Dive Brief:
- For the second time this week, Daiichi Sankyo Co., Ltd. is ending a long-standing collaboration and handing back the rights to a drug.
- The Japanese pharma said Thursday that it is ending a 2014 development and commercialization agreement with Charleston Laboratories. Daiichi originally paid $200 million upfront and agreed to another $450 million in potential milestones.
- Daiichi is handing back the rights to Charleston’s hydrocodone products, including CL-108 (hydrocodone/acetaminophen/promethazine).
Dive Insight:
Daiichi is abandoning a treatment for acute pain and opioid-induced nausea and vomiting after conducting a review of its U.S. portfolio.
Its choice to leave the collaboration with Charleston will cost the company approximately 27.8 billion yen ($250 million) in impairment charges that will be recognized during the second quarter.
"During a recent portfolio and U.S. market review, Daiichi Sankyo made the strategic decision to refocus our commercial efforts on our current product line in the U.S. pain franchise as well as other molecules in our pipeline," said Ken Keller, president of administrative and commercial at Daiichi Sankyo, Inc., a U.S. subsidiary of the Japanese firm.
The decision comes just days after Daiichi announced it was handing over the rights to preclinical cancer candidate DS-5010 to Boston Pharmaceuticals.
The Japanese pharma has been trying to shift its business, and become a global oncology company.
Earlier this week, Daiichi announced it would be testing DS-8201 with Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.’s blockbuster PD-1 inhibitor Opdivo (nivolumab) in patients with breast and bladder cancer. The trial will begin in the first quarter of 2018.
The company has also been reviewing its R&D efforts and refining its manufacturing structure to better fit its new focus. This included the closure of a plant in India, as well as the shuttering of a Japanese plant used for immunology and neurology research. Daiichi also committed about $135 million to expand its manufacturing capabilities around antibody drug conjugates (ADCs).