AVEO and Astellas finally terminate tivozanib collaboration

US biotech firm AVEO Oncology (Nasdaq: AVEO) and Japanese drug major Astellas Pharma (TYO: 4503) are to end their worldwide collaboration and license agreement for the development and commercialization of their investigational cancer drug tivozanib.

The decision, which comes as no surprise, follows a number of research and regulatory disappoints with tivozanib (The Pharma Letters passim), which has been developed under an agreement between Astellas and AVEO which could have been worth as much as $1.3 billion to the US firm. AVEO’s shares fell 2.9% to $1.75 in pre-market trading on February 14, while Astellas dipped 1.1% to 6,159 yen in Tokyo activity.

Tivozanib is an investigational tyrosine kinase inhibitor of all three vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) receptors. Astellas has exercised its right to terminate the agreement signed in 2011 for strategic reasons, based on the clinical status of the three indications studied. Additionally, the companies agreed to discontinue the ongoing Phase II BATON (Biomarker Assessment of Tivozanib in ONcology) study in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC). The drug has already been rejected as a treatment for kidney cancer last June because of inconsistent study results.