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Collaborative Arrangements and Licensing Agreements
12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2022
Collaborative Arrangements and Licensing Agreements [Abstract]  
Collaborative Arrangements and Licensing Agreements
7. Collaborative Arrangements and Licensing Agreements

Strategic Partnership

Biogen


We have several strategic collaborations with Biogen focused on using antisense technology to advance the treatment of neurological disorders. These collaborations combine our expertise in creating antisense medicines with Biogen’s expertise in developing therapies for neurological disorders. We developed and licensed to Biogen SPINRAZA, our approved medicine to treat people with spinal muscular atrophy, or SMA. We and Biogen are currently developing numerous investigational medicines to treat neurodegenerative diseases under these collaborations, including medicines in development to treat people with ALS, SMA, AS, AD and Parkinson’s disease. In addition to these medicines, our collaborations with Biogen include a substantial research pipeline that addresses a broad range of neurological diseases. From inception through December 31, 2022, we have received more than $3.4 billion from our Biogen collaborations.


Spinal Muscular Atrophy Collaborations


SPINRAZA


In January 2012, we entered into a collaboration agreement with Biogen to develop and commercialize SPINRAZA. From inception through December 31, 2022, we earned more than $1.8 billion in total revenue under our SPINRAZA collaboration, including more than $1.4 billion in revenue from SPINRAZA royalties and more than $425 million in R&D revenue. We are receiving tiered royalties ranging from 11 percent to 15 percent on net sales of SPINRAZA. We have exclusively in-licensed patents related to SPINRAZA from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and the University of Massachusetts. We pay Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and the University of Massachusetts a low single digit royalty on net sales of SPINRAZA. Biogen is responsible for all global development, regulatory and commercialization activities and costs for SPINRAZA. We completed our performance obligations under our collaboration in 2016.


In January 2023, we entered into a royalty purchase agreement with Royalty Pharma in which Royalty Pharma will receive 25 percent of our SPINRAZA royalty payments from 2023 through 2027, increasing to 45 percent of royalty payments in 2028, on up to $1.5 billion in annual sales. Royalty Pharma’s royalty interest in SPINRAZA will revert to us after total SPINRAZA royalty payments to Royalty Pharma reach either $475 million or $550 million, depending on the timing and occurrence of FDA approval of pelacarsen, which Novartis is developing. Refer to Part IV, Item 15, Note 4, Long-Term Obligations and Commitments, for further discussion of this agreement.


New antisense medicines for the treatment of SMA


In December 2017, we entered into a collaboration agreement with Biogen to identify new antisense medicines for the treatment of SMA. Biogen has the option to license therapies arising out of this collaboration following the completion of preclinical studies. Upon licensing, Biogen will be responsible for global development, regulatory and commercialization activities and costs for such therapies. Under the collaboration agreement, we received a $25 million upfront payment in the fourth quarter of 2017. In December 2021, we earned a $60 million license fee payment when Biogen exercised its option to license ION306. We will receive development and regulatory milestone payments from Biogen if new medicines, including ION306, advance towards marketing approval.


Over the term of the collaboration, we are eligible to receive up to $1.2 billion, which is comprised of a $25 million upfront payment, up to $110 million in license fees, up to $80 million in development milestone payments, up to $180 million in regulatory milestone payments, up to $800 million in sales milestone payments and other payments, including up to $555 million if Biogen advances ION306, which includes up to $45 million in development milestone payments, up to $110 million in regulatory milestone payments and up to $400 million in sales milestone payments. In addition, we are eligible to receive tiered royalties from the mid-teens to mid-20 percent range on net sales. From inception through December 31, 2022, we received $85 million in payments under this collaboration. We will achieve the next payment of up to $45 millionfor the initiation of a Phase 3 trial under this collaboration.


At the commencement of this collaboration, we identified one performance obligation, which was to perform R&D services for Biogen. We determined the transaction price to be the $25 million upfront payment we received when we entered into the collaboration. We allocated the transaction price to our single performance obligation. In the fourth quarter of 2019, we completed our R&D services performance obligation under this collaboration.


In the fourth quarter of 2021, we identified another performance obligation upon Biogen’s license of ION306 because the license we granted to Biogen is distinct from our other performance obligations. We recognized the $60 million license fee for ION306 as revenue at that time because Biogen had full use of the license without any continuing involvement from us. Additionally, we did not have any further performance obligations related to the license after we delivered it to Biogen. Biogen is solely responsible for the costs and expenses related to the development, manufacturing and potential future commercialization of ION306 following the option exercise. We do not have any remaining performance obligations under this collaboration.


