The Life Sciences team advised global investment firm Carlyle and its life sciences franchise Abingworth, working with their recently formed development company Launch Therapeutics, on their non-dilutive financing of Opthea Limited, in which Opthea will be provided with up to $170 million in funding to advance the ongoing Phase 3 clinical trials and pre-commercialization activities of OPT-302 for wet age-related macular degeneration (wet AMD). In exchange, if OPT-302 is approved in a major market, Opthea will make a milestone payment upon regulatory approval and six subsequent annual fixed success payments, plus quarterly variable success payments equal to 7% of net sales, with cumulative return payments capped at four times the amount funded to Opthea.
Launch Therapeutics (Launch Tx) is a clinical development company with a mission to disrupt the late-stage development paradigm, accelerate timelines to regulatory success and bring new medicines to patients faster. To deliver this, Launch Tx offers pharmaceutical and biotech partners a variety of innovative models that combine access to capital with deep drug development, medical, clinical operations, regulatory and commercialization expertise. These models include significant risk financing, clinical co-development and full in-licensing. Founded in 2022, Launch Tx is backed by leading investors, Carlyle and its life sciences franchise, Abingworth, and is led by a committed, experienced team with an enthusiastic passion to fulfil its mission.
Carlyle (NASDAQ: CG) is a global investment firm with deep industry expertise that deploys private capital across three business segments: Global Private Equity, Global Credit and Global Investment Solutions. Abingworth is a leading transatlantic life sciences investment firm with approximately $2 billion under management. Abingworth helps transform cutting-edge science into novel medicines by providing capital and expertise to top caliber management teams building world-class companies.
The Goodwin team was led by Richard Hoffman and Yasin Akbari and included Dan Karelitz, Gregg Coughlin, Cathy McCarty, Megan Gustafson, and Chris Steinroeder.
For more information, please see the press release and coverage in Seeking Alpha, Endpoints News, and Financial Review.