Bayer is beefing up its cancer drug pipeline again. The German pharma company has bought in to an androgen receptor inhibitor therapy being developed at Finland's Orion, paying €50 million ($68.04 million) in an upfront payment and committing itself to a slate of unspecified milestones. The two companies are prepping for a jointly funded Phase III study scheduled to launch later in the year.
Bayer has been an aggressive player in the oncology field, most recently buying out its research partner Algeta in Norway. In this deal with Orion, it's getting global rights to an oral drug--ODM-201--that may be able to complement its drug Xofigo. Orion is hanging on to co-promotion rights in Europe.
Johnson & Johnson's ($JNJ) Zytiga and Medivation's ($MDVN) Xtandi have been revolutionizing the treatment of castration-resistant prostate cancer. J&J recently bought out Aragon in a $1 billion deal to get its hands on another androgen blocker that is now pointed toward late-stage development.
In a Phase II study, Orion reported that their drug knocked down PSA levels--a key biomarker for prostate cancer--by more than 50% among the 124 men enrolled in the study. And Bayer clearly sees this as a potentially important new addition to the drug regimens in development for the disease.
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| Bayer's Joerg Moeller |
"We see in ODM-201 a potential new treatment for patients with high risk non-metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer and are looking forward to developing this promising compound," said Dr. Joerg Moeller, who heads up global development at Bayer. "Bayer's oncology portfolio currently includes Xofigo which has been shown to prolong life in patients with castrate resistant prostate cancer with symptomatic bone metastases, and no known visceral metastases. From a clinical perspective, ODM-201 has the potential to complement our portfolio in prostate cancer and enables us to deliver new treatment options for patients who desperately need them."
- here's the release