Royalty Pharma to pay up to $425M for royalty interest in AstraZeneca’s cliramitug

Royalty Pharma (RPRX) on Wednesday announced plans to spend up to $425M to acquire a portion of royalty interest in cliramitug, a heart disease therapy developed by AstraZeneca (AZN) and Neurimmune.

As part of the deal, the company will pay $125M upfront to Neurimmune in exchange for a 3%-4% royalty on global net sales of cliramitug, which is currently undergoing late-stage development for a rare heart condition known as  TTR amyloidosis with cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM).

Royalty Pharma (RPRX) is required to provide the Swiss biotech with another $125M in cash in Q1 2027 before handing over the remaining $175M based on how Neurimmune achieves certain clinical and regulatory milestones.

While currently available therapies prevent ATTR accumulation, a clinical hallmark of ATTR-CM, cliramitug is designed to remove amyloid deposits already accumulated in patients’ cardiac muscles. Amid rising diagnosis rates and a lack of approved therapies, the ATTR-CM market is projected to grow by more than 40% from last year to top $7B in sales.

In May 2024, at its investor day, AstraZeneca (AZN) projected $3B-$5B in peak sales for cliramitug. Its ongoing Phase 3 DepleTTR-CM trial for the TTR-fibril-depleting antibody is expected to generate results in 2028.