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Collaboration and License Agreements
9 Months Ended
Jun. 30, 2025
Collaboration And License Agreements [Abstract]  
Collaboration and License Agreements COLLABORATION AND LICENSE AGREEMENTS
The following table provides a summary of revenue recognized:
Three Months Ended June 30,Nine Months Ended June 30,
2025202420252024
(in thousands)
GSK$143 $— $2,646 $2,685 
Takeda— — — 866 
Sarepta27,624 — 570,330 — 
Total$27,767 $— $572,976 $3,551 
The following table summarizes the balance of receivables and contract liabilities related to the Company’s collaboration and license agreements:
June 30, 2025September 30, 2024
(in thousands)
Receivables included in accounts receivable$9,699 $— 
Contract liabilities included in deferred revenue$22,979 $— 
GlaxoSmithKline Intellectual Property (No. 3) Limited (“GSK”)
GSK-HSD License Agreement
On November 22, 2021, GSK and the Company entered into an Exclusive License Agreement (the “GSK-HSD License Agreement”). Under the GSK-HSD License Agreement, GSK has received an exclusive license for GSK-4532990 (formerly ARO-HSD). The exclusive license is worldwide with the exception of greater China. GSK is wholly responsible for all clinical development and commercialization of GSK-4532990 in its territory.
The Company has completed its performance obligation related to this agreement, and the upfront payment of $120.0 million was fully recognized in the year ended September 30, 2022. Further, GSK dosed the first patient in a Phase 2b trial in March 2023 and paid a $30.0 million milestone payment to the Company in the third quarter of fiscal 2023.
The Company is eligible for an additional payment of $100.0 million upon achieving the first patient dosed in a Phase 3 trial. Furthermore, should the Phase 3 trial read out positively, and the potential new medicine receives regulatory approval in major markets, the deal provides for commercial milestone payments to the Company of up to $190.0 million at first commercial sale, and up to $590.0 million in sales-related milestone payments. The Company is further eligible to receive tiered royalties on net product sales in a range of mid-teens to twenty percent.
GSK-HBV Agreement
On December 11, 2023, the Company entered into an Amended and Restated License Agreement with GSK (the “GSK-HBV Agreement”) pursuant to which GSK received a worldwide, exclusive license to develop and commercialize daplusiran/tomligisiran (GSK5637608, formerly JNJ-3989), the Company’s third-generation subcutaneously administered RNAi therapeutic candidate being developed as a potential therapy for patients with chronic hepatitis B virus infection.
Under the terms of the GSK-HBV Agreement, the Company received $2.7 million in December 2023, upon signing the amended GSK-HBV Agreement. Further, GSK dosed the fifth patient in a Phase 2 trial in December 2024, triggering a $2.5 million milestone payment to the Company which was paid in the second quarter of fiscal 2025. The Company is eligible to receive up to $830.0 million in development and sales milestone payments under the GSK-HBV Agreement.
As of June 30, 2025, the Company had no contract assets and liabilities recorded.
Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (“Takeda”)
In October 2020, Takeda and the Company entered into an Exclusive License and Co-Funding Agreement (the “Takeda License Agreement”). Under the Takeda License Agreement, Takeda and the Company will co-develop the Company’s fazirsiran program (formerly TAK-999 and ARO-AAT), the Company’s second-generation subcutaneously administered RNAi therapeutic candidate being developed as a treatment for liver disease associated with alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency. Within the United States, fazirsiran, if approved, will be co-commercialized under a 50/50 profit
sharing structure. Outside the United States, Takeda received an exclusive license to commercialize fazirsiran and will lead the global commercialization strategy, while the Company will be eligible to receive tiered royalties of 20% to 25% on net sales.
The Company determined that the key deliverables included the license and certain research and development services including the Company’s responsibilities to complete the initial portion of the SEQUOIA study, to complete the ongoing Phase 2 AROAAT2002 study, and to ensure certain manufacturing of fazirsiran drug product is completed and delivered to Takeda (the “Takeda R&D Services”). Due to the specialized and unique nature of these Takeda R&D Services and their direct relationship with the license, the Company determined that these deliverables represent one distinct bundle and, thus, one performance obligation. Takeda is responsible for managing clinical development and commercialization outside the United States. Within the United States, the Company and Takeda are responsible in the co-development and co-commercialization efforts. The Company considers the collaborative activities, including the co-development and co-commercialization, to be a separate unit of account within Topic 808, and as such, these co-funding amounts are recorded as research and development expenses or general and administrative expenses, as appropriate.