Neurology Collaborations


2018 Strategic Neurology


In April 2018, we and Biogen entered into a strategic collaboration to develop novel antisense medicines for a broad range of neurological diseases and entered into a Stock Purchase Agreement, or SPA. As part of the collaboration, Biogen gained exclusive rights to the use of our antisense technology to develop therapies for these diseases for 10 years. We are responsible for the identification of antisense drug candidates based on selected medicines. Biogen is responsible for conducting IND-enabling toxicology studies for the selected medicine. Biogen will have the option to license the selected medicine after it completes the IND-enabling toxicology study. If Biogen exercises its option to license a medicine, it will assume global development, regulatory and commercialization responsibilities and costs for that medicine.


In the second quarter of 2018, we received $1 billion from Biogen, comprised of $625 million to purchase our stock at an approximately 25 percent cash premium and $375 million in an upfront payment.


Over the term of our collaboration, we are eligible to receive up to $270 million, which is comprised of a $15 million license fee, up to $105 million in development milestone payments and up to $150 million in regulatory milestone payments for each medicine that achieves marketing approval. In addition, we are eligible to receive tiered royalties up to the 20 percent range on net sales. We are currently advancing multiple programs under this collaboration and from inception through December 31, 2022, we have received nearly $1.1 billion in payments under this collaboration. We will achieve the next payment of $7.5 million if Biogen designates or advances another programunder this collaboration.


At the commencement of this collaboration, we considered that the collaboration agreement and SPA were negotiated concurrently and in contemplation of one another. Based on these facts and circumstances, we concluded that we should evaluate the provisions of the agreements on a combined basis. We identified one performance obligation, which was to perform R&D services for Biogen. We determined our transaction price to be $552 million, comprised of $375 million from the upfront payment and $177 million for the premium paid by Biogen for its purchase of our common stock. We determined the fair value of the premium we received by using the stated premium in the SPA and applying a lack of marketability discount. We included a lack of marketability discount in our valuation of the premium because Biogen received restricted shares of our common stock. We allocated the transaction price to our single performance obligation.


From inception through December 31, 2022, we have included $616 million in payments in the transaction price for our R&D services performance obligation under this collaboration, including $23 million of milestone payments we achieved in 2021 and $11 million of milestone payments we achieved in 2020. These milestone payments did not create new performance obligations because they are part of our original R&D services performance obligation. Therefore, we included these amounts in our transaction price for our R&D services performance obligation in the period we achieved the milestone payment. We are recognizing revenue for our R&D services performance obligation as we perform services based on our effort to satisfy our performance obligation relative to our total effort expected to satisfy our performance obligation. We currently estimate we will satisfy our performance obligation at the end of the contractual term in June 2028.


2013 Strategic Neurology


In September 2013, we and Biogen entered into a long-term strategic relationship focused on applying antisense technology to advance the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. As part of the collaboration, Biogen gained exclusive rights to the use of our antisense technology to develop therapies for neurological diseases and has the option to license medicines resulting from this collaboration. We will usually be responsible for drug discovery and early development of antisense medicines and Biogen has the option to license antisense medicines after Phase 2 proof-of-concept. In October 2016, we expanded our collaboration to include additional research activities we will perform. If Biogen exercises its option to license a medicine, it will assume global development, regulatory and commercialization responsibilities and costs for that medicine. We are currently advancing five investigational medicines in development under this collaboration, including a medicine for Parkinson’s disease (ION859), two medicines for ALS (tofersen and ION541), a medicine for multiple system atrophy (ION464) and a medicine for an undisclosed target. In the fourth quarter of 2018, Biogen exercised its option to license our most advanced ALS medicine, tofersen, our medicine in registration for SOD1 ALS. As a result, Biogen is responsible for global development, regulatory and commercialization activities and costs for tofersen.

Under the terms of the agreement, we received an upfront payment of $100 million and are eligible to receive milestone payments, license fees and royalty payments for all medicines developed under this collaboration, with the specific amounts dependent upon the modality of the molecule advanced by Biogen. Under this collaboration, we received a $35 million license fee payment when Biogen licensed tofersen from us in 2018.


