Singapore-listed life sciences company Lonza Group is pulling the plug on its biologics joint venture with pharmaceutical company Teva.

Lonza, which is headquartered in Basel, Switzerland and also listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange, said on Thursday that the two companies had reached a mutual decision to stop collaborating on the venture to develop, make and sell biosimilars.

"The discontinuation of the [joint venture], which began in 2009, will enable both companies to better advance their own strategies and efforts in serving those healthcare communities," said Teva and Lonza in a joint statement.

The move will reduce Lonza's committed investments in the next three years by more than 150 million (S$202.2 million) Swiss francs, the company said in a separate release announcing its first-half financial results.

Lonza posted a 51.2 per cent fall in net profit for the first six months of this year to 41 million Swiss francs, it said on Thursday. Sales also fell 11.2 per cent over the same period to 1.7 billion Swiss francs.

But the company said core earnings before interest and taxes rose to 213 million Swiss francs in the first half of this year, 9.8 per cent higher from the same period a year ago.

This was due to two market segments, specialty ingredients and pharma & biotech, performing better than expected, Lonza said.