Speciality pharmaceutical company BTG (BTG) looks set to benefit from a new stream of royalties after its licensing partner Sanofi-Aventis secured the regulatory approval for multiple sclerosis drug Lemtrada for prescription in Europe. The successful regulatory news follows on from a reorganisation of BTG's business that saw the $5m (£3m) disposal of its brachytherapy business to German company Eckert & Ziegler.
Lemtrada is likely to be more material to BTG's future prospects, with analysts forecasting peak sales of the drug of $750m by 2016, with 40 per cent of this generated in the European Union. Edison Investment Research estimates that BTG will receive a net royalty of 3 per cent of global sales, which will net the company £14.5m a year by 2017.