Over the term of the collaboration for tofersen, we are eligible to receive nearly $110 million, which is comprised of the $35 million license fee received in 2018, up to $18 million in development milestone payments and up to $55 million in regulatory milestone payments. For each of the other antisense molecules that are chosen for drug discovery and development under this collaboration, we are eligible to receive up to approximately $260 million, which is comprised of a $70 million license fee, up to $60 million in development milestone payments, including amounts related to the cost of clinical trials, and up to $130 million in regulatory milestone payments. In addition, we are eligible to receive tiered royalties up to the mid-teens on net sales from any antisense medicines developed under this collaboration. From inception through December 31, 2022, we have received more than $300 million in payments under this collaboration. We will achieve the next payment of $16 million if the FDA approves Biogen’s NDA filing of tofersen.


At the commencement of our 2013 strategic neurology collaboration, we identified one performance obligation, which was to perform R&D services for Biogen. At inception, we determined the transaction price to be the $100 million upfront payment we received and allocated it to our single performance obligation. As we achieve milestone payments for our R&D services, we include these amounts in our transaction price for our R&D services performance obligation. We recognized revenue for our R&D services performance obligation based on our effort to satisfy our performance obligation relative to our total effort expected to satisfy our performance obligation. During 2020, we completed our remaining research and development services and recognized the remaining revenue related to this performance obligation. From inception through the completion of our R&D services performance obligation in 2020, we included $145 million in total payments in the transaction price for our R&D services performance obligation.


Under this collaboration, we have also generated additional payments that we concluded were not part of our R&D services performance obligation. We recognized each of these payments in full in the respective quarter we generated the payment because we did not have any performance obligations for the respective payment. For example, in the third quarter of 2022, we earned a $9 million milestone payment when the FDA accepted Biogen’s NDA filing of tofersen, which we recognized in full because we did not have any performance obligations related to this milestone payment.


2012 Neurology


In December 2012, we and Biogen entered into a collaboration agreement to develop and commercialize novel antisense medicines to treat neurodegenerative diseases. We are responsible for the development of each of the medicines through the completion of the initial Phase 2 clinical study for such medicine. Biogen has the option to license a medicine from each of the programs through the completion of the first Phase 2 study for each program. Under this collaboration, Biogen is conducting the IONIS-MAPTRx study for AD and we are currently advancing ION582 for AS. If Biogen exercises its option to license a medicine, it will assume global development, regulatory and commercialization responsibilities and costs for that medicine.


Under the terms of the agreement, we received an upfront payment of $30 million. Over the term of the collaboration, we are eligible to receive up to $210 million, which is comprised of a $70 million license fee, up to $10 million in development milestone payments per program and up to $130 million in regulatory milestone payments per program, plus a mark-up on the cost estimate of the Phase 1 and 2 studies. In addition, we are eligible to receive tiered royalties up to the mid-teens on net sales of any medicines resulting from each of the two programs. From inception through December 31, 2022, we have received nearly $170 million in payments under this collaboration, including nearly $20 million in milestone payments we received from Biogen for advancing ION582 and a $10 million milestone payment we received from Biogen when Biogen advanced IONIS-MAPTRx during 2022. We will achieve the next payment of up to $25 million if Biogen advances a medicine under this collaboration.


Under our collaboration, we determined we had a performance obligation to perform R&D services. We allocated $40 million in total payments to the transaction price for our R&D services performance obligation. In the third quarter of 2019, we completed our R&D services performance obligation when we designated a development candidate and Biogen accepted the development candidate. We recognized revenue as we performed services based on our effort to satisfy our performance obligation relative to the total effort expected to satisfy our performance obligation.


When we commenced development for IONIS-MAPTRx we identified our development work as a separate performance obligation. In the fourth quarter of 2022, we completed our R&D services performance obligation for IONIS-MAPTRx. We recognized revenue as we performed services based on our effort to satisfy our performance obligation relative to the total effort expected to satisfy our performance obligation. From inception through December 31, 2022, we have included $57 million in the transaction price for our IONIS-MAPTRx development performance obligation, including $19.5 million of milestone payments we earned from Biogen in 2020 when we advanced IONIS-MAPTRx.


In the fourth quarter of 2019, we identified another performance obligation upon Biogen’s license of IONIS-MAPTRx because the license we granted to Biogen is distinct from our other performance obligations. We recognized the $45 million license fee for IONIS-MAPTRx as revenue at that time because Biogen had full use of the license without any continuing involvement from us. Additionally, we did not have any further performance obligations related to the license after we delivered it to Biogen. Biogen is responsible for global development, regulatory and commercialization activities and costs for IONIS-MAPTRx.


