Irvine cancer drug maker Spectrum Pharmaceuticals Inc. said Tuesday it’s paying $30 million plus future payments to license a potential cancer drug.
Spectrum is getting the rights to Belinostat, a drug candidate developed by TopoTarget AS of Denmark.
The drug is in trials as a treatment for blood and bone cancer. Belinostat has fast-track review status with the Food and Drug Administration.
Spectrum gains rights to the drug in North America and India with an option for China.
The company could pay an additional $320 million in future payments and 1 million shares of Spectrum stock to TopoTarget if Belinostat is successful.
The deal also includes royalties on future sales.
TopoTarget is set to continue working on the drug with Spectrum funding 70% of development costs.
Last month, Spectrum said it was stopping work on ozarelix, a drug for treating benign enlarged prostates.
The company said that mixed results of an earlier second-phase study, along with the recently announced failure of a similar drug being developed by Canada’s Aeterna Zentaris Inc., didn’t support continued development of ozarelix.
Spectrum received a license from Aeterna Zentaris to develop and market ozarelix in 2004.
The company makes drugs for bone cancer and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a form of blood cancer.
Spectrum has yearly sales of about $40 million and a recent market value of $220 million.
