Biohaven Pharmaceutical Holding Company Ltd. (NYSE: BHVN) and Royalty Pharma (Nasdaq: RPRX) announced today that Biohaven has secured up to $250 million in funding to advance the company's CGRP receptor antagonist program through the development of zavegepant. The zavegepant program encompasses intranasal zavegepant as well as oral zavegepant for migraine prevention and non-migraine indications. In exchange for these funds, Royalty Pharma will obtain a 0.4% royalty on annual worldwide net sales of Nurtec® ODT and if certain zavegepant regulatory approvals are achieved, a royalty of up to 3% on annual worldwide net sales of zavegepant and success-based milestone payments. The success-based milestone payments range from 0.6x to 2.95x of the zavegepant funded amount depending on the number of regulatory approvals achieved for zavegepant (including 1.9x for the first zavegepant migraine regulatory approval) and would be paid over a ten-year period. Biohaven will receive $150 million at closing and $100 million upon the start of the oral zavegepant Phase 3 program.
Royalty Pharma will also provide further support for the ongoing launch of Nurtec ODT through the committed, non-contingent purchase of Commercial Launch Preferred Equity from Biohaven for a total of $200 million payable between 2021 and 2024. In return, Biohaven will pay to Royalty Pharma a series of equal fixed payments between 2025 and 2030 with an internal rate of return of approximately 12%.
Vlad Coric, M.D., Chief Executive Officer of Biohaven, commented, "Royalty Pharma is an industry leader in funding innovative biopharmaceutical therapies and we are pleased to expand our partnership. This transaction brings up to $250 million in funding for zavegepant and will allow us to quickly broaden our CGRP receptor antagonist franchise into migraine adjacencies, non-migraine indications and new formulations across the globe." Dr. Coric added, "Our intranasal zavegepant is the first and only intranasal CGRP receptor antagonist with the promise to deliver an ultra-rapid onset of action for migraine and is also going to be studied in a number of non-migraine indications including the ongoing study investigating its efficacy in pulmonary complications associated with COVID-19 infection."
Pablo Legorreta, Royalty Pharma's Founder and Chief Executive Officer, stated, "We are excited to further expand our partnership with Biohaven by providing additional funding to support the commercial launch of Nurtec ODT and the completion of the clinical development of zavegepant, two innovative therapies for people suffering from migraine. The impressive launch of Nurtec underscores the significant need for new therapeutic options, such as oral CGRPs, to treat this often-debilitating disease."
Cooley acted as legal advisor to Biohaven on the transaction. Goodwin Procter, Jones Day and Maiwald acted as legal advisors to Royalty Pharma.
About Biohaven
Biohaven is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of innovative best-in-class therapies to improve the lives of patients with debilitating neurological and neuropsychiatric diseases. Biohaven's neuroinnovation portfolio includes FDA-approved NURTEC™ ODT (rimegepant) for the acute treatment of migraine and a broad pipeline of late-stage product candidates across three distinct mechanistic platforms: CGRP receptor antagonism for the acute and preventive treatment of migraine; glutamate modulation for obsessive-compulsive disorder, Alzheimer's disease, and spinocerebellar ataxia; and myeloperoxidase inhibition for multiple system atrophy and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. For more information, visit www.biohavenpharma.com.
About Royalty Pharma plc
Founded in 1996, Royalty Pharma is the largest buyer of biopharmaceutical royalties and a leading funder of innovation across the biopharmaceutical industry, collaborating with innovators from academic institutions, research hospitals and not-for-profits through small and mid-cap biotechnology companies to leading global pharmaceutical companies. Royalty Pharma has assembled a portfolio of royalties which entitles it to payments based directly on the top-line sales of many of the industry's leading therapies. Royalty Pharma funds innovation in the biopharmaceutical industry both directly and indirectly - directly when it partners with companies to co-fund late-stage clinical trials and new product launches in exchange for future royalties, and indirectly when it acquires existing royalties from the original innovators. Royalty Pharma's current portfolio includes royalties on more than 45 commercial products, including AbbVie and J&J's Imbruvica, Astellas and Pfizer's Xtandi, Biogen's Tysabri, Gilead's HIV franchise, Merck's Januvia, Novartis' Promacta, and Vertex's Kalydeco, Symdeko and Trikafta, and four development-stage product candidates. For more information, visit www.royaltypharma.com.
