Crossject announced the signature of a commercial agreement on Midazolam with German Desitin.
The agreement mainly includes the licensing, distribution and promotion, for up to 10 years after the commercial launch, of Zeneo Midazolam in Germany, unless certain opt-out options are exercised by Crossject or Desitin, for example concerning development deadlines or sales levels reached. A total of €2.5m prepayment will be made by Desitin to Crossject (€0.5m on signing, two development milestones of €0.5m each in early and mid-2020 and €1m on marketing approval). Desitin is a €100m revenue German company, mainly active in neurology (€60m) and the leading German one in terms of epileptic patients treated. Crossject will sell the product at a mid double-digit percentage (we understand 50%+) of Desinit’s net selling price to wholesalers, with a minimum floor price per unit. Altogether, it is estimated that 400,000 to 700,000 people suffer from epilepsy in Germany. The agreement is good news, and we also note that the details given fit with our own estimates on Midazolam in Europe. Of course, it is (still) not easy to extrapolate numbers, but our model is so far based, as far as Midazolam in Europe is concerned, on a €40 price/unit sold and an average price of 45% of the net selling price to wholesalers (and sales to reach c. 1m units globally in 2024). All in all, this is thus good news since the agreement does not only illustrate the ability of Crossject to market its products, but also starts validating the assumptions behind the business model. Also, the news is in line with previously communicated focus on Midazolam, Adrenaline and Naloxone, the latter being seen as a potential candidate for yet another agreement in the current year.
No big impact short term on the numbers as such, but a strong “psychological one” after this step towards the marketing of Zeneo Midazolam in Germany.
