Biogen signs a $3.1b deal with Sage

Biogen has signed a three-point-one billion-dollar deal with Sage for a series of potential depression and movement disorder therapies. The license agreement and partnership will see Sage and Biogen jointly create and market an investigational medication called zuranolone for postpartum depression and major depressive disorder.

In addition, SAGE-324, another experimental medication intended to treat critical tremors and other neurological disorders, will be co-developed by the pair.

Biogen will pay Sage one-point-five billion in cash under the deal, consisting of six hundred and fifty million dollars in the company’s equity investment and an initial payment of eight hundred and seventy-five million dollars.

Depending on if SAGE-324 and zuranolone meet specific commercial and growth targets, Sage would also be entitled to earn up to approximately one-point-six billion dollars in future milestone payments.

In addition to gains and losses for commercialisation, Biogen and Sage will share costs and responsibility for production. Outside of the US, Biogen will be responsible for the commercialisation and development concerning zuranolone, excluding Taiwan, South Korea and Japan.

Chief Executive Officer, Biogen, Michel Vounatsos, stated: “We are excited about the potential to bring together Biogen’s leading capabilities in neuroscience with Sage’s deep expertise in psychiatry. Major depressive disorder affects approximately seventeen million people in the US alone and is a common co-morbidity of multiple neurological disorders in Biogen’s core therapeutic areas.”