Stock Alert: Aptevo Up 45%; To Get Royalty Payment From Pfizer For 7 Yrs

(RTTNews) - Shares of Aptevo Therapeutics Inc. (APVO) jumped 45% on Thursday morning after the company said it will receive royalty payment from Pfizer for sales of rituximab biosimilar for seven years. APVO is currently trading at $8.39, up $2.64 or 45.91%, on the Nasdaq.

The royalty payment is in regards to sales of a rituximab biosimilar product, Ruxience, which was approved by the FDA in July 2019 and launched by Pfizer in the US and Japan in early 2020.

The payment from Pfizer relates to an agreement acquired by Aptevo as part of its spin-off from Emergent BioSolutions in 2016, which applies a fixed royalty rate in the low single digits on net sales in the US, European Union, and Japan.

The agreement was originally executed by Trubion Pharmaceuticals, which was subsequently bought by Emergent BioSolutions Inc., and Wyeth, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pfizer.

CEO Marvin White said, "This funding will help to support the advancement of our novel ADAPTIR bispecific antibody platform and more specifically, our lead ADAPTIR bispecific candidate, APVO436, which is progressing in a Phase 1/1b clinical study for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia. Dosing in cohort 6 of the study is currently underway. We look forward to providing an update on this clinical program as additional data are available."