Nektar sells future Cimzia, Mircera royalties to Royalty Pharma for $124mm

As of January 1, 2012, drug delivery company Nektar Therapeutics Inc. has sold its future global sales royalties on Cimzia (certolizumab) and Mircera (methoxy polyethylene glycol-epoetin beta) to RPI Finance Trust, an affiliate of Royalty Pharma (an entity that acquires royalty interests in marketed drugs) for $124mm in cash. Nektar will use the proceeds to repay $215mm in convertible debt. Regarding Mircera, should certain worldwide net sales thresholds not be met during 2012 or 2013, Nektar would pay RPI a maximum $3mm in 2013 and $7mm in 2014. In 2011, Nektar earned $8.3mm in royalty payments for the two therapeutics. Both Cimzia, a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn’s disease, and Mircera, indicated for anemia associated with chronic kidney disease, incorporate Nektar’s pegylation technology, which the company licensed in December 2000 to Celltech Chiroscience (now part of UCB SA) and Roche.