Blueprint Medicines Announces Transformative $1.25 Billion Strategic Financing Collaborations with Sixth Street and Royalty Pharma

On Jul 4, 2022

Blueprint Medicines Corporation announced strategic financing collaborations with Sixth Street and Royalty Pharma for up to $1.25 billion, bringing significant non-dilutive, low-cost capital to drive innovation and growth.

These tailored investments by two highly respected life sciences-focused investors capitalize on Blueprint Medicines’ significant accomplishments to date and add strategic financial partners who are aligned with the company’s growth ambitions and confidence in the anticipated commercial opportunity and launch performance of AYVAKIT/AYVAKYT (avapritinib) and GAVRETO (pralsetinib). The financings provide capital to expand and advance the company’s robust and diverse pipeline towards commercialization and to continue pursuing strategic and synergistic business development opportunities.

“This attractive deal puts Blueprint Medicines in a very strong financial position to drive rapid growth while maintaining our path to profitability in the coming years. The combination of our strong cash position, multiple drivers of top-line revenue, and diversity of important pipeline programs uniquely positions us to continue building a leading precision therapy company and bring transformative medicines to patients worldwide,” said Kate Haviland, Chief Executive Officer of Blueprint Medicines. “Executing this deal with such favorable terms in the current market environment speaks to the quality of the assets, the aligned confidence in the commercial opportunities, and the investment opportunity that Blueprint Medicines represents overall for firms like Sixth Street and Royalty Pharma, with whom we are building long-term strategic relationships.”

This multi-component deal is comprised of the following elements:

The agreement with Sixth Street has three parts:
- $250 million cash upfront in exchange for future AYVAKIT/AYVAKYT and BLU-263 royalties at a rate of 9.75 percent subject to an annual cap of $900 million in net sales and a cumulative cap of 1.45 times invested capital;
- Up to $400 million in a senior secured credit facility, of which Blueprint Medicines will draw $150 million initially with an additional $250 million available in delayed draw tranches at Blueprint Medicines’ election; and
- $260 million in a potential credit facility to support buy-side business development opportunities, subject to mutual agreement between Sixth Street and Blueprint Medicines.
The agreement with Royalty Pharma monetizes royalties receivable from GAVRETO net sales by Roche outside of the US, not including Greater China, with $175 million cash paid to Blueprint Medicines upfront and up to $165 million in potential milestone payments based on future sales.

“Blueprint Medicines is an impressive and differentiated biopharmaceutical company, with a proven track record of success in developing and commercializing precision therapies. We are particularly excited about the opportunity for AYVAKIT to meet the substantial need in patients with non-advanced systemic mastocytosis,” said Vijay Mohan and Jeff Pootoolal, Partners at Sixth Street. “We believe that investing now, when the company is already in a strong financial position, is the first step toward a long-term relationship that will open the door to further potential opportunities for growth and partnership.”

“GAVRETO is an important precision therapy that has been incredibly meaningful for patients with metastatic, RET fusion-positive non-small cell lung cancer who may have otherwise had limited options,” said Pablo Legorreta, Royalty Pharma’s founder and Chief Executive Officer. “We are pleased to establish a partnership with the experienced team at Blueprint Medicines to help fuel their execution on the significant commercial and development opportunities they have ahead.”

Cowen and Company served as financial advisor and Goodwin Procter LLP served as legal advisor to Blueprint Medicines. Cooley LLP acted as legal advisors to Sixth Street. Gibson Dunn acted as legal advisors to Royalty Pharma.