Sarepta unfazed by Catalent’s acquisition by Novo

The firm reported a net revenue growth corresponding to 36% year-on-year, $396 million. Driven by Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) gene therapy Elevidys (delandistrogene moxeparvove) the firm witnessed $200 million of net product revenues since its approval in June 2023.

Sarepta partnered with contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) Catalent to commercially supply its DMD gene therapy Elevidys once approved. The deal was announced in January 2023.

Previously, Sarepta had been using Paragon Bioservices for its gene therapy pipeline, which was acquired in 2019 by Catalent for $1.2 billion. The CDMO quickly expanded the agreement to add a second dedicated production line for Sarepta at its site in Harmans, Anne Arundel County, Maryland.

 However, last month, investment firm Novo Holdings announced the acquisition of CDMO Catalent along with three of its drug product manufacturing facilities. The $16.5 billion deal is expected to close towards the end of 2024.

Reassuring stakeholders during its Q4 financial results, president and CEO of Sarepta, Douglas Ingram confirmed that Sarepta’s long-term relationship with Catalent is there to stay, and the acquisition of Catalent by Novo Holdings will have ‘no impact’ on the partnership.

“Our agreement with Catalent does not end at the end of this year. We have a long-term relationship with Catalent there. They've been very good partners of ours. So, there will be, from our perspective, no impact from the acquisition of Catalent by Novo Holdings.”  

Ingram continued: “As we understand it, Novo Holdings would be acquiring the entity as a whole. [...] And then Novo Holdings will hold the rest of Catalent, and it'll be run the way it's run today.” He added Sarepta has had direct discussions with senior management at Catalent and is “quite confident that it is business as usual with them.” 

Lauding Sarepta’s performance, Ingram added, “And as we sit here today, [we’ve done] really a brilliant job of serving the community and we'll be continuing to do a brilliant job of serving the community over the course of this year with our partner Catalent, and we're feeling very good about where we are.” 

Moreover, Sarepta has another CDMO Thermo Fisher backing up its supply chain for the commercialization of its gene therapy. Sarepta entered a manufacturing partnership with Thermo (then Brammer Bio) in 2018.

The partnership focused on providing Sarepta access to clinical and commercial manufacturing capacity for its micro-dystrophin DMD gene therapy program and a manufacturing platform for future gene therapy programs, such as Limb girdle muscular dystrophy (LGMD).