Merck KGaA pays Rigel $3M for Japanese right to cancer drug

The USA's Rigel Pharmaceuticals says that Merck Serono, a division of Germany's Merck KGaA, has exercised its option to add the Japanese territory to its current Aurora kinase collaboration that includes the lead product, R763/AS703569. In exchange for these extended development and marketing rights, Rigel will receive a $3.0 million payment.

In October 2005, Sereono (which Merck later acquired) and Rigel entered into a worldwide collaboration, excluding Japan, to develop R763/AS703569 and other Aurora kinase inhibitors. As part of this agreement, Merck Serono had the right to add Japan to its territory.

R763/AS703569 is an oral, highly potent inhibitor of Aurora kinases and has exhibited anti-tumor activity against a broad range of cancer cell lines. To date, three Phase I clinical trials with R763/AS703569, sponsored by Merck Serono, have been initiated and are ongoing in patients with solid tumors and leukemia. The agent has been shown in vitro and in in vivo tumor xenograft models to potently inhibit proliferation and trigger apoptosis in several leukemia and tumor cell lines including the cervix, colon, lung, pancreas and prostate.