Milestone bags $125m in strategic funding from RTW Investments

• RTW purchased $50m in convertible notes as well as a commitment of $75m in non-dilutive royalty financing
• Proceeds of the deal will fund Milestone’s operations, including the approval and launch of etripamil
• Etripamil is Milestone’s investigational calcium channel blocker

Milestone Pharmaceuticals, a Montreal-based biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of cardiovascular medicines, has secured $125 million in a strategic funding agreement. The investor is existing shareholder RTW Investments.

Proceeds of the deal, combined with $64.6 million of cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments as of 31 December 2022, will fund Milestone’s operations into the middle of 2025, including the approval and launch of etripamil, according to a statement.

Etripamil is Milestone’s investigational calcium channel blocker. If approved, etripamil will provide healthcare providers a new tool to enable patient self-management, the  company said. Milestone also plans to submit a new drug application to the US Food and Drug Administration in Q3 2023.

“Etripamil has demonstrated strong potential to offer patients a meaningful intervention for the treatment of PSVT outside of the costly and inconvenient acute-care setting and we are highly encouraged by the results of the Phase 3 RAPID study in October 2022,” said Roderick Wong, MD, managing partner and chief investment officer of RTW Investments.

The investment was anchored by RTW’s purchase of $50 million in convertible notes, as well as a commitment of $75 million in non-dilutive royalty financing. The notes are convertible into common shares of Milestone at an initial conversion price of $5.23 per share

RTW provided the $75 million non-dilutive synthetic royalty financing commitment to Milestone in return for tiered rate, cash royalty payments based on aggregate net sales of etripamil in the US. This is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approval of etripamil.

RTW Investments is a New York-based investment firm that focuses on identifying transformational and disruptive innovations across the biopharmaceutical and medical technologies sectors.

Cowen acted as financial advisor to Milestone on the financing. Cooley acted as legal advisor to Milestone, while Gibson Dunn acted as legal advisor to RTW.