Polpharma Biologics has signed a licensing agreement with Argentina-based Tuteur, granting the Buenos Aires company exclusive commercialization rights across Latin America — excluding Brazil — for PB006, its adalimumab biosimilar targeting autoimmune diseases. Polpharma Biologics, the Switzerland-based biosimilars platform of Poland’s Polpharma Group, will retain full responsibility for development and manufacturing. Financial terms were not disclosed. Regulatory submission in the licensed territory is expected within three years.
PB006 is a biosimilar of adalimumab, the fully human IgG1 monoclonal antibody that binds and neutralizes soluble and membrane-bound TNF-α, blocking its interaction with TNF receptors. The reference product, Humira (adalimumab), was originally developed by AbbVie and has been approved across a broad range of autoimmune indications including rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, and plaque psoriasis. Polpharma describes PB006 as a high-concentration, citrate-free formulation, a design choice associated with reduced injection-site pain relative to citrate-containing adalimumab formulations.
Polpharma previously reported PK/PD comparability data for one of its biosimilar programs targeting autoimmune disease, and the company has built out its manufacturing infrastructure through external partnerships, including a strategic cooperation with Chime Biologics announced in April 2025. Under the Tuteur agreement, Tuteur will handle commercialization, marketing, and distribution across the licensed territories; Polpharma Biologics retains all rights outside that geography, including in Brazil, where a separate commercial arrangement with Libbs Farmacêutica covers that market.
The deal follows a pattern that has become common in the adalimumab biosimilar segment: a developer retains manufacturing and regulatory control while outsourcing regional commercialization to an established local operator. A structurally comparable arrangement was announced in February 2026, when SteinCares and Shilpa Biologicals struck a licensing agreement to expand biosimilar access across Latin America, combining Shilpa’s development and manufacturing capabilities with SteinCares’ regional commercialization platform — a near-identical division of responsibilities to the Polpharma-Tuteur structure. In the US market, Accord BioPharma similarly secured exclusive licensing rights from Bio-Thera for BAT2506, a proposed golimumab biosimilar, in February 2025, reflecting continued appetite among regional commercial operators for biosimilar in-licensing arrangements.
The adalimumab biosimilar space is among the most competitive in biologics. Multiple biosimilars of Humira have been approved in the US and EU, and the LATAM market, while less saturated, is drawing increasing attention from both European and Asian biosimilar developers. The timing of a regulatory submission within three years places PB006’s potential LATAM launch in the late 2020s, a period when several other adalimumab biosimilars may also be seeking or holding regional approvals.
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