In the fourth quarter of 2022, we achieved $14.5 million in milestone payments when Biogen advanced ION582. We will recognize revenue as we perform services based on our effort to satisfy our R&D services performance obligation relative to the total effort expected to satisfy our performance obligation for ION582.


During the years ended December 31, 2022, 2021 and 2020, we earned the following revenue from our relationship with Biogen (in millions, except percentage amounts):

 
Year Ended December 31,
 
   
2022
   
2021
   
2020
 
SPINRAZA royalties (commercial revenue)
 
$
242.3
   
$
267.8
   
$
286.6
 
R&D revenue
   
124.4
     
161.0
     
122.0
 
Total revenue from our relationship with Biogen
 
$
366.7
   
$
428.8
   
$
408.6
 
Percentage of total revenue
   
62
%
   
53
%
   
56
%


Our consolidated balance sheets at December 31, 2022 and 2021 included deferred revenue of $351.2 million and $407.5 million, respectively, related to our relationship with Biogen.

Joint Development and Commercialization Arrangement

AstraZeneca


Eplontersen Collaboration


In December 2021, we entered into a joint development and commercialization agreement with AstraZeneca to develop and commercialize eplontersen for the treatment of ATTR. We are jointly developing and preparing to commercialize eplontersen with AstraZeneca in the U.S. We granted AstraZeneca exclusive rights to commercialize eplontersen outside the U.S., except certain countries in Latin America.


Over the term of the collaboration, we are eligible to receive up to $3.6 billion, which is comprised of a $200 million upfront payment, up to $485 million in development and approval milestone payments and up to $2.9 billion in sales milestone payments. The agreement also includes territory-specific development, commercial and medical affairs cost-sharing provisions. In addition, we are eligible to receive up to mid-20 percent royalties for sales in the U.S. and tiered royalties up to the high teens for sales outside the U.S.


We evaluated our eplontersen collaboration under ASC 808 and identified four material components: (i) the license we granted to AstraZeneca in 2021, (ii) the co-development activities that we and AstraZeneca will perform, (iii) the co-commercialization activities that we and AstraZeneca will perform and (iv) the co-medical affairs activities that we and AstraZeneca will perform.


We determined that we had a vendor-customer relationship within the scope of ASC 606 for the license we granted to AstraZeneca and as a result we had one performance obligation. For our sole performance obligation, we determined the transaction price was the $200 million upfront payment we received. We recognized the upfront payment in full in 2021 because we did not have any remaining performance obligations after we delivered the license to AstraZeneca.


We also concluded that the co-development activities, the co-commercialization activities and the co-medical affairs activities are within the scope of ASC 808 because we and AstraZeneca are active participants exposed to the risks and benefits of the activities under the collaboration. AstraZeneca is currently responsible for 55 percent of the costs associated with the ongoing global Phase 3 development program. Because we are leading the Phase 3 development program, we recognize as revenue the 55 percent of cost-share funding AstraZeneca is responsible for in the same period we incur the related development expenses. As AstraZeneca is responsible for the majority of the commercial and medical affairs costs in the U.S. and all costs associated with bringing eplontersen to market outside the U.S., we recognize cost-share funding we receive from AstraZeneca related to these activities as a reduction of our commercial and medical affairs expenses.


We will achieve the next payment of up to $50 million upon the first regulatory approval under this collaboration. From inception through December 31, 2022, we have received nearly $260 million in payments under this collaboration.

Research and Development Partners

AstraZeneca


In addition to our collaboration for eplontersen, we have a collaboration with AstraZeneca focused on the treatment of cardiovascular, renal and metabolic diseases. In July 2015, we and AstraZeneca formed a collaboration to discover and develop antisense therapies for treating cardiovascular, renal and metabolic diseases. Under our collaboration, AstraZeneca has licensed multiple medicines from us, including medicines in development to treat people with ATTR amyloidosis, a genetically associated form of kidney disease and NASH. AstraZeneca is responsible for global development, regulatory and commercialization activities and costs for each of the medicines it has licensed from us.


Over the term of the collaboration, we are eligible to receive up to $5.8 billion, which is comprised of a $65 million upfront payment, up to $290 million in license fees, up to $1.1 billion in development milestone payments, up to $2.9 billion in regulatory milestone payments and up to $1.5 billion in sales milestone payments. In addition, we are eligible to receive tiered royalties up to the low teens on net sales from any product that AstraZeneca successfully commercializes under this collaboration agreement. We will achieve the next payment of $10 million under this collaboration if AstraZeneca advances a medicine under this collaboration. From inception through December 31, 2022, we have received more than $280 million in payments under this collaboration.


