Things are happening fast at BridgeBio as it plugs away at the launch of blockbuster-in-waiting Attruby and prepares to potentially introduce three new drugs to the market within the next 12 months.
To help the 11-year-old California biotech ramp up for the commercial surge, Sixth Street and HealthCare Royalty have agreed to invest up to $1 billion in newly issued convertible preferred equity into the company.
The deal carries a 7% initial dividend and an initial conversion price of $137.79 per share, which is more than a 100% premium on BridgeBio's 30-day average price. After five years, the conversion price bumps up to $153.10 per share, marking a more than a 125% premium, the company said in a July 1 release.
BridgeBio's share price on Wednesday morning was $74.55, up 14% over the last month.
Preferred equity funding gives investors priority over common stockholders for cash payouts. While the payouts are lower than those for common stock, so are the risks.
As the lead investor, Sixth Street funded $800 million, while HealthCare Royalty funded $134 million.
“Access to this type and quantum of capital ensures we can deliver on the promise of our launching medicines and beyond,” Neil Kumar, Ph.D., BridgeBio's co-founder and CEO, said in a release.
BridgeBio added that it would provide more details about the transaction in a securities filing, which had yet to be posted by mid-morning on Wednesday.
While BridgeBio declared that the investment is designed to support its current and upcoming launches, analysts from Leerink speculated that the company could be thinking of M&A, especially given the value of three priority review vouchers (PRV) that are likely to stem from FDA approvals for its candidates, given that the company’s top three pipeline assets address genetic disorders with unmet need.
“The size of the financing, existing strength of the balance sheet and potential cash value of the PRVs suggest BridgeBio is stockpiling dry powder,” Leerink wrote in a note to investors Wednesday. “That said, we see the transaction as incrementally positive, with the greater than 100% conversion premium providing substantial long-term capital with limited dilution ahead of a catalyst-rich year.”
In its 20 years of operation, HealthCare Royalty says it has invested more than $7 billion in over 110 biopharma products. In July of last year, global investment firm KKR acquired a majority ownership stake in HealthCare Royalty.
Sixth Street, which was founded in 2009 and counts $130 billion in assets under management and committed capital, has invested in several biopharma ventures including Apellis, Arrowhead, Biohaven, Blueprint and Immunogen.
In its most recent quarterly report, meanwhile, BridgeBio reported sales of ATTR-CM medicine Attruby at $181 million for the first three months of 2026. The medicine was approved in November of 2024 and generated sales of $362 million in its first four full quarters on the market.
BridgeBio expects its next launch will come in the form of BBP-418, a glycosylation substrate that restores muscle function and faces a November decision from the FDA as a potential treatment for a type of limb-girdle muscular dystrophy. Analysts from William Blair have called BBP-418 a potential blockbuster.
Also in the pipeline are encaleret for autosomal dominant hypocalcemia, a calcium deficiency disorder, and Kyowa Kirin-partnered infigratinib, an oral treatment for children with achondroplasia (dwarfism) that has been pegged by Cantor analyst Josh Schimmer as having annual sales potential of $2 billion. BridgeBio has posted successful phase 3 results for both oral assets.