Basilea Pharmaceutica — Encouraging start to the year for Cresemba

Basilea Pharmaceutica has continued its strong momentum into 2025, announcing the receipt of a CHF1.2m milestone payment for Cresemba for the strategically important Japanese market. This marks the first commercial milestone payment from Japanese licensing partner, Asahi Kasei Pharma, and comes within two years of market launch (in March 2023), which we view as an indication of the favourable market uptake for the company’s lead anti-infective drug. We note that Japan and China are key markets for Cresemba (making up c 25% of the drug’s global potential) and have experienced strong demand for this category-leading treatment. We expect these markets to support Basilea in life cycle management for Cresemba as it approaches maturity in the primary US and European markets (loss of market exclusivity in Q427). Our estimates are under review ahead of the forthcoming FY24 results, due to be published on 18 February 2025.