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Royalty Pharma Announces R&D Funding Collaboration With Merck

NEW YORK, Oct. 12, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Royalty Pharma plc (Nasdaq: RPRX) today announced that it has entered into an agreement with Merck, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, to co-fund the development of MK-8189, an investigational oral PDE10A inhibitor currently being evaluated in a Phase 2b study for the treatment of schizophrenia.

“We are excited to collaborate with Merck,” said Pablo Legorreta, Royalty Pharma’s founder and Chief Executive Officer. “This creative agreement is a great example of how Royalty Pharma provides innovative, win-win funding solutions and supports exciting medicines like MK-8189 across the biopharma industry. Royalty Pharma sees an exciting future opportunity to partner with Merck and other global pharmaceutical companies on drug development.”

Under the agreement Royalty Pharma will provide $50 million upfront to Merck to support ongoing development of MK-8189. Following Merck’s decision to proceed with Phase 3, Royalty Pharma has the option to provide an additional $375 million to co-fund the pivotal clinical development program. Royalty Pharma will be eligible for milestone payments associated with certain regulatory approvals for MK-8189 as well as royalties on annual worldwide sales of any approved product.

“There remains a serious unmet need for new therapeutic options for patients with schizophrenia,” said Dr. Michael Egan, vice president, Neuroscience, Global Clinical Development, Merck Research Laboratories. “We look forward to progressing the development of MK-8189 by means of this creative agreement with Royalty Pharma.”

Royalty Pharma is a leader in collaborating with biopharmaceutical companies to jointly fund late-stage development programs. The combination of scale and a long-term outlook across the clinical, regulatory and commercial phases of a product’s lifecycle positions Royalty Pharma as a unique partner for the industry.

For more information about the ongoing Phase 2b clinical trial of MK-8189 please visit clinicaltrials.gov.  

Advisors

Goodwin Procter, Fenwick & West and Maiwald acted as legal advisors to Royalty Pharma.

About Royalty Pharma

Founded in 1996, Royalty Pharma is the largest buyer of biopharmaceutical royalties and a leading funder of innovation across the biopharmaceutical industry, collaborating with innovators from academic institutions, research hospitals and non-for-profits through small and mid-cap biotechnology companies to leading global pharmaceutical companies. Royalty Pharma has assembled a portfolio of royalties which entitles it to payments based directly on the top-line sales of many of the industry’s leading therapies. Royalty Pharma funds innovation in the biopharmaceutical industry both directly and indirectly - directly when it partners with companies to co-fund late-stage clinical trials and new product launches in exchange for future royalties, and indirectly when it acquires existing royalties from the original innovators. Royalty Pharma’s current portfolio includes royalties on more than 35 commercial products, including Vertex’s Trikafta, Kalydeco, Orkambi and Symdeko, Biogen’s Tysabri, AbbVie and Johnson & Johnson’s Imbruvica, Astellas and Pfizer’s Xtandi, GSK’s Trelegy, Novartis’ Promacta, Biohaven and Pfizer’s Nurtec ODT, Johnson & Johnson’s Tremfya, Roche’s Evrysdi, Gilead’s Trodelvy, and 12 development-stage product candidates.

Forward-Looking Statements

The information set forth herein does not purport to be complete or to contain all of the information you may desire. Statements contained herein are made as of the date of this document unless stated otherwise, and neither the delivery of this document at any time, nor any sale of securities, shall under any circumstances create an implication that the information contained herein is correct as of any time after such date or that information will be updated or revised to reflect information that subsequently becomes available or changes occurring after the date hereof. This document contains statements that constitute “forward-looking statements” as that term is defined in the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements that express the company’s opinions, expectations, beliefs, plans, objectives, assumptions or projections regarding future events or future results, in contrast with statements that reflect historical facts. Examples include discussion of Royalty Pharma’s strategies, financing plans, growth opportunities and market growth. In some cases, you can identify such forward-looking statements by terminology such as “anticipate,” “intend,” “believe,” “estimate,” “plan,” “seek,” “project,” “expect,” “may,” “will,” “would,” “could” or “should,” the negative of these terms or similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are based on management’s current beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to the company. However, these forward-looking statements are not a guarantee of Royalty Pharma’s performance, and you should not place undue reliance on such statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to many risks, uncertainties and other variable circumstances, and other factors. Such risks and uncertainties may cause the statements to be inaccurate and readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such statements. Many of these risks are outside of Royalty Pharma’s control and could cause its actual results to differ materially from those it thought would occur. The forward-looking statements included in this document are made only as of the date hereof. Royalty Pharma does not undertake, and specifically declines, any obligation to update any such statements or to publicly announce the results of any revisions to any such statements to reflect future events or developments, except as required by law. Certain information contained in this document relates to or is based on studies, publications, surveys and other data obtained from third-party sources and Royalty Pharma’s own internal estimates and research. While Royalty Pharma believes these third-party sources to be reliable as of the date of this document, it has not independently verified, and makes no representation as to the adequacy, fairness, accuracy or completeness of, any information obtained from third-party sources. In addition, all of the market data included in this document involves a number of assumptions and limitations, and there can be no guarantee as to the accuracy or reliability of such assumptions. Finally, while the company believes its own internal research is reliable, such research has not been verified by any independent source. For further information, please reference Royalty Pharma’s reports and documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) by visiting EDGAR on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov.

Royalty Pharma Investor Relations and Communications

+1 (212) 883-6772
ir@royaltypharma.com 


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