At the commencement of this collaboration, we identified one performance obligation, which was to perform R&D services for AstraZeneca. We determined the transaction price to be the $65 million upfront payment we received and we allocated it to our single performance obligation. We recognized revenue for our R&D services performance obligation as we performed services based on our effort to satisfy this performance obligation relative to our total effort expected to satisfy our performance obligation. We completed our performance obligation in the fourth quarter of 2021. As we achieved milestone payments for our R&D services, we included these amounts in our transaction price for our R&D services performance obligation. From inception through the completion of our performance obligation, we have included $90 million in payments in the transaction price for our R&D services performance obligation.


Under this collaboration, we have also generated additional payments that we concluded were not part of our R&D services performance obligation. We recognized each of these payments in full in the respective quarter we generated the payment because the payments were distinct and we did not have any performance obligations for the respective payment. For example, in the fourth quarter of 2021, we earned a $30 million license fee when AstraZeneca licensed a target for a metabolic disease. We recognized the license fee as revenue at that time because AstraZeneca had full use of the license without any continuing involvement from us. Additionally, we did not have any further performance obligations related to the license after we delivered it to AstraZeneca.


During the years ended December 31, 2022, 2021 and 2020, we earned the following revenue from our relationship with AstraZeneca (in millions, except percentage amounts):

 
Year Ended December 31,
 
   
2022
   
2021
   
2020
 
R&D revenue
 
$
79.2
   
$
254.6
   
$
88.0
 
Percentage of total revenue
   
13
%
   
31
%
   
12
%


We did not have any deferred revenue from our relationship with AstraZeneca at December 31, 2022 and 2021.

GSK


In March 2010, we entered into a collaboration with GSK using our antisense drug discovery platform to discover and develop new medicines against targets for serious and rare diseases, including infectious diseases and some conditions causing blindness. Our collaboration with GSK currently includes two medicines targeting hepatitis B virus, or HBV: bepirovirsen and IONIS-HBV-LRx. We designed these medicines to reduce the production of viral proteins associated with HBV infection. In the third quarter of 2019, following positive Phase 2 results, GSK licensed our HBV program. GSK is responsible for all global development, regulatory and commercialization activities and costs for the HBV program.


Over the term of the collaboration, we are eligible to receive nearly $260 million, which is comprised of a $25 million license fee, up to $42.5 million in development milestone payments, up to $120 million in regulatory milestone payments and up to $70 million in sales milestone payments if GSK successfully develops bepirovirsen. In addition, we are eligible to receive tiered royalties up to the low-teens on net sales of bepirovirsen. From inception through December 31, 2022, we have received more than $50 million in payments under the HBV program collaboration.


We completed our R&D services performance obligations under our collaboration in the first quarter of 2015. We identified a new performance obligation when we granted GSK the license of the HBV program and assigned related intellectual property rights in the third quarter of 2019 because the license was distinct from our other performance obligations. We recognized the $25 million license fee for the HBV program as revenue at that time because GSK had full use of the license without any continuing involvement from us. Additionally, we did not have any further performance obligations related to the license after we delivered it to GSK.


We do not have any remaining performance obligations under our collaboration with GSK; however, we can still earn additional payments and royalties as GSK advances the HBV program. In January 2023, we earned a $15 million milestone when GSK initiated a Phase 3 study of bepirovirsen. We will achieve the next payment of $15 million if the FDA accepts an NDA filing of bepirovirsen for review.


During the years ended December 31, 2022, 2021 and 2020, we earned the following revenue from our relationship with GSK (in millions, except percentage amounts):

 
Year Ended December 31,
 
   
2022
   
2021
   
2020
 
R&D revenue
 
$
   
$
   
$
0.2
 
Percentage of total revenue
   
     
     
 


We did not have any deferred revenue from our relationship with GSK at December 31, 2022 and 2021.

