Palm Beach. FL 1/18/12 (StreetBeat) -- Xoma Corp. (Nasdaq: XOMA) bought the U.S. rights to the hypertension drug Aceon — sold as a low-cost generic since 2009 — and up to three late-stage drug candidates that combine Aceon with other active ingredients, the Berkeley company said Tuesday.Xoma paid $1.5 million upfront in third-quarter 2010 to acquire the license from French drug maker Les Laboratoires Servier, it said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Tuesday.
Xoma and Servier last year inked a licensing deal around Xoma’s gevokizumab, or XOMA-052. Gevokizumab failed as a diabetes treatment in a mid-stage trial two months after the Servier deal was signed, and Xoma now is studying it as an acne treatment and for the non-infectious form of the eye disease uveitis.
Servier, which does not market its drugs in the United States, previously licensed Aceon to Abbott Laboratories. Also known as perindopril erbumine, Aceon had U.S. sales of $2.8 million last year.
Xoma doesn’t intend to actively market Aceon, but it can deliver the drug to patients, said CEO John Varian.
Xoma said in the SEC filing Tuesday that it made the $1.5 million payment to Servier in third-quarter 2010, but the deal was effective Jan. 11. The company did not explain the 16-month lag between the payment and the effective date of the deal.
Xoma will pay a royalty to Servier until July 2018 that could range from a mid-single digit to up to the mid-teens percentage rate, based on sales.
The first fixed-dose combination product involved in the deal blends perindopril with amlodipine, a calcium channel blocker, Xoma said. Privately held Servier agreed to partially fund development of that drug, but Xoma didn't say to what extent.
The deal can be terminated if Xoma doesn't win Food and Drug Administration approval for the perindopril-amlodipine combination by the end of 2013.
Xoma has options on two additional combo drugs. Patent protection on the combo products runs until 2023, Xoma said.
Servier also can sever the deal if Xoma's commercialization strategy for Aceon isn't successful or, in the case of the fixed-dose combinations, if Xoma breaches obligations to unidentified service providers, according to the SEC document.
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