Bayer settles with Onyx over Nexavar and regorafenib with $160 million payment

US drugmaker Onyx Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: ONXX) and German pharma major Bayer HealthCare, a unit of Bayer AG (BAY: DE), have resolved a long-running argument and have restructured their partnership for the global development and marketing of their liver and kidney cancer drug Nexavar (sorafenib) and entered into a new agreement related to regorafenib, a late-stage oncology compound. The news pushed Onyx’ shares 6.6% higher to $34 in pre-market trading yesterday.

Under the terms of the accord, regorafenib is a Bayer compound, and Bayer will have the final decision-making authority for global development and commercialization. Onyx will receive a royalty on any future global net sales of regorafenib in oncology. In addition, Bayer will contract the Onyx sales force to promote regorafenib, along with Bayer sales representatives, in the USA.

Earlier this year, US subsidiary Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals announced that its investigational compound regorafenib (BAY 73-4506) has been granted Fast Track designation by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of patients with metastatic and/or unresectable gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) whose disease has progressed despite at least imatinib and sunitinib as prior treatments (The Pharma Letter May 11).