WilmerHale Counsels Epizyme, Inc. in $270M Funding Agreements with Royalty Pharma
- 11.21.2019
On November 4, 2019, Epizyme, Inc., a late-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel epigenetic therapies, announced funding agreements with Royalty Pharma and its affiliate Pharmakon Advisors to support Epizyme’s continued development of tazemetostat for the treatment of epithelioid sarcoma and follicular lymphoma and its epigenetic pipeline.
As a part of the agreements, Royalty Pharma agreed to make an upfront payment of $100 million for shares of Epizyme common stock based on a price of $15 per share. Epizyme also has an 18-month option to sell an additional $50 million of its common stock to Royalty Pharma. Additionally, in connection with the transaction, Epizyme granted Royalty Pharma a three-year option to purchase an additional 2.5 million shares of Epizyme common stock at $20 per share, and assigned to Royalty Pharma the future royalty streams on tazemetostat sales in Japan previously owed to Epizyme by Eisai Co. Ltd. pursuant to the Amended and Restated Collaboration and License Agreement between Epizyme and Eisai.
Under a separate agreement, Epizyme established a $70 million loan facility with Pharmakon Advisors, which will fund the regulatory milestones owed to Eisai for the NDA submissions and U.S. approvals for tazemetostat for the treatment of epithelioid sarcoma and follicular lymphoma. The facility may be drawn down in up to three tranches in conjunction with achievement of the milestones and is expandable by up to $300 million following approval of tazemetostat in follicular lymphoma, subject to mutual agreement of the parties.
The WilmerHale team counseling Epizyme included Stuart Falber, Julie Hogan Rodgers, George Shuster, Steve Barrett, Molly Fox, Ryan Crane and Heidi Treiber.