Under the terms of the Takeda License Agreement, the Company received $300.0 million as an upfront payment in January 2021 and an additional $40.0 million upon Takeda’s initiation of a Phase 3 REDWOOD clinical study of fazirsiran in March 2023, and is eligible to receive up to $527.5 million in additional potential development, regulatory and commercial milestones.
The Company allocated the total $300.0 million initial transaction price to its one distinct performance obligation for the fazirsiran license and the associated Takeda R&D Services. The Company has substantially completed its performance obligation under the Takeda License Agreement by December 31, 2023. As such, all revenue has been fully recognized as of December 31, 2023. There were no further deferred revenue and contract liabilities as of June 30, 2025.
The Company recorded $24.6 million as accrued expenses as of June 30, 2025 that was primarily driven by co-development and co-commercialization activities.
Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (“Janssen”)
On April 7, 2023, Janssen voluntarily terminated its collaboration agreement with the Company and the Company regained full rights to ARO-PNPLA3, formerly called JNJ-75220795. There are no currently active trials for ARO-PNPLA3.
Further, on December 11, 2023, the Company entered into the GSK-HBV Agreement, as discussed above, pursuant to which GSK received an exclusive license for JNJ-3989 (formerly ARO-HBV). JNJ-3989 had previously been licensed to Janssen in October 2018.
Amgen Inc. (“Amgen”)
In September 2016, Amgen and the Company entered into two collaboration and license agreements and a common stock purchase agreement. Under the Second Collaboration and License Agreement (the “Olpasiran Agreement”), Amgen received a worldwide, exclusive license to the Company’s novel RNAi olpasiran (previously referred to as AMG- 890 or ARO-LPA) program. These RNAi molecules are designed to reduce elevated lipoprotein(a), which is a genetically validated, independent risk factor for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Under the Olpasiran Agreement, Amgen is wholly responsible for clinical development and commercialization.
The Company has substantially completed its performance obligations under the Olpasiran Agreement. There were no contract assets and liabilities recorded as of June 30, 2025.
In November 2022, Royalty Pharma Investments 2019 ICAV (“Royalty Pharma”) and the Company entered into a Royalty Purchase Agreement with Royalty Pharma (the “Royalty Pharma Agreement”). In consideration for the payments under the Royalty Pharma Agreement, Royalty Pharma is entitled to receive all royalties otherwise payable by Amgen to the Company under the Olpasiran Agreement. The Company remains eligible to receive up to an additional $485.0 million in remaining development, regulatory and sales milestone payments payable from Amgen and Royalty Pharma. See Note 11.
Sarepta Therapeutics, Inc.
On November 25, 2024, the Company entered into an Exclusive License and Collaboration Agreement (the “Sarepta Collaboration Agreement”) with Sarepta for the development and commercialization of multiple clinical and preclinical programs in rare, genetic diseases of the muscle, central nervous system, and lungs. The Company concurrently entered into a Stock Purchase Agreement (the “Stock Purchase Agreement”) with Sarepta (see Note 6).
Under the Sarepta Collaboration Agreement, Sarepta received an exclusive sublicensable worldwide license to
SRP-1001 (formerly ARO-DUX4), SRP-1003 (formerly ARO-DM1), SRP-1002 (formerly ARO-MMP7), and SRP-1004 (formerly ARO-ATXN2) clinical stage programs (the “C1” programs). Sarepta also received an exclusive sublicensable worldwide license to the Company’s ARO-HTT, ARO-ATXN1, and ARO-ATXN3 preclinical stage programs (the “C2” programs). The Company will perform certain research and development activities for the C1 and C2 programs.
Further, Sarepta may select up to six gene targets for which the Company will perform discovery, optimization and preclinical development activities to identify RNAi compounds against each selected target (the “C3” programs). Upon target acceptance, Sarepta will receive an exclusive license to the Company’s intellectual property rights to exploit compounds directed to those targets and is wholly responsible for clinical development and commercialization of each compound after the Company delivers a Clinical Trial Application ready data package (the "CTA package").
The Company identified 17 performance obligations under the Sarepta Collaboration Agreement. The four C1 licenses are distinct performance obligations from the four C1 research and development performance obligations since the customer can use and benefit from the licenses separately. The performance obligations for the licenses were satisfied in the second quarter of fiscal 2025 upon delivery, and the research and development performance obligations will be satisfied as the work is performed. The remaining nine performance obligations include three C2 preclinical stage program licenses and research and development activities, and six C3 unidentified discovery target licenses and research and development activity. Each of the three C2 programs and the six C3 programs were determined to represent one performance obligation, as the customer cannot benefit from the use of the product license at the point of transfer until the specified research and development activities are performed. As such, each of the C2 and C3 product licenses and respective research and development work will be combined to form one performance obligation. For these nine performance obligations, revenue is recognized over time as the work is performed.
