Ovid Sells Ganaxolone Royalties to Immedica

Rare Daily Staff

Ovid Therapeutics announced it entered into a definitive agreement with Immedica Pharma, a rare disease pharmaceutical company, for the sale of its future royalties on ganaxolone outside of China.

Ganaxolone is a medicine approved in the European Union, Great Britain, the United States, and China for the adjunctive treatment of epileptic seizures associated with cyclin-dependent kinase-like 5 (CDKL5) deficiency disorder in patients aged 2 to 17 years. Ganaxolone may be continued in patients aged 18 years and older.

Under the terms of the agreement, Immedica will pay $7 million in cash to acquire 100 percent of the royalty rights held by Ovid. Immedica has also entered into an agreement to acquire or license the global ganaxolone intellectual property portfolio from Ovid and to amend the license to include additional indications. Immedica will assume financial responsibility for all costs related to the licensed IP when such amendment has been finalized. This strengthens Immedica’s focus on ganaxolone by acquiring control of additional intellectual property rights.

In 2024, Ovid recorded approximately $566,000 in ganaxolone royalty revenues. Ovid has not been pursuing development of ganaxolone, and the company said the transaction has no impact on its current pipeline of programs.

In February 2022, Ovid entered into an exclusive patent license agreement with Marinus Pharmaceuticals related to the use of ganaxolone in CDKL5 deficiency disorder (CDD). Under that agreement, Ovid was eligible to receive royalties on sales of ganaxolone for CDD in the United States and Europe. In addition, Immedica is acquiring future royalty rights related to the use of ganaxolone in CDD.

The royalty rights being acquired by Immedica include those associated with the Marinus agreement. In February 2025, Immedica announced the completion of its acquisition of Marinus.