Novartis


In January 2017, we initiated a collaboration with Novartis to develop and commercialize pelacarsen and olezarsen. Novartis is responsible for conducting and funding development and regulatory activities for pelacarsen, including a global Phase 3 cardiovascular outcomes study that Novartis initiated in the fourth quarter 2019. In connection with Novartis’ license of pelacarsen, we and Novartis established a more definitive framework under which the companies would negotiate the co-commercialization of pelacarsen in selected markets. Included in this framework is an option by which Novartis could solely commercialize pelacarsen in exchange for Novartis paying us increased sales milestone payments based on sales of pelacarsen. When Novartis decided to not exercise its option for olezarsen, we retained rights to develop and commercialize olezarsen.


Over the term of the collaboration, we are eligible to receive up to $900 million, which is comprised of a $75 million upfront payment, a $150 million license fee, a $25 million development milestone payment, up to $290 million in regulatory milestone payments and up to $360 million in sales milestone payments. From inception through December 31, 2022, we have received nearly $275 million in payments under this collaboration. We are also eligible to receive tiered royalties in the mid-teens to low 20 percent range on net sales of pelacarsen. In August 2021, we earned a $25 million milestone payment from Novartis when Novartis achieved 50 percent enrollment in the Lp(a) HORIZON Phase 3 cardiovascular outcome study of pelacarsen. We recognized the milestone payment in full in the third quarter of 2021 because we did not have any remaining performance obligations related to the milestone payment. We will achieve the next payment of up to $75 million if Novartis advances regulatory activities for pelacarsen.


In conjunction with this collaboration, we entered into a SPA with Novartis. As part of the SPA, Novartis purchased 1.6 million shares of our common stock for $100 million in the first quarter of 2017.


At the commencement of this collaboration, we identified four separate performance obligations:

R&D services for pelacarsen;
R&D services for olezarsen;
API for pelacarsen; and
API for olezarsen.


We determined that the R&D services for each medicine and the API for each medicine were distinct performance obligations.


We determined our transaction price to be $108.4 million, comprised of the following:

$75 million from the upfront payment;
$28.4 million for the premium paid by Novartis for its purchase of our common stock at a premium in the first quarter of 2017; and
$5.0 million for the potential premium Novartis would have paid if they purchased our common stock in the future.


We allocated the transaction price based on the estimated stand-alone selling price of each performance obligation as follows:

$64.0 million for the R&D services for pelacarsen;
$40.1 million for the R&D services for olezarsen;
$1.5 million for the delivery of pelacarsen API; and
$2.8 million for the delivery of olezarsen API.


We completed our R&D services performance obligations for olezarsen and pelacarsen in 2019. As such, we recognized all revenue we allocated to the olezarsen and pelacarsen R&D services as of the end of 2019.


We recognized revenue related to the R&D services for pelacarsen and olezarsen performance obligations as we performed services based on our effort to satisfy our performance obligations relative to our total effort expected to satisfy our performance obligations.


During the years ended December 31, 2022, 2021 and 2020, we earned the following revenue from our relationship with Novartis (in millions, except percentage amounts):

 
Year Ended December 31,
 
   
2022
   
2021
   
2020
 
R&D revenue
 
$
0.2
   
$
25.5
   
$
1.0
 
Percentage of total revenue
   
     
3
%
   
 


We did not have any deferred revenue from our relationship with Novartis at December 31, 2022 and 2021.


As described in the Biogen SPINRAZA section above, in January 2023, we entered into a royalty purchase agreement with Royalty Pharma. Under the agreement, in addition to a minority interest in SPINRAZA royalties, Royalty Pharma will receive 25 percent of any future royalty payments on pelacarsen. Refer to Part IV, Item 15, Note 4, Long-Term Obligations and Commitments, for further discussion of this agreement.

Roche

Huntington’s Disease


In April 2013, we formed an alliance with Hoffmann-La Roche Inc and F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd, collectively Roche, to develop treatments for HD based on our antisense technology. Under the agreement, we discovered and developed tominersen, an investigational medicine targeting HTT protein. We developed tominersen through completion of our Phase 1/2 clinical study in people with early-stage HD. In the fourth quarter of 2017, upon completion of the Phase 1/2 study, Roche exercised its option to license tominersen. Roche is responsible for all global development, regulatory and commercialization activities and costs for tominersen.


Over the term of the collaboration, we are eligible to receive up to $395 million, which is comprised of a $30 million upfront payment, a $45 million license fee, up to $70 million in development milestone payments, up to $170 million in regulatory milestone payments and up to $80 million in sales milestone payments as tominersen advances. In addition, we are eligible to receive up to $136.5 million in milestone payments for each additional medicine successfully developed. We are also eligible to receive tiered royalties up to the mid-teens on net sales of any product resulting from this alliance. From inception through December 31, 2022, we have received more than $150 million in payments under this collaboration. We will achieve the next payment of $17.5 million if Roche advances a medicine under this collaboration.


