Pozen, the Chapel Hill-based drug developer, said Monday that it sold most of its future royalty and milestone payments from US sales of the drug Treximet, used for migraine treatment, to an undisclosed investor for $75 million.
Pozen said the investor receives royalties beginning last Oct. 1 on net US sales of Treximet. The investor will also receive royalties on any other products containing sumatriptan and naproxen sodium developed and sold by British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline under a collaboration and license agreement.
Pozen will retain the rights to 20 percent of royalties paid on net sales of the drug Treximet and other products in the United States starting in the second quarter of 2018.
Pozen will realize the gains from the sale (minus transaction costs) in
the fourth quarter of 2011. Pozen now expects revenue for 2011 to range
between $86 million and $87 million.
Pozen said this deal improves their balance sheet without diluting shares, and they now expect to end 2011 with greater than $110 million in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments.