Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals Earns $50 Million Milestone from Royalty Pharma

Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARWR) today announced a $50 million milestone payment was received from Royalty Pharma plc (NASDAQ: RPRX). This milestone was triggered after the completion of enrollment of the Phase 3 OCEAN(a) - Outcomes Trial of olpasiran, being conducted by Amgen (NASDAQ: AMGN). Pursuant to its 2016 agreement with Amgen and 2022 agreement with Royalty Pharma, Arrowhead is further eligible to receive up to an additional $375 million from Amgen and $110 million from Royalty Pharma in aggregate development, regulatory, and sales milestone payments associated with olpasiran.

“The rapid enrollment of the OCEAN(a) - Outcomes Trial demonstrates the strong interest in olpasiran, developed using Arrowhead’s proprietary TRiM^TM technology and licensed to Amgen in 2016. Partnering is an important part of our strategy and we are pleased with all the care and work undertaken to bring this potentially important new therapy closer to patients,” said Christopher Anzalone, Ph.D., Arrowhead’s president and CEO. “Our pipeline of wholly owned or partnered TRiM^TM-enabled candidates now includes three programs in Phase 3 - olpasiran, fazirsiran, and plozasiran. Importantly, our lead wholly owned candidate plozasiran, a first-in-class investigational RNA interference (RNAi) therapeutic designed to reduce production of Apolipoprotein C-III (APOC3), is on schedule to complete its first pivotal Phase 3 study this quarter, with a topline readout soon after.”

Olpasiran is a small interfering RNA (siRNA) originally developed by Arrowhead using its proprietary Targeted RNAi Molecule (TRiM^TM) platform. It is designed to lower levels of lipoprotein(a) (Lp(a)), a genetically determined risk factor for cardiovascular disease. The primary objective of the Phase 3 OCEAN(a) - Outcomes Trial is to compare the effect of treatment with olpasiran, to placebo, on the risk for coronary heart disease death, myocardial infarction, or urgent coronary revascularization in participants with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and elevated lipoprotein(a).

About Lp(a)

Lp(a) is primarily genetically determined^1-3 and a presumed independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD). Although an agreed upon threshold for elevated Lp(a) is not firmly established, approximately 20% of adults have Lp(a) >125 nmol/L (or approximately 50 mg/dL).¹ Evidence has emerged from pathophysiological, epidemiologic, and genetic studies on the potential role of elevated Lp(a) in contributing to myocardial infarction, stroke, and peripheral arterial disease.³