BeOne Medicines, a Nasdaq-listed pharmaceutical company formerly known as BeiGene, announced on the 25th (local time) that it has secured an upfront payment of $885 million (approximately 1.23 trillion won) by selling part of the royalty for the lung cancer treatment Imdelltra from U.S. pharmaceutical company Amgen to U.S. royalty investment firm Royalty Pharma.
Royalty Pharma, based in New York, specializes in acquiring rights to receive royalties on future sales revenue of commercially promising drugs.
Imdelltra is the first lung cancer treatment targeting 'delta-like ligand 3 (DLL3),' which is expressed in 85-96% of patients with small cell lung cancer, and it received accelerated approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in May last year. Since its launch, revenue during the first half of this year reached $215 million (around 300 billion won).
Earlier, in 2019, BeOne Medicines secured the rights to participate in the global clinical development of Imdelltra and commercialization rights in China, along with some royalty revenue, through a strategic partnership with Amgen. It has now sold part of the royalties from Imdelltra revenue outside of China to Royalty Pharma.
With this transaction, BeOne Medicines has immediately secured cash in the trillions won range and can exercise an option to sell additional royalty rights worth up to $65 million (approximately 90.8 billion won) within the next 12 months. BeOne Medicines plans to use the secured funds for the development of its drug candidate pipeline. John V. Oyler, chairman of BeOne Medicines, noted, "By converting a significant portion of the Imdelltra royalty into cash, we strengthened our financial structure and increased our strategic flexibility."
Meanwhile, BeiGene, an anti-cancer drug developer established in 2010, changed its name to BeOne Medicines in May. Initially founded in Beijing, China, and Philadelphia, U.S., it succeeded in developing and commercializing anti-cancer drugs and currently operates in 45 countries. Recently, the company also changed its corporate address to Basel, Switzerland, along with its name.