Esperion Sues Daiichi Sankyo Over $300M Milestone Payment
Esperion is suing Daiichi Sankyo over a failure to pay a $300 million milestone payment for the cardiovascular drug Nexletol (bempedoic acid), a treatment for heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia or established atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.
In 2019, Daiichi paid $150 million upfront for exclusive commercialization rights in Europe to Esperion’s bempedoic acid, which is used in Nexletol and Nexlizet.
Under the deal, Esperion would get $150 million after the first sales of the drug and would run the clinical trials. But Esperion argues that the positive results from a recent trial of Nexletol in 14,000 participants, reported in early March, also should have resulted in a $300 million payout.
The suit, filed in the Southern District of New York, alleges that the deal between the companies says that if the risk reduction in the Nexletol trial was 20 percent or better, Daiichi would pay Esperion $300 million.
In the lawsuit, Esperion says Daiichi has stated that it “will never be required to pay” Esperion a milestone payment because of the 13 percent risk reduction result achieved in the study.
About Esperion Therapeutics, Inc.
Esperion Therapeutics, Inc. is a public American pharmaceutical company focused on the development of bempedoic acid, an orally available small molecule designed to lower elevated levels of LDL-C. The company is headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The company's main products are NEXLIZET (bempedoic acid and ezetimibe) and NEXLETOL (bempedoic acid), the first approved oral, once-daily, non-statin LDL-Cholesterol (LDL-C) lowering combination medicine that is now available in U.S. pharmacies. Further products include NILEMDO (also a ATP Citrate Lyase inhibitor like NEXLETOL) and NUSTENDI (bempedoic acid and ezetimibe like NEXLIZET).
April 3, 2023
