NEW YORK and WUPPERTAL, Germany, June 09, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Royalty Pharma and AiCuris Anti-infective Cures GmbH, a leading company in the discovery and development of drugs against infectious diseases, announced today that they have entered into an agreement whereby Royalty Pharma has acquired a partial royalty interest on Prevymis™ (letermovir) from AiCuris for a one-time payment of $220 million. Prevymis is licensed by MSD, the tradename of Merck & Co. Inc., Kenilworth, NJ, USA.
The product was approved by the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) in 2017 and by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and Japan’s Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency (PMDA) in 2018 for prophylaxis (prevention) of CMV infection and disease in adult CMV-seropositive recipients [R+] of an allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) who are at high risk for CMV reactivation. CMV infection is a complication in these patients, and early CMV reactivation after transplant is associated with increased mortality.
“The agreement with Royalty Pharma reflects the major medical need for innovative anti-infective drugs and their commercial potential, and enables us to further advance our proprietary pipeline of novel treatments against infectious diseases without losing the possibility to participate on future revenues from Prevymis,” said Dr. Holger Zimmermann, CEO of AiCuris Anti-infective Cures GmbH.
“We are excited to add a royalty interest in this important therapy to our portfolio,” said Pablo Legorreta, Founder and CEO of Royalty Pharma.
About Royalty Pharma
Founded in 1996, Royalty Pharma is the industry leader in acquiring pharmaceutical royalties. 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 45 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. Royalty Pharma is also a leading investor in pre-approval royalties, having since 2011 invested over $5.6 billion in royalties on pre-approval products and committed over $1.2 billion to direct R&D funding in exchange for royalties. For more information, visit www.royaltypharma.com
About AiCuris Anti-infective Cures GmbH
AiCuris was founded in 2006 as a spin-off from Bayer and focuses on the discovery and development of drugs targeting infectious diseases. SANTO Holding is the Company’s majority investor. PREVYMIS® (Letermovir), a first-in-class non-nucleoside cytomegalovirus (CMV) inhibitor acting via a novel mechanism of action, was licensed to MSD in 2012 and is approved in the EU, the USA, Japan and other parts of the world for use in bone marrow transplants for the prevention of HCMV infections in adults who receive an allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant. The Company is developing drugs for the treatment of viruses such as human CMV, herpes simplex virus (HSV), hepatitis B virus (HBV), and adenoviruses. In the field of antibacterials, AiCuris seeks to develop innovative treatment options for life-threatening, multidrug-resistant, hospital-treated pathogens.
In 2018 Prof. Dr. Helga Rübsamen-Schaeff, Founding CEO, and Dr. Holger Zimmermann, CEO of AiCuris, were awarded the German Future Prize 2018 (German President's Award for Innovation in Science and Technology) for the development of Letermovir and their project, "Protection in the Absence of the Immune System - a Life-Saving Innovation against Dangerous Viruses" (original title: “Schutz bei fehlendem Immunsystem - die lebensrettende Innovation gegen gefährliche Viren"). For more information, please visit www.aicuris.com. Follow us on LinkedIn
Royalty Pharma Investor Relations and Communications:
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ir@royaltypharma.com
AiCuris Anti-infective Cures GmbH
Katja Woestenhemke
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press@aicuris.com