Milestone payment for Ardea from Bayer, which executes license with Dyax

31 May 2012

USA-based Ardea Biosciences (Nasdaq: RDEA), which is currently the subject of a $1.26 billion takeover by AstraZeneca (The Pharma Letter April 23), said yesterday that it has earned a $7.5 million milestone from German drug major Bayer (BAYN: DE) under the terms of their April 2009 global license agreement to develop and commercialize Ardea's mitogen-activated ERK kinase (MEK) inhibitor compounds for cancer and other indications.

The milestone was triggered by the initiation of the Phase II part of a previously reported Phase I/II clinical study evaluating the investigational agent BAY 86-9766 in combination with gemcitabine for the treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer.

The terms of the deal between Ardea and Bayer provide for up to $407 million in payments to the US firm, which has already received previous milestones that, excluding the latest, have reached $50 million.

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