Vectura's GSK royalties agreements firing on all cylinders

Vectura Group hit its royalty cap on sales of GlaxoSmithKline´s Ellipta range of products in 2016, one year ahead of forecasts.

The cap was equivalent to £9.0m.

The inhaled airways disease-focused business was also set to record £5.4m of 2016 revenues under a separate single digit percentage royalty agreement with GSK on its Ellipta products.

That latter royalties agreement was a legacy arrangement from its merger with Skyepharma.

Vectura would also receive £7.3m of royalties under a separate royalties agreement which GSK decided not to extend in July 2016 and which had also been running ahead of expectations.

James Ward-Lilley, Chief Executive Officer, commented: "We are pleased to see continued momentum in Vectura's recurring revenues driven by the strong performance of our partnered marketed respiratory products. The merger with Skyepharma has added to the Group's growing revenue streams and combined with anticipated pipeline and partnered programme developments, Vectura is well positioned to capture a growing share of the evolving respiratory market."