Pharmacyclics Inc. said it will receive a payment of $50 million from Johnson & Johnson for the continuing development of a lymphoma drug.
Pharmacyclics said the payment was triggered when the fifth patient was enrolled in a mid-stage trial of ibrutinib as a treatment for mantle cell lymphoma. The companies are testing the drug in patients whose disease has not been helped by other treatments, or who have relapsed after other therapies.
Pharmacyclics has already received one $50 million payment from Janssen Biotech since December, when the companies began working together. They are also studying the drug as a treatment for chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and Pharmacyclics said it could get another $150 million as other trials get started and enroll their fifth patient.
Janssen and Pharmacyclics are developing ibrutinib as a treatment for blood cancers. The companies hope to start late-stage trials in 2012. Johnson & Johnson agreed to pay Pharmacyclics $150 million at the beginning of the partnership, and if ibrutinib succeeds in clinical trials and wins marketing approving, Pharmacyclics could get as much as $975 million in total.
The companies also agreed to share profits on any sales of the drug.
Date: August 20, 2012
Source: Associated Press
Filed Under: Drug Discovery
