Basilea Pharmaceutica: Strong US sales trigger CHF 10 million payment from Astellas Pharma

Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. (SIX: BSLN) announced today that the sales of the antifungal Cresemba^® (isavuconazole) by Astellas Pharma Inc. ("Astellas") in the United States exceeded the threshold triggering a milestone payment to Basilea in the amount of CHF 10 million.

Basilea is entitled to receive sales milestone payments from Astellas based on them exceeding certain thresholds from the sales of Cresemba^® (isavuconazole) in the United States within a calendar year. A first milestone payment in the amount of CHF 5 million was received in October 2017. Under the agreement with Astellas, Basilea is still eligible for additional sales milestone payments of up to CHF 275 million in addition to tiered, double-digit royalties on U.S. sales.

Adesh Kaul, Chief Corporate Development Officer of Basilea, said: "We are very pleased with the continued commercial success of Cresemba. The strong U.S. sales ramp-up has resulted in two sales milestones being achieved in consecutive years. Since launch, there have been more than one million patient days of therapy in the U.S. alone, underscoring the high medical need of patients suffering from invasive mold infections. Through our range of partnerships, covering more than 100 countries, we have been able to significantly broaden the potential geographic reach for this important treatment option. By the end of this year, Cresemba is expected to be available in more than 20 countries and over the course of the next three years this number is expected to more than triple."

About Cresemba (isavuconazole)
Isavuconazole is an intravenous (i.v.) and oral azole antifungal, commercialized under the trade name Cresemba. Cresemba is approved in the United States for patients 18 years of age and older for the treatment of invasive aspergillosis and invasive mucormycosis.¹ Cresemba is also approved in the European Union and several additional countries in and outside of Europe. It has U.S. and European orphan drug designation for its approved indications. Basilea has entered into several license and distribution agreements for isavuconazole covering the United States, Europe, China, Japan, Latin America, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and North Africa region, Canada, Russia, Turkey and Israel.²

References
1     Cresemba U.S. prescribing information [Accessed: December 07, 2018]
2     The registration status and approved indications may vary from country to country.