BridgeBio Pharma has inked a definitive agreement with an 'undisclosed purchaser' to sell its rare pediatric disease Priority Review Voucher for $110 million.
California-based BridgeBio was awarded the voucher last year when its affiliate company, Origin Biosciences, received approval of Nuliby as the first therapy to reduce the risk of mortality in patients with molybdenum cofactor deficiency Type A — a rare, genetic, metabolic disorder that typically presents in the first few days of life, causing intractable seizures, brain injury and death.
Drug companies receiving PRVs can redeem the vouchers to have any drug candidate reviewed under priority review — which gets an FDA decision in six months as opposed to the standard 10 months — or they can sell the voucher to another company. Between 2014 and 2019, the FDA awarded 25 PRVs, 17 of them under the Rare Pediatric Disease Program.
Things are starting to look up for BridgeBio financially. This PRV sale comes a day after the biopharma announced an exclusive deal worth close to $1B with Bristol-Myers Squibb to develop and commercialize BridgeBio's BBP-398, a potentially best-in-class SHP2 inhibitor, in oncology. BridgeBio had been forced to lay off staff after its heart drug hopeful, acoramidis, fell short in a pivotal phase 3 study late last year.
“The sale of this voucher will help us advance our pipeline of drug development programs targeting genetic diseases and cancers,” said Brian Stephenson, Ph.D., CFA, BridgeBio’s chief financial officer.
In connection with the priority review voucher sale, BridgeBio said it executed an amendment to its existing senior secured credit facility, extending the interest-only period by two years and pushing principal repayment to Nov. 2026.