Arteaus Therapeutics Sells Emgality Royalty for $260 Million

Download PDF

NEW YORK, April 1, 2019 – Royalty Pharma and Arteaus Therapeutics, a biotechnology development company co-founded by Atlas Venture and OrbiMed, announced today that Arteaus has sold its royalty interest on future global net sales of Eli Lilly and Company’s (NYSE: LLY) Emgality (galcanezumab), an anti-CGRP antibody for the prevention of migraine, to Royalty Pharma for $260 million.

Emgality was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on September 27, 2018 and by the European Medicines Agency on November 14, 2018. Emgality is an at-home, once monthly self-injection for the preventative treatment of episodic and chronic migraine in adults.

“Having led the initial clinical proof of concept studies for Emgality, we are thrilled to see its expanding impact on patients suffering from this severely debilitating disease,” said David Grayzel, MD, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Arteaus and Partner, Atlas Venture. “The commitment of patients, researchers, and our innovative collaboration with Eli Lilly all contributed to accelerate the development of this new approach to migraine treatment.”

“We are delighted to invest in this groundbreaking product for the prevention of migraines. We believe CGRP inhibitors such as Emgality represent a breakthrough for migraine prevention and have the potential to bring relief to millions of patients suffering from this disease and to achieve blockbuster status,” said Pablo Legorreta, Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Royalty Pharma. “Royalty Pharma is excited to expand its portfolio of royalties on innovative CGRP inhibitors,” Mr. Legorreta added.

Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC acted as sole structuring agent on the monetization.

Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP served as legal advisor to Arteaus. Jones Day and Maiwald served as legal advisors to Royalty Pharma.

About Atlas Venture

Atlas Venture is a leading biotech venture capital firm. With the goal of doing well by doing good, we have been building breakthrough biotech startups for over 25 years. We work side by side with exceptional scientists and entrepreneurs to translate high impact science into medicines for patients. Our seed-led venture creation strategy rigorously selects and focuses investment on the most compelling opportunities to build scalable businesses and realize value. For more information, please visit www.atlasventure.com.

About OrbiMed

OrbiMed is a leading healthcare investment firm, with over $13 billion in assets under management. OrbiMed invests globally across the healthcare industry, from start-ups to large multinational corporations, utilizing a range of private equity funds, public equity funds, and royalty/credit funds. OrbiMed maintains offices in New York City, San Francisco, Shanghai, Mumbai and Herzliya. OrbiMed seeks to be a capital provider of choice, providing tailored financing solutions and global team resources and support to help build world-class healthcare companies. For more information, please visit www.orbimed.com.

About Royalty Pharma

Founded in 1996, Royalty Pharma is the industry leader in acquiring pharmaceutical royalties, with over $16 billion in royalty assets. Royalty Pharma funds innovation in life sciences both directly and indirectly: directly when it partners with life sciences companies to co-develop and co-fund products in late-stage clinical trials, and indirectly when it acquires existing royalty interests from the original innovators (academic institutions, research hospitals, foundations and inventors). The company’s portfolio includes royalty interests in over 50 approved 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 cystic fibrosis franchise. Royalty Pharma is also a leading investor in pre-approval royalties, having since 2011 invested over $4 billion in royalties on pre-approval products and committed over $900 million to direct R&D funding in exchange for royalties. More information on Royalty Pharma is available at www.royaltypharma.com.

Contacts:
Arteaus Therapeutics                                          Royalty Pharma
c/o Kristen Margeson                                           Alexander v. Perfall
Director of IR & Marketing                                 ir@royaltypharma.com
Atlas Venture                                                           (212) 883-2298
lifesciences@atlasventure.com
857-205-2700

Stay up to date

Subscribe to Royalty Pharma news and alerts

Subscribe