Sarepta sells FDA priority review voucher to Gilead for $125 million

Sarepta Therapeutics disclosed Tuesday that it entered an agreement to sell its rare paediatric disease priority review voucher, which was obtained last year when the FDA approved Exondys 51 (eteplirsen) for certain patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, to Gilead Sciences for $125 million. Sarepta CEO Edward Kaye noted that the transaction "provides an important source of non-dilutive capital to support the rapid advancement of our follow on exon skipping candidates and next generation RNA targeted antisense platform."

Commenting on the news, Leerink Partners analyst Joseph Schwartz indicated that the price tag for Sarepta's priority review voucher was short of his projection of $200 million. "While this non-dilutive amount will surely add additional runway to Sarepta's cash position, we cannot help but wonder if this transaction reflects a 1) broader decline in [priority review voucher] interest among bidders, or 2) an undervalued asset sales," Schwartz remarked.

In 2014, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals paid $67.5 million to acquire an FDA rare paediatric disease priority review voucher from BioMarin Pharmaceutical, marking the first sale of such a voucher. Later that year, Gilead purchased a priority review voucher from Knight Therapeutics for $125 million.

Meanwhile Sanofi reached a deal to acquire a priority review voucher from Retrophin for $245 million in 2015, with AbbVie buying a voucher later that year from United Therapeutics for $350 million in cash.