At the commencement of this collaboration, we identified one performance obligation, which was to perform R&D services for Roche. We determined the transaction price to be the $30 million upfront payment we received and allocated it to our single performance obligation. As we achieved milestone payments for our R&D services, we included these amounts in our transaction price for our R&D services performance obligation. We recognized revenue for our R&D services performance obligation over our period of performance, which ended in the third quarter of 2017.


Under this collaboration, we have also generated additional payments that we concluded were not part of our R&D services performance obligation. We recognized each of these payments in full in the respective quarter in which we generated the payment because the payments were distinct and we did not have any performance obligations for the respective payment. In 2019, we earned $35 million in milestone payments when Roche advanced tominersen under this collaboration. In March 2021, Roche decided to discontinue dosing in the Phase 3 GENERATION HD1 study of tominersen in patients with manifest HD based on the results of a pre-planned review of data from the Phase 3 study conducted by an unblinded iDMC.


In January 2023, Roche initiated the Phase 2, GENERATION HD2, study of tominersen in patients with prodromal or early manifest HD. Roche is focusing on early-stage and younger patients based on the post-hoc analyses from the GENERATION HD1 study that suggested tominersen may benefit these patient groups. We do not have any remaining performance obligations related to tominersen under this collaboration with Roche; however, we can still earn additional payments and royalties as Roche advances tominersen.


IONIS-FB-LRx for Complement-Mediated Diseases


In October 2018, we entered into a collaboration agreement with Roche to develop IONIS-FB-LRx for the treatment of complement-mediated diseases. We are currently conducting Phase 2 studies in two disease indications for IONIS-FB-LRx, one for the treatment of patients with GA, the advanced stage of dry AMD, and a second for the treatment of patients with IgA nephropathy.


After positive data from a Phase 2 clinical study, Roche licensed IONIS-FB-LRx in July 2022 for $35 million. As a result, Roche is responsible for global development, regulatory and commercialization activities, and costs for IONIS-FB-LRx, except for the open label Phase 2 study in patients with IgAN and the Phase 2 study in patients with GA, both of which we are conducting and funding. In July 2022, we amended our IONIS-FB-LRx collaboration agreement with Roche. The amendment changed future potential milestone payments we could receive under the collaboration. We determined there were no changes that would require adjustments to revenue we previously recognized.


Over the term of the collaboration, we are eligible to receive more than $810 million, which is comprised of a $75 million upfront payment, a $35 million license fee, up to $145 million in development milestones, up to $279 million in regulatory milestones and up to $280 million in sales milestone payments. In addition, we are also eligible to receive tiered royalties from the high teens to 20 percent on net sales. From inception through December 31, 2022, we have received more than $130 million in payments under this collaboration. We will achieve the next payment of up to $90 million if Roche advances IONIS-FB-LRx under this collaboration.


At the commencement of this collaboration, we identified one performance obligation, which was to perform R&D services for Roche. We determined the transaction price to be the $75 million upfront payment we received and allocated it to our single performance obligation. We are recognizing revenue for our R&D services performance obligation as we perform services based on our effort to satisfy our performance obligation relative to our total effort expected to satisfy our performance obligation. We currently estimate we will satisfy our performance obligation in the third quarter of 2024.


During the years ended December 31, 2022, 2021 and 2020, we earned the following revenue from our relationship with Roche (in millions, except percentage amounts):

 
Year Ended December 31,
 
   
2022
   
2021
   
2020
 
R&D revenue
 
$
67.2
   
$
17.2
   
$
5.9
 
Percentage of total revenue
   
11
%
   
2
%
   
1
%


Our consolidated balance sheets at December 31, 2022 and 2021 included deferred revenue of $22.4 million and $31.6 million related to our relationship with Roche, respectively.

Commercialization Partnerships

Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AB (Sobi)


We began commercializing TEGSEDI and WAYLIVRA in Europe in January 2021 and TEGSEDI in North America in April 2021 through distribution agreements with Sobi. Under our agreements, we are responsible for supplying finished goods inventory to Sobi and Sobi is responsible for selling each medicine to the end customer. In exchange, we earn a distribution fee on net sales from Sobi for each medicine.

