Ascendis Pharma and Royalty Pharma Enter into $150 Million Royalty Funding Agreement

- Proceeds to support continued development and commercialization of Endocrine Rare Disease products, and general corporate purposes

COPENHAGEN, Denmark and NEW YORK, Sept. 05, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ascendis Pharma A/S (Nasdaq: ASND) and Royalty Pharma plc (Nasdaq: RPRX) today announced that Ascendis has entered into a $150 million capped synthetic royalty funding agreement with Royalty Pharma based on U.S. net SKYTROFA revenue.

“This transaction reflects the significant value of SKYTROFA. We are pleased to partner with Royalty Pharma, a leading funder of innovation across the biopharma industry, and look forward to partnering with them in the coming years,” said Jan Mikkelsen, Ascendis Pharma’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “With this funding, we continue to reduce our cost of capital and provide added flexibility to support our global commercial capabilities to bring our TransCon products to patients as fast as possible.”

“We are excited to partner with Ascendis, a global, integrated biopharmaceutical company focused on endocrine rare disease and oncology,” said Pablo Legorreta, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Royalty Pharma. “SKYTROFA, as the first U.S. approved weekly growth hormone therapy for pediatrics, addresses significant unmet patient need, which is underscored by its strong launch. We look forward to Ascendis’ continued success in reaching as many patients as possible with this important therapy as well as the potential for label expansion in additional indications.”

Under the terms of the agreement, Ascendis Pharma receives an upfront payment of $150 million in exchange for a 9.15% royalty on U.S. net SKYTROFA revenue, beginning on January 1, 2025. The royalty payments to Royalty Pharma will cease upon reaching a multiple of 1.925x, or 1.65x if Royalty Pharma receives royalties in that amount by December 31, 2031.

Evercore acted as financial advisor and Latham & Watkins and Mazanti-Andersen acted as legal advisors to Ascendis on the transaction. Goodwin Procter, Kromann Reumert and Fenwick & West acted as legal advisors to Royalty Pharma.

About SKYTROFA (lonapegsomatropin-tcgd)
SKYTROFA (lonapegsomatropin-tcgd) is a prodrug of somatropin, administered once weekly, and designed to provide sustained release of active, unmodified somatropin. The unmodified, unbound parent drug released from lonapegsomatropin is recombinant human growth hormone (hGH; somatropin) that binds to growth hormone receptors throughout the body, with the identical 191 amino-acid sequence and size (22 kDa) as endogenous growth hormone and the growth hormone in daily products. SKYTROFA was developed as TransCon hGH and approved in 2021 by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration for the treatment of pediatric patients 1 year and older who weigh at least 11.5 kg and have growth failure due to inadequate secretion of endogenous growth hormone (GH). SKYTROFA has been studied in over 300 children with GHD across the Phase 3 program which consists of the heiGHt Trial (for treatment-naïve patients), the fliGHt Trial (for treatment-experienced patients), and the enliGHten Trial (an ongoing long-term extension trial), with some patients on SKYTROFA for over four years.