Ropes & Gray Advises Blackstone in Strategic Financing Collaboration with PTC Therapeutics up to $1 Billion in Funding | News & Events

Attorneys:

Alyson Gal , Melissa S. Rones , Michael D. Beauvais , Zachary R. Blume , Kellie B. Combs , Lincoln Tsang , Gregory H. Levine , Eve M. Brunts , Abigail E. Gregor , Brendan C. Hanifin , Ama A. Adams

Ropes & Gray represented Blackstone in a strategic financing collaboration for up to $1 billion in funding with PTC Therapeutics, a global biopharmaceutical company focused on medicine development and commercialization for patients with rare disorders, including genetic disorders and Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

As part of the collaboration, funds managed by Blackstone Life Sciences and Blackstone Credit have provided PTC Therapeutics with $500 million in committed financing, in the form of up to $450 million of senior secured term loans, and $50 million in equity. PTC is a public company with a $2.74 billion market capitalization. According to PTC’s public announcement of the transaction, the funding will support PTC’s mission to deliver at least one therapy every 2—3 year to patients globally. The financing was announced and closed on October 27.

The customized senior secured term loan investment by Blackstone is collateralized, initially, by therapeutics Translarna, Emflaza, Upstaza, sepiapterin and vatiquinone and certain other assets of the company. The transaction is comprised of the following components:

$300 million of initial senior secured term debt
$50 million purchase of PTC common stock
$150 million 18 months of delayed draw commitments to fund senior secured term debt
Up to $500 million in uncommitted potential additional investment capital to support future development opportunities, subject to mutual agreement between Blackstone and PTC.

The Ropes & Gray team was led by capital solutions & private credit partner Alyson Gal, IP transactions partner Melissa Rones, life sciences partner Michael Beauvais and capital markets partner Zachary Blume and included life sciences regulatory & compliance partners Kellie Combs, Lincoln Tsang and Greg Levine, health care partner Eve Brunts, life sciences partner Abigail Gregor and litigation & enforcement partners Brendan Hanifin and Ama Adams.