Verastem Agrees to Sell Duvelisib Rights to Secura Bio
Current TAP Partner
BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 10, 2020-- Verastem, Inc. (Nasdaq:VSTM) (also known as Verastem Oncology), a biopharmaceutical company committed to advancing new medicines for patients battling cancer, announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its global commercial and development rights to COPIKTRA (duvelisib), its marketed oral inhibitor of phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K), and the first FDA-approved dual inhibitor of PI3K-delta and PI3K-gamma, to Secura Bio, Inc., an integrated biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the worldwide commercialization of significant oncology therapies.
Verastem will receive an up-front payment of $70 million upon the closing of the transaction and is eligible to receive up to a total deal value of $311 million if certain regulatory and sales-based milestones are successfully met by Secura Bio and COPIKTRA’s other rest-of-world partners.
In November 2018, Verastem Oncology’s duvelisib was selected for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Therapy Acceleration Program® (TAP) which provides additional resources to support the development of therapies for patients with blood cancers. The Company will use the funds to conduct certain translational and clinical activities relating to the development of duvelisib for the treatment of PTCL. LLS and Verastem Oncology will share the cost of the development program, portions of which will be conducted in collaboration with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, The Washington University in St. Louis and Stanford University.