Benzinga | Nov 23, 2020 07:15AM EST

Aquestive Therapeutics Receives $10M Milestone Payment Under Royalty Monetization Agreement With An Affiliate Of Marathon Asset Management

WARREN, N.J., Nov. 23, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aquestive Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AQST), a pharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing differentiated products that address patients' unmet needs and solve therapeutic problems, announced today receipt of the first milestone payment of $10 million under the previously announced royalty monetization agreement with an affiliate of Marathon Asset Management, a leading global investment firm ("Marathon"), bringing total cash proceeds this quarter to $50 million.

In conjunction with the receipt of the first milestone payment and closing of the monetization transaction, Aquestive has repaid a portion of certain senior notes and plans to utilize the remaining net proceeds to fund the Company's ongoing development and commercialization of its proprietary product and pipeline candidates, as well as for working capital purposes. Under the terms of the monetization agreement, Aquestive is eligible to receive up to the additional $75 million of milestone payments at various points based on the achievement of worldwide royalty targets. This includes up to $15 million potentially available in 2021 and through mid-2022.

"We are pleased to have met the first milestone of our agreement with Marathon and to have received the additional proceeds of $10 million this quarter. These proceeds will help to execute on advancing our key clinical and commercial initiatives, including the resubmission of our NDA for FDA approval of our lead product Libervant(tm) (diazepam) Buccal Film, for the management of seizure clusters, and our ongoing clinical development program for AQST-108, an oral sublingual film formulation delivering systemic epinephrine," remarked Keith J. Kendall, President and Chief Executive Officer of Aquestive.