Royalty Pharma Buys Theravance to Get Royalties on GSK COPD Drug Trelegy Ellipta

July 14, 2022

Royalty Pharma has bought 85% of Theravance Biopharma to access royalty rights to its chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) drug Trelegy Elliptica, formerly owned by GSK. The deal also included $1.1 billion upfront with $400 million more set aside for sales milestone awards. Trelegy, the only drug owned by Therevance, is a combination of a corticosteroid and two bronchodilators that was also approved for asthma in 2020.

According to Paul Schloesser, “With this new influx of capital, Theravance is immediately paying off its debts. Hindman said that its first step is paying off a $420 million loan, which will be done within the next week, and then paying off $230 million in convertible senior notes, which will leave the company around $430 million more to work with. The CFO did say that with that leftover cash, the biggest priority is to return capital to shareholders as details remain slim.”

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