Alkermes Shares Slide as J&J Moves to End Some Royalty Payments

By Colin Kellaher

Shares of Alkermes PLC fell sharply Tuesday after the biopharmaceutical company said a unit of Johnson & Johnson was partially terminating license agreements related to its NanoCrystal technology.

Alkermes said the terminations by J&J's Janssen Pharmaceutica NV affect know-how royalties related to sales of products such as the antipsychotics Invega Sustenna and Trinza in the U.S.

Alkermes said it disputes Janssen's assertion that it doesn't use the licensed NanoCrystal technology in the products, and that it would explore all options to enforce its contractual rights.

Dublin-based Alkermes also noted that it had been planning for a wind down of the Janssen royalty payments in the coming years.

Analysts at Mizuho said it was unclear what has changed that led J&J to terminate the agreements and no longer pay royalties after paying them for many years.

Mizuho keeps its "buy" rating on Alkermes shares, saying the J&J move doesn't change their long-term view of the company, but the analysts trim their price target to $33 from $36 as they conservatively remove the royalties from their model.

Alkermes shares were recently trading at $25.19, down 14.1%.

Write to Colin Kellaher at colin.kellaher@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 09, 2021 11:01 ET (16:01 GMT)

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