Kala Pharmaceuticals Completes Sale of EYSUVIS & INVELTYS to Alcon Inc

Kala Pharmaceuticals, Inc. recently announced it has completed the sale of its commercial portfolio and related intellectual property assets to Alcon Inc., a transaction that was announced on May 23, 2022. The sale included EYSUVIS, the first and only US FDA-approved medicine for the short-term (up to 2 weeks) treatment of the signs and symptoms of dry eye disease, and INVELTYS, a twice-a-day corticosteroid for the treatment of post-operative inflammation and pain following ocular surgery.

Under the terms of the transaction, Kala received an upfront payment of $60 million in cash at closing and is eligible to receive commercial-based milestone payments. Kala anticipates that its existing cash resources, together with the net payments received at the closing of the Alcon transaction and planned reductions in operating expenses, will enable it to fund its operations into the second quarter of 2024.

“The completion of this sale marks a significant transformation of our company, as we pivot our efforts to focus on the advancement of KPI-012, our novel biologic with the potential to improve the treatment of multiple rare ophthalmic conditions,” said Mark Iwicki, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Kala. “As we enter the second half of 2022, we are operating from an enhanced financial position, with sufficient capital to fund our operations beyond the planned data readout from our Phase 2/3 trial of KPI-012 for persistent corneal epithelial defect. We expect to initiate this study in the fourth quarter of 2022, as we continue to pursue our commitment to developing innovative products that can better treat rare, underserved diseases of the eye.”

Piper Sandler acted as exclusive financial advisor and Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP served as legal counsel to Kala.

Kala is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the research, development and commercialization of innovative therapies for rare diseases of the eye. Kala’s biologics-based investigational therapies utilize Kala’s proprietary Mesenchymal Stem Cell Secretome (MSC-S) platform. Kala’s lead product candidate, KPI-012, is in clinical development for the treatment of persistent corneal epithelial defect (PCED), a rare disease of impaired corneal healing, which has received orphan drug designation from the US FDA. Kala is also targeting KPI-012 for the treatment of Partial Limbal Stem Cell Deficiency and ocular manifestations of moderate-to-severe Sjögren’s and plans to initiate preclinical studies to evaluate the utility of its MSC-S platform for retinal degenerative diseases, such as Retinitis Pigmentosa and Stargardt Disease. For more information, visit www.kalarx.com.