Pharma BD Deal Intelligence
Non-dilutive financing that paid off: Royalty Pharma put $125 million into Biohaven's rimegepant NDA push at closing, with up to $75 million more on FDA acceptance, ultimately funding a franchise that Pfizer paid $150 million upfront plus $350 million equity to buy the ex-US rights to.
Outcome grade pending — assessed 5 years post-close.
Full analysis, sources & comparables →Royalty Pharma acquired royalty rights on global sales of rimegepant (BHV-3000) and BHV-3500 for $100M, with tiered royalties starting at 2.10% on annual net…
Biohaven and Royalty Pharma expanded the partnership with a $450M package — up to $250M for zavegepant funding (3% royalty plus 0.4% on Nurtec ODT) and…
BioPharma Dive validated the Royalty Pharma thesis ex-post: Pfizer paid $150M upfront plus $350M equity at a 25% premium for ex-US Nurtec rights after the drug…
Source summaries from our enrichment pipeline; follow links for originals.
All 5 sources with sentiment breakdown →
Royalty Pharma agreed to purchase up to $200M in Series A Preferred Shares of Biohaven to fund Biohaven's $105M acquisition of an FDA Priority Review Voucher and general corporate uses for the rimegepant NDA. Royalty Pharma provided $125M at closing with up to an additional $75M available upon FDA acceptance of the rimegepant NDA.
$7.0B Global migraine drugs market 2021 (USD millions)
Migraine is a recurrent, often disabling neurological disorder marked by moderate-to-severe pulsating headache, typically with nausea, photophobia, and phonophobia. It disproportionately affects women of reproductive age and is the third most common reason for ED visits among women 15-64. Despite high prevalence, prior to the CGRP era many patients failed or could not tolerate triptans, leaving large unmet need across both acute and preventive treatment.
By 2019 the migraine market was bifurcating along CGRP mechanism lines. Three injectable anti-CGRP monoclonal antibodies dominated prevention: Amgen/Novartis Aimovig (erenumab, 2018), Teva Ajovy (fremanezumab, 2018), and Lilly Emgality (galcanezumab, 2018), with Lundbeck/Alder Vyepti (eptinezumab) IV following in 2020. The acute oral CGRP receptor antagonist (gepant) class opened with Allergan/AbbVie Ubrelvy (ubrogepant, Dec 2019) and Biohaven Nurtec ODT (rimegepant, Feb 2020), followed by AbbVie Qulipta (atogepant, 2021) for prevention. Rimegepant differentiated on a single oral disintegrating tablet that ultimately won both acute and preventive labels — the only gepant to do so at launch — and posted ~57% share of the US oral CGRP market by Q3 2021 with $136M quarterly sales. The Royalty Pharma financing was strategically pivotal: it provided non-dilutive capital so Biohaven could fund a full DTC commercial launch against AbbVie's marketing scale, ultimately enabling the $11.6B Pfizer acquisition in 2022. Royalty Pharma's stacked exposure (royalties + preferred equity + zavegepant) became one of the firm's highest-profile CNS bets.
| Deal | Year | Value | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| Royalty Pharma / Biohaven Pharmaceutical Holding Co. Ltd. (rimegepant funding) (this deal) | 2019 | $200M | — |
| Royalty Pharma / Zealand Pharma A/S | 2026 | $100M | — |
| Royalty Pharma / Neurimmune AG (NI006 license) | 2026 | $425M | — |
| Royalty Pharma / Ionis | 2023 | $1.1B | — |
| Royalty Pharma / BeOne Medicines Ltd. | 2025 | $950M | — |
| Royalty Pharma / ImmuNext, Inc. | 2024 | $525M | — |
| Royalty Pharma / Geron | 2024 | $125M | — |
← Browse all deals · How we score deals
More: 2019 deals · Royalty Pharma deals · Neurology deals