Biotech Values

[DewDiligence]

ENTA/ABBV/ACHN—Another misleading statement in Peter Kolchinski’s piece (#msg-109535576):

…by adding a nuc to its next-generation regimen, AbbVie could dilute the royalty it pays to Enanta Pharmaceuticals for a protease inhibitor (in the expanded regimen, the protease inhibitor would represent a third of the combination instead of half, unless it were eliminated altogether); reduced payments to Enanta would partially offset the cost of acquiring Achillion.

Although ENTA’s royalty rate would go down if a third drug were added to the ABT-493/ABT-530 (next-gen) regimen, ABBV would not make this change unilaterally—unless its intention were to eliminate ABT-493 entirely. Rather, the addition of a third drug to the regimen is something that would be negotiated with ENTA.