Drug maker Schering-Plough Corp. is ending a deal to commercialize hepatitis B drug pradefovir, which Aliso Viejo-based Valeant Pharmaceuticals sold the worldwide rights to last December.
Schering-Plough said it’s dropping the drug after it clinical trials found a heightened risk of cancer in laboratory animals.
San Diego’s Metabasis Therapeutics Inc. licensed pradefovir to Valeant in 2000, when the latter was known as ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Schering-Plough paid $19.2 million upfront to Valeant and $1.8 million to Metabasis for pradefovir.
Kenilworth, N.J.-based Schering-Plough is going to end its agreements with the companies and return all rights back to Metabasis, the company said in a statement.
