A New Royalty Stream For PDL Bio (PDLI)

PDL BioPharma, Inc. (NASDAQ: PDLI) appears to have a new royalty stream coming its way.  The company announced this morning that it is now set to start receiving royalty payments from Roche’s Genentech unit on sales of Pertuzumab.

Genentech has now notified PDL that Pertuzumab, which will be marketed under the brand name Perjeta, is a royalty license product.  Under the deal, PDL is set to receive royalties on sales of Perjeta in the quarter following the first quarter of Perjeta sales as per the contract which exists under Genentech’s license agreements with PDL.

PDL said that it anticipates that Perjeta will enter the market later this month. Here is why this matters. In February 2012, Roche forecast sales of more than $1 billion for pertuzumab when approved. Here was the data during the last quarterly update for the fourth quarter:

• In December, Roche and Genentech filed regulatory applications in the EU and US to market a drug called pertuzumab for the treatment of breast cancer that is positive for a gene called HER2 and has spread beyond the breast. The submissions are based on study results which showed that pertuzumab combined with Herceptin and chemotherapy significantly extended the length of time patients live without the cancer growing when compared with Herceptin and docetaxel alone.
• In February 2012, Roche announced that FDA accepted the company’s BLA for pertuzumab and grated Priority Review with an action date of June 8, 2012. Pertuzumab is under review for use in combination with two other drugs — Herceptin and docetaxel chemotherapy — for women with breast cancer that test positive for the HER2 gene where the breast cancer has spread beyond the breast, has recurred in the breast, or cannot be surgically removed, and where they woman has not been treated or relapsed after a treatment designed to eliminate all cancer.

At $6.35, PDL has a 52-week range of $5.15 to $6.65, and the company’s $888 million market cap compares to 2011 revenues of $362 million.

JON C. OGG