The latest news on mergers and acquisitions featuring Royalty Pharma and Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical. Highlights below.

* Royalty Pharma Acquires Rights to COPD/Asthma Drug in $1.6-Bn Deal
* Ultragenyx Sells Portion of Royalties for Rare Disease Drug for $500 M

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Royalty Pharma Acquires Rights to COPD/Asthma Drug in $1.6-Bn Deal
Royalty Pharma, an investment firm that buys royalties of bio/pharmaceutical companies, has agreed to acquire a royalty interest in Trelegy Ellipta, a drug for treating chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma from Theravance Biopharma, a South San Francisco, California-based bio/pharmaceutical company, and Innoviva, a Burlingame, California-based holding company with healthcare assets, in a $1.6-billion deal ($1.31 billion upfront and up to $300 million in sales milestone payments).

Royalty Pharma is acquiring from Theravance and Innoviva all of the equity interests in Theravance Respiratory Company, an entity previously formed by Innoviva and Theravance as part of a strategic collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) for Trelegy Ellipta and other respiratory drug candidates under which GSK pays royalties on sales of Trelegy Ellipta. GSK posted 2021 sales of £1.22 billion ($1.46 billion) for Trelegy Ellipta. Theravance Respiratory Company is entitled to an upward tiering royalty of 6.5% to 10% on annual worldwide Trelegy sales, payable by GSK. Under the agreement, Royalty Pharma will pay to Theravance 85% of the royalties in respect of ex-US net sales after June 30, 2029 and 85% of the royalties in respect of US net sales after December 31, 2030.

Royalty Pharma is also providing Theravance $25 million in upfront funding and a potential $15-million regulatory milestone to support the clinical development of ampreloxetine, a drug to treat neurogenic orthostatic hypotension, a rare disorder in which the autonomic system fails to regulate blood pressure properly. In exchange, Royalty Pharma will receive a low- to mid-single digit royalty on worldwide sales of ampreloxetine.

Source: Royalty Pharma

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Ultragenyx Sells Portion of Royalties for Rare Disease Drug for $500 M
Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical, a Novato, California-based bio/pharmaceutical company developing products for rare genetic diseases, has sold 30% of the company’s royalty interest from Kyowa Kirin, a Tokyo-based bio/pharmaceutical company, on the future sales in the US and Canada of Crysvita (burosumab), a drug to treat X-linked hypophosphatemia, a rare, inherited disorder characterized by low levels of phosphate in the blood, for $500 million to Omers, a Canadian pension plan.

Omers’ right to receive royalty payments is based on net sales of the product beginning in April 2023, and total payments are capped at 1.45 times the purchase price.

Separately, Ultragenyx has exercised its option to acquire GeneTx Biotherapeutics, a start-up founded by the Foundation for Angelman Syndrome Therapeutics, and has closed on the acquisition for an upfront payment of $75 million plus future milestone and royalty payments. Ultragenyx was partnered with GeneTx for the development of GeneTx TX-102, an antisense oligonucleotide for treating Angelman syndrome, a genetic disorder causing delayed development.

Source: Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical (Crysvita sale) and Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical (GeneTx acquisition)