Ionis and Royalty Pharma Enter Into Royalty Agreement for Up to $1.1 billion

Ionis Pharmaceuticals and Royalty Pharma plc today announced that Royalty Pharma has acquired an interest in Ionis’ royalty in Biogen’s SPINRAZA® (nusinersen) and Novartis’ pelacarsen for up to $1.125 billion, including an upfront payment of $500 million and up to $625 million in additional pelacarsen milestone payments.

SPINRAZA is the global foundation of care for the treatment of people living with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). Biogen licensed SPINRAZA from Ionis in 2016. Pelacarsen is a potentially first-in-class treatment specifically targeting elevated lipoprotein(a), or Lp(a), an independent, inherited, and causal risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Novartis licensed pelacarsen from Ionis in 2019.

“This transaction provides us with significant capital to reach our strategic objectives, the first of which is to achieve commercial readiness for our late-stage programs eplontersen, olezarsen and donidalorsen. It also enables us to further advance our deep and innovative pipeline so that we can continue to deliver a steady cadence of new genetic medicines to the market,” said Brett P. Monia, Ph.D., chief executive officer of Ionis. “Royalty Pharma’s investment underscores their confidence in SPINRAZA’s resilience as an important therapy for the treatment of SMA. It also demonstrates their belief in pelacarsen’s potential to be a first-in-class treatment for Lp(a)-driven cardiovascular disease, representing a multibillion-dollar commercial opportunity. Furthermore, because Ionis retains a majority interest in SPINRAZA and pelacarsen royalties, we maintain our ability to benefit significantly from the potential commercial upside of both products.”

“We are thrilled to partner with Ionis, an innovator in genetic medicine. This investment is consistent with our strategy of acquiring royalties on innovative therapies in areas of high unmet patient need,” said Pablo Legorreta, founder and chief executive officer of Royalty Pharma. “SPINRAZA has transformed the lives of thousands of SMA patients. We are also excited to acquire a royalty on pelacarsen which, if approved, has the potential to be a practice-changing, first-in-class therapy benefiting millions of cardiovascular disease patients by lowering Lp(a).”