Royalty Pharma acquires additional interest in Tecfidera for $510 million

US private equity firm Royalty Pharma says that it has acquired an additional interest in the earn-out payable to the former shareholders of Germany’s Fumapharm AG for $510 million in cash.

The Fumapharm earn-out primarily represents an indirect interest in sales of Biogen Idec's (Nasdaq: BIIB) Tecfidera (dimethyl fumarate), an oral therapeutic for the treatment of relapsing-forms of multiple sclerosis. The earn-out also includes an indirect interest in sales of Fumaderm (mixed dimethylfumarate and monoethylfumarate salts), a therapeutic approved in Germany for the treatment of moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, the rights to which Biogen acquired in 2003 (The Pharma Letter October 13, 2003).

This acquisition follows Royalty Pharma's previous acquisition of an interest in the Fumapharm earn-out payments in May 2012 for $761 million.