billion of adjusted EBITDA, the enterprise value implies approximately 6x EV/EBITDA. Equity value is approximately $4 billion and Sun Pharmaceutical Industries assumes approximately $8.6 billion of gross debt (approximatively $8.0 billion of net debt), so a 103% equity premium coincides with a single-digit entry multiple, and the return on the transaction depends on the cash generation of Organon and on deleveraging rather than on multiple expansion. This transaction is the exception among the three major M&A deals. Sun Pharmaceutical Industries is buying commercial scale rather than capability, and the Organon biosimilars business rests on the Organon partnership with Samsung Bioepis, so Sun Pharmaceutical Industries acquires a licensing dependency rather than removing one. Sun Pharmaceutical Industries expects the combined group to hold approximately the seventh-largest biosimilar position worldwide, alongside women’s health and branded generics. Closing is expected in early 2027, subject to Organon shareholder approval and customary regulatory clearances.

Licensing still remains the most common transaction structure by count. What has changed is the purpose it serves. Generics companies are internalizing the development and manufacturing capability they previously bought from dedicated developers and contract development and manufacturing organizations, and they continue to license the assets that give portfolio breadth and the agreements that give access to individual geographies. 

The two agreements set out below illustrate how licensing can broaden portfolios and expand geographic reach:

Samsung Bioepis and Sandoz: On March 18 to 19, 2026, Samsung Bioepis and Sandoz signed a global license, development, and commercialization agreement covering up to five biosimilar candidates, led by SB36, a vedolizumab candidate referencing Takeda Pharmaceuticals’ Entyvio^®. The agreement extends a relationship that already covers Pyzchiva^® (ustekinumab) since 2023 and EPYSQLI^® (eculizumab) in the Middle East and Africa since December 2025. The commercial objective matches the objective behind the Just-Evotec Biologics acquisition, which is to secure future pipeline and capability from a dedicated developer, and the agreement could take the Sandoz biosimilar portfolio to as many as 32 assets, the largest of any single company.