BTG acquires US rights to Wellstat's investigational drug uridine triacetate

UK specialist health care company BTG (LSE: BGC) has acquired US commercial rights to US privately-held Wellstat Therapeutics’s product candidate uridine triacetate for use as a treatment for accidental overexposure to the chemotherapeutic 5-fluorouracil (5-FU).

Under the terms of the deal, BTG will have exclusive rights to market, sell and distribute uridine triacetate for this indication in the USA for up to 10 years from marketing approval. Wellstat will be responsible for completing development and regulatory filings and for product manufacture. BTG will pay Wellstat an upfront fee of $7.5 million as well as milestone payments on the acceptance of a New Drug Application and approval and transfer pricing payments based on manufacturing costs and a significant percentage of net sales.

5-FU is a commonly used first-line or adjunctive treatment for colorectal, breast, head and neck tumors. According to the National Institutes of Health Federal Register, some 275,000 US patients receive 5-FU therapy annually of whom around 8,000 will experience a dangerous toxic reaction, which causes the death of around 1300 patients each year. Systemic overexposure of 5-FU can result from impaired clearance, usually caused by a genetic deficiency of an enzyme called DPD, or from medication errors. Uridine triacetate reduces the incorporation of toxic 5-FU metabolites into non-cancerous cells.