PhaseBio Rallies On Funding Agreement For Early Stage Anticoagulant Reversal Agent

PhaseBio Pharmaceuticals Inc PHAS, which develops therapies for cardiopulmonary diseases, announced a financing agreement Friday that could provide the company with up to $120 million in development funding, sending the stock higher.

PhaseBio, which went public in late 2018, said it entered into a financing and co-development collaboration with SFJ Pharma — a drug development company backed by Blackstone Life Sciences and Abingworth — to support the development of its PB2452.

PB2452 is being evaluated in a Phase 1 trial as an experimental reversal agent for AstraZeneca plc AZN's anticoagulant Brilinta.

The agreement provides for SFJ funding up to $90 million of development expenses through the end of 2021 and up to an additional $30 million based on PhaseBio meeting specific, pre-defined clinical milestones for PB2452.

SFJ will assume a major role in the global clinical development and regulatory activities for the experimental drug outside the U.S. PhaseBio will retain exclusive worldwide commercial rights to PB2452.

"The collaboration provides PhaseBio with financial flexibility while allowing us to retain full commercial rights and mitigate our global development risk," PhaseBio CEO Jonathan Mow said in a statement.

"SFJ's global drug development and regulatory expertise, coupled with a track record of success in accelerating and advancing late-stage development programs for large, multi-national pharmaceutical companies, make it an ideal partner."

The agreement also requires PhaseBio to repay SFJ with a series of annual payments over seven to eight years following regulatory approvals in the U.S., European Union and either China or Japan.

PhaseBio shares were trading 16.64% higher at $6.59 at the time of publication Friday.

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