A unit of Johnson & Johnson has inked an $80 million licensing pact for MGI Pharma's Dacogen, which was approved by the FDA last May for patients with myelodysplastic syndromes. MGI will split a $10 million up-front fee from Cilag with SuperGen, which developed the therapy and sold the rights to MGI in 2004. Milestone payments of up to $47 million will also be split and MGI will get $25 million in research money over the next three years. Cilag in turn gets development and marketing rights outside of North America. Dacogen is the subject of several mid- and late-stage trials in the U.S. and Europe for different types of leukemia.

- read the AP report [1] on the development pact