Spectrum Pharma to acquire non-US rights to market Zevalin

USA-based Spectrum Pharmaceuticals (NasdaqGS: SPPI) says it has entered into an agreement to acquire licensing rights to market Zevalin (ibritumomab tiuxetan) injection for intravenous use outside of the USA from Bayer Healthcare, a unit of Germany’s Bayer AG (BAY: DE). Financial terms of the transaction were not revealed.

Bayer has been marketing Zevalin outside the USA and it has previously been suggested that the German firm might try to acquire Spectrum in order to gain control of the drug worldwide. The drug was approved in Europe as a first-line consolidation therapy in April 2008.

Zevalin is currently approved in more than 40 countries outside the USA for the treatment of follicular B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, including countries in Europe, Latin America and Asia. Under the accord, Spectrum will have all rights related to marketing, sales, and patents, and access to existing inventory of Zevalin from Bayer. Spectrum will utilize a combination of company resources and partnerships to support the product outside the USA.