By Chris Wack
uniQure said Monday it is selling a portion of its royalty rights, due from rare disease biopharmaceutical company CSL Behring, for sales of its Hemgenix-branded etranacogene dezaparvovec drug to treat hemophilia B, to HealthCare Royalty and Sagard Healthcare for up to $400 million in cash.
Under the terms of the agreement, the biopharmaceutical investment firms will pay uniQure $375 million in cash upfront in exchange for the lowest royalty tier of CSL Behring’s worldwide sales of Hemgenix up to 1.85 times the purchase price until June 30, 2032, or up to 2.25 times the purchase price from June 31, 2032 through Dec. 31, 2038.
The Massachusetts and Netherlands-based gene therapy company also is eligible to receive an additional $25 million milestone payment from HealthCare Royalty and Sagard Healthcare if 2024 sales of Hemgenix exceed a pre-specified threshold.
uniQure expects to extend its cash runway into the second quarter of 2026 with the transaction and to retain the rights to all other royalties and contractual milestones under its existing commercialization and license agreement with CSL Behring totaling up to $1.5 billion.
Write to Chris Wack at chris.wack@wsj.com
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