In another pipeline-building move, California's Onyx Pharmaceuticals has shelled out $320 million for BTG's preclinical anticancer compound, BGC 945. BTG gets $13 million up front and could receive development milestone payments of up to $72 million plus additional payments of up to $235 million for commercialization milestones. BTG will also receive a royalty on any future sales worldwide.
"Onyx has a strong track record in developing and commercialising novel cancer therapeutics, as evidenced by their success with Nexavar, and we see the company as an ideal partner to take BGC 945 forward," commented Louise Makin, BTG's CEO. "This agreement is in line with our strategy to realise value from our current pipeline as we focus new investments on acquiring and developing later-stage products." BTG recently purchased Protherics to form the UK's biggest biotech company.
Earlier this year Onyx was dealt a blow when its cancer drug Nexavar failed a clinical trial for non-small cell lung cancer. The drug is already approved for liver cancer.
- see BTG's release