PTC Therapeutics


In August 2018, we entered into an exclusive license agreement with PTC Therapeutics to commercialize TEGSEDI and WAYLIVRA in Latin America and certain Caribbean countries. Under the license agreement, we are eligible to receive royalties from PTC in the mid-20 percent range on net sales for each medicine. In December 2021, we started receiving royalties from PTC for TEGSEDI sales.

Technology Enhancement Collaborations

Bicycle License Agreement


In December 2020, we entered into a collaboration agreement with Bicycle and obtained an option to license its peptide technology to potentially increase the delivery capabilities of our LICA medicines. In July 2021, we paid $42 million when we exercised our option to license Bicycle’s technology, which included an equity investment in Bicycle. As part of our stock purchase, we entered into a lockup agreement with Bicycle that restricted our ability to trade our Bicycle shares for one year. In 2021, we recorded a $7.2 million equity investment for the shares we received in Bicycle. We recognized the remaining $34.8 million as R&D expense in 2021. From inception through December 31, 2022, we have paid Bicycle $46.6 million under this collaboration agreement.

Metagenomi License Agreement


In November 2022, we entered into a collaboration and license agreement with Metagenomi to research, develop and commercialize investigational medicines for up to four initial genetic targets, and, upon the achievement of certain development milestones, four additional genetic targets using gene editing technologies. As a result, we paid $80 million to license Metagenomi’s technologies. We recorded the $80 million payment as R&D expense in 2022 upon receiving a license from Metagenomi for intellectual property that is in research with no current alternate use. We will also pay Metagenomi certain fees for the selection of genetic targets, and contingent on the achievement of certain development, regulatory and sales events, milestone payments and royalties. In addition, we will reimburse Metagenomi for certain of its costs in conducting its research and drug discovery activities under the collaboration.

Other Agreements

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc.


Under the terms of our agreement with Alnylam, we co-exclusively (with ourselves) licensed to Alnylam our patent estate relating to antisense motifs and mechanisms and oligonucleotide chemistry for double-stranded RNAi therapeutics, with Alnylam having the exclusive right to grant platform sublicenses for double-stranded RNAi. In exchange for such rights, Alnylam gave us a technology access fee, participation in fees from Alnylam’s partnering programs, as well as future milestone and royalty payments from Alnylam. We retained exclusive rights to our patents for single-stranded antisense therapeutics and for a limited number of double-stranded RNAi therapeutic targets and all rights to single-stranded RNAi, or ssRNAi, therapeutics. In turn, Alnylam nonexclusively licensed to us its patent estate relating to antisense motifs and mechanisms and oligonucleotide chemistry to research, develop and commercialize single-stranded antisense therapeutics, ssRNAi therapeutics, and to research double-stranded RNAi compounds. We also received a license to develop and commercialize double-stranded RNAi therapeutics targeting a limited number of therapeutic targets on a nonexclusive basis. Additionally, in 2015, we and Alnylam entered into an alliance in which we cross-licensed intellectual property. Under this alliance, we and Alnylam each obtained exclusive license rights to 4 therapeutic programs. Alnylam granted us an exclusive, royalty-bearing license to its chemistry, RNA targeting mechanism and target-specific intellectual property for oligonucleotides against four targets, including FXI and Apo(a) and two other targets. In exchange, we granted Alnylam an exclusive, royalty-bearing license to our chemistry, RNA targeting mechanism and target-specific intellectual property for oligonucleotides against four other targets. Alnylam also granted us a royalty-bearing, non-exclusive license to new platform technology arising from May 2014 through April 2019 for single-stranded antisense therapeutics. In turn, we granted Alnylam a royalty-bearing, non-exclusive license to new platform technology arising from May 2014 through April 2019 for double-stranded RNAi therapeutics.


In the fourth quarter 2020, we completed an arbitration process with Alnylam. The arbitration panel awarded us $41.2 million for payments owed to us by Alnylam related to Alnylam’s agreement with Sanofi Genzyme. We recognized the $41.2 million payment from Alnylam as revenue in the fourth quarter of 2020 because we did not have any performance obligations for the respective payment.


During the years ended December 31, 2022, 2021 and 2020, we earned the following revenue from our relationship with Alnylam (in millions, except percentage amounts):

 
Year Ended December 31,
 
   
2022
   
2021
   
2020
 
R&D revenue
 
$
21.4
   
$
   
$
47.9
 
Percentage of total revenue
   
4
%
   
     
7
%


We did not have any deferred revenue from our relationship with Alnylam at December 31, 2022 and 2021.