Fund of the Week: NovaQuest Capital Management
NovaQuest has paid for late-stage trials since its years inside Quintiles. When a trial fails it recovers nothing, and when a drug is approved it collects milestones and royalties up to a cap.
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Company of the Week: Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals
Hengrui booked $392M of licence revenue in the first nine months of 2026, equal to about two-fifths of its net profit, and received $612M of licence cash. Its partners include GSK, Bristol Myers Squibb, Merck, and Novo Nordisk. None of its licences abroad has yet paid a royalty.
Is the successor a Licensed Product? What the Lucentis award says about next-generation molecules
On 13 October Judge Christopher Cooper of the District of Columbia recognised and enforced an arbitration award between Genentech and Novartis.
The award, issued by a tribunal of the International Chamber of Commerce on 14 April 2025, declares that Vabysmo is not a Licensed Product under the agreements by which
The royalty a court sets: financing a judgment with no contract behind it
On 14 October the Patent Trial and Appeal Board issued its final written decision on remand from the Federal Circuit. It held that Guardant Health had not shown any of the 30 challenged claims of US patent 10,760,127 to be unpatentable.
The University of Washington owns the patent
Someone else's patent: what an injunction against a licensed product does to the licensor's royalty
On 7 October the District Court of The Hague ordered MSD to stop selling the subcutaneous form of Keytruda in eight European countries. The patent belongs to Halozyme. The enzyme in the product belongs to neither party. Alteogen, a Korean company, makes berahyaluronidase alfa and licenses it to Merck, which
The Weekly Term Sheet (2026-W43)
Merck KGaA agreed to buy Silence Therapeutics for an equity value of about USD 1.3bn in cash, and an EQT fund agreed a recommended cash offer for QIAGEN at an enterprise value of about USD 12.1bn. Hansoh licensed preclinical conjugates to Roche for USD 400m upfront and a
The price of consent: what a royalty holder charges after the deal has closed
On 13 October Liquidia settled six lawsuits with United Therapeutics over YUTREPIA, its inhaled treprostinil. The settlement agreement has Liquidia pay a net $175.0M within 30 business days and $145.4M in two instalments by the end of April 2027. Section 2.4 requires it to deliver, within ten
Fund of the Week: Petrichor Healthcare Capital Management
Petrichor's seed investor described it in 2017 as a firm that would buy royalties as well as lend and take equity. Nine years and at least fifteen companies later, its public record holds notes and shares. Most of the notes became shares. The one that did not was
Company of the Week: Paragon Laboratories
Paragon has seeded nine biotech companies in five years. It takes cash and shares from each while the research runs, and a single-digit royalty on any drug that sells. AbbVie kept the royalty when it paid $10.9B for the first of them.
The tranche not taken: what a royalty option is worth after approval
On 10 October Revolution Medicines let a deadline pass. Under its revenue participation agreement with Royalty Pharma, the company had until that day to demand up to $250M in exchange for a further share of the sales of RASONQUE, its pancreatic cancer drug. It sent no notice.
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