Blueprint Medicines Enters $1.25 Billion Financing Collaborations with Sixth Street and Royalty Pharma

Precision medicines company Blueprint Medicines entered two strategic financing collaborations with Sixth Street and Royalty Pharma for up to $1.25 billion, bringing significant non-dilutive, low-cost capital to drive growth. 

Photo: Kate Haviland, CEO of Blueprint Medicines

Blueprint will receive $575 million in total cash at the close of the deal, which it says was propelled by global launches of Ayvakit/Ayvakyt and Gavreto, and shared confidence in the growth opportunity in systemic mastocytosis, a rare blood disorder resulting in the buildup of too many mast cells in the body.

“This attractive deal puts Blueprint Medicines in a very strong financial position to drive rapid growth while maintaining our path to profitability in the coming years,” said Kate Haviland, CEO of Blueprint Medicines.

The tailored investments add strategic financial partners who are aligned with the company’s growth ambitions and confidence in the anticipated commercial opportunity and launch performance of Ayvakit (avapritinib) and Gavreto (pralsetinib). The financings provide capital to expand and advance the company’s robust and diverse pipeline towards commercialization and to continue pursuing strategic and synergistic business development opportunities.

The agreement with Sixth Street has three parts: $250 million cash upfront in exchange for future Ayvakit/Ayvakyt and phase 3 candidate BLU-263 royalties at a rate of 9.75 percent subject to an annual cap of $900 million in net sales and a cumulative cap of 1.45 times invested capital; up to $400 million in a senior secured credit facility, of which Blueprint Medicines will draw $150 million initially with an additional $250 million available in delayed draw tranches at Blueprint Medicines’ election; and $260 million in a potential credit facility to support buy-side business development opportunities, subject to mutual agreement between Sixth Street and Blueprint Medicines.

The agreement with Royalty Pharma monetizes royalties receivable from Gavreto net sales by Roche outside of the United States, not including Greater China, with $175 million cash paid to Blueprint Medicines upfront and up to $165 million in potential milestone payments based on future sales.

Mastocytosis is characterized by abnormal accumulation and activation of mast cells in the skin, bone marrow and internal organs (liver, spleen, gastrointestinal tract and lymph nodes) and can affect both children and adults. It can be classified to a specific type depending on the patient’s symptoms and overall presentation. Cases beginning during adulthood tend to be chronic and involve the bone marrow in addition to the skin, whereas, during childhood, the condition is often marked by skin manifestations with no internal organ involvement and can often resolve during puberty. In adult patients, mastocytosis tends to be persistent, and may progress into a more advanced category in a minority of patients.

Ayvakit is a kinase inhibitor approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of adults with advanced systemic mastocytosis (SM), including aggressive SM, SM with an associated hematological neoplasm (SM-AHN) and mast cell leukemia (MCL), and adults with unresectable or metastatic gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) harboring a PDGFRA exon 18 mutation, including PDGFRA D842V mutations. Under the brand name Ayvakyt, it is also approved the European Commission for the treatment of adults with ASM, SM-AHN or MCL, after at least one systemic therapy, and adults with unresectable or metastatic GIST harboring the PDGFRA D842V mutation. Blueprint Medicines is developing Ayvakit globally for the treatment of advanced and non-advanced SM.

Gavreto is a once-daily oral targeted therapy approved by the FDA for the treatment of three indications: adult patients with metastatic RET fusion-positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) as detected by an FDA approved test, adult and pediatric patients 12 years of age and older with advanced or metastatic RET-mutant medullary thyroid cancer (MTC) who require systemic therapy, and adults and pediatric patients 12 years of age and older with advanced or metastatic RET fusion-positive thyroid cancer who require systemic therapy and who are radioactive iodine-refractory (if radioactive iodine is appropriate). These indications are approved under accelerated approval based on overall response rate and duration of response. In addition, Gavreto is approved by the National Medical Products Administration of China for the treatment of adult patients with locally advanced or metastatic RET fusion-positive NSCLC after platinum-based chemotherapy.

Blueprint Medicines and Roche are co-developing Gavreto globally (excluding Greater China) for the treatment of patients with RET-altered NSCLC, various types of thyroid cancer and other solid tumors. The European Medicines Agency validated a marketing authorization application for Gavreto for the treatment of RET fusion-positive NSCLC.

Author: Rare Daily Staff