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AstraZeneca and Merck & Co., Inc. known as MSD outside of the United States and Canada, announced that they have entered a global strategic oncology collaboration to co-develop and co-commercialize AstraZeneca’s LYNPARZA (olaparib) for multiple cancer types. LYNPARZA is an innovative, first-in-class oral poly ADP ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitor currently approved for BRCA-mutated ovarian cancer in multiple lines of treatment.
Titan Pharmaceuticals, Inc. a specialty pharmaceutical company developing proprietary therapeutics for the treatment of select chronic diseases utilizing its ProNeura™ long-term, continuous drug delivery technology, announced today that it has entered into a venture loan and security agreement with Horizon Technology Finance Corporation, which provides Titan with up to USD10 million of available borrowing capacity.
A first tranche of USD7 million was funded upon execution of the loan agreement. A second tranche of USD3 million will be available to Titan, at its option, through March 31, 2018, subject to the satisfaction of certain revenue and product development milestones, and other borrowing conditions.
The loan agreement has a term of 46 months, with interest only payments through December 31, 2018, followed by equal monthly installments of principal and accrued interest for 30 months thereafter. The initial interest rate is 9.63%, which is based on a floating rate equal to the sum of the one month LIBOR (floor of 1.10%) plus 8.4%. Each loan tranche is also subject to a 5.0% final payment when the principal is paid in full. The loan is senior debt and is secured by all of Titan's assets, with the exception of its intellectual property.
"We believe this transaction balances our capital needs and opportunity to grow the company, and our commitment to minimizing dilution for shareholders to the extent possible," commented Titan President and CEO Sunil Bhonsle. "We were impressed with Horizon's ability to tailor a financing structure that matched Titan's objectives. We expect that our existing cash on hand, combined with the net proceeds from the first tranche of this loan, will be sufficient to fund planned operations into early 2019."
Gerald A. Michaud, President of Horizon, stated, "We are pleased to provide this debt financing to Titan. The company's proprietary long-term drug delivery platform, ProNeura, represents a new standard of chronic disease management utilizing subdermal implants. We look forward to working with Titan as its lead product, Probuphine®, advances in the marketplace and the company continues to develop a growing pipeline of new treatments for select therapeutic markets."
In connection with this transaction, Titan issued to Horizon warrants to purchase an aggregate of 280,612 shares of Titan's common stock. The per share exercise price of these warrants is the lower of USD1.96 or the price per share of any securities that may be issued by the company in an equity financing during the next 18 months. The company also issued the lender a warrant that will only become exercisable upon the funding of the second tranche of the loan, with number of shares and exercise price to be calculated at such time. The company has agreed to file a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) within the next 90 days covering the resale of the shares underlying the lender warrants.
Amgen announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted priority review for Amgen's supplemental Biologics License Application (sBLA) for Repatha® (evolocumab), a PCSK9 inhibitor. If approved by the FDA, the U.S. Prescribing Information for Repatha will be updated to include risk reduction of major cardiovascular events based on data from the large cardiovascular outcomes study (FOURIER). The FDA has set a Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) action date of Dec. 2, 2017.
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