Sarepta to earn more than $1 billion on Duchenne candidate deal

Shares of US biotech Sarepta Therapeutics (Nasdaq: SRPT) were up 9% at $138 in pre-market trading today, after announcing the signing of a licensing agreement providing Swiss pharma giant Roche (ROG: SIX) with exclusive commercial rights to SRP-9001 (AAVrh74.MHCK7.micro-dystrophin),  Sarepta’s investigational gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), outside the USA.

Under the terms of the accord, Sarepta will receive an upfront payment of $750million in cash and $400 million in equity. In addition, Sarepta is eligible to receive regulatory and sales milestones, and royalties on net sales. Roche and Sarepta will equally share global development expenses.

Earlier this month, Roche finally closed a $4.3 billion deal to acquire Sparks Therapeutics, underscoring the growing appetite among large drugmakers for gene therapies.