For performance obligations recognized over time, the estimated performance period over which revenue will be recognized is determined to be the period over which the Company estimates it will perform the research and development activities. The Company determined that the most appropriate method of measuring progress for these performance obligations is an input method based on research and development costs in the program budget. Accordingly, the Company has estimated the total cost required to complete its obligation and recognized an amount of revenue equal to the proportion of services performed, which is reassessed on an ongoing basis as the program progresses. In the period an agreement expires or is terminated, remaining deferred revenue, if any, is recognized as revenue.
Under the terms of the Sarepta Collaboration Agreement, the Company received an upfront payment of $500.0 million on February 14, 2025. In addition, on February 7, 2025, the Company received $325.0 million in the form of an equity investment under the Stock Purchase Agreement. Based upon the Company's share price on February 7, 2025, (the “Closing Date”), the difference between the $325.0 million and the fair value of the shares on the Closing date resulted in a premium of $83.6 million. The premium is included as part of the total consideration of the Sarepta Collaboration Agreement for revenue recognition purposes. The Company is entitled to receive $250.0 million to be paid in annual installments of $50.0 million over the first five years of the agreement. The Company is also eligible receive reimbursement of certain costs related to carrying out the research and development activities for the C1 programs. The fixed consideration of $833.6 million and an estimated variable consideration of $71.2 million were allocated to all performance obligations based on their relative standalone selling price. Standalone selling prices for the product licenses were determined using an adjusted market-based approach through the net present value of the expected future cash flows for each program. The standalone selling prices for the research and development work were determined based on an expected cost plus margin approach. The fixed and estimated variable consideration of $904.9 million was allocated in accordance to the following table:
June 30, 2025
(in thousands)
Upfront payment
$500,000 
Annual fees
250,000 
Equity premium
83,612 
Fixed consideration
$833,612 
Estimated variable consideration
71,243 
Total transaction price
$904,855 
The Company estimates the stand-alone selling price for each distinct performance obligation, which involves assumptions that may require significant judgment. The Company’s estimates of the stand-alone selling price for license-related performance obligations includes forecasted revenues and expenses, phase dates, probability of success, development timelines, and the discount rate. The estimates of the stand-alone selling price for research and development
or other service-related performance obligations generally include forecasting the expected costs of satisfying a performance obligation at market rates. The Company identified a discount based on the difference between the aggregate stand-alone selling price and the transaction price for accounting revenue recognition purposes. The Company allocated the discount proportionally to each of the performance obligations based upon their standalone selling price.
The Company receives reimbursement of certain costs related to carrying out the research and development activities for the C1 programs and may receive development milestone payments of up to $300.0 million. Further, for each of the 13 programs, the Company is eligible to receive regulatory milestone payments between $110.0 million and $180.0 million per program. Variable consideration associated with the milestones that may be achieved will be allocated to the performance obligation to which it is determined to be related, which will be the respective development work that is being reimbursed and the respective programs to which the milestones relate. ARO-DM1 development milestones were allocated between the license and development work based on the allocation of the standalone selling price. The Company will recognize the ARO-DM1 development milestones and other development milestones as revenue in the periods the underlying milestone events are achieved as achievement of the milestone events are highly susceptible to factors outside of the entity's influence and therefore there is a possibility that the milestone event will not be achieved.
The Company is also eligible to receive sales milestone payments between $500.0 million and $700.0 million per program as well as tiered royalties on net sales of licensed products of up to the low double digits, subject to the terms and conditions of the Sarepta Collaboration Agreement. The Company has applied the sales-based scope exception to the sales milestones and the royalty-based payments.
The Sarepta Collaboration Agreement commenced in February 2025 and may be terminated by either party in the event of a material breach as defined therein. In addition, Sarepta may voluntarily terminate the Sarepta Collaboration Agreement with 30 days' written notice to the Company if terminated prior to any regulatory approval of a licensed product. Unless earlier terminated, the Sarepta Collaboration Agreement expires on a product-by-product and country-by-country basis, upon the date of expiration of the relevant royalty term for such product in such country.
As of June 30, 2025, the Company recorded $570.3 million in revenue from Sarepta, $9.7 million in accounts receivable and $23.0 million in deferred revenue. The recognition of the remaining revenue for the performance obligations is dependent upon the time it takes to complete the respective research and development activities and in consideration of the timing of the selection of the C3 programs.