Clinigen (CLIN) has signed an exclusive licensing and distribution agreement with Porton Biopharma to commercialise Erwinase, a treatment that has been approved for patients with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. It will pay Porton £5m up front, with future sales-based milestone payments of up to £20m and tiered royalty payments.
The agreement with Porton will begin at the beginning of next year, but net sales for Clinigen are expected to start in the second half of 2021. Net sales of Erwinase were $177m (£143m) last year.
Clinigen has only experienced “marginal disruption” from Covid-19 and is working closely with pharma clients to ensure critical medicine supply continues. Trading for the year to June is currently in line with management’s expectations.
Significant levels of liquidity are still available from Clinigen’s £430m debt facility. Net debt is forecast to remain within the limit of three times Ebitda this fiscal year, and Clinigen maintains its goal of reducing this leverage ratio to its target range below 2.0 times in FY2021.
