Merck to pay Threshold up to $525 million for cancer drug development

German drugmaker  Merck KGaA heas entered into a deal with US-based Threshold Pharmaceuticals Inc over the weekend, under which it would  pay the US firm $525 million to for the right to jointly develop and sell its  Phase 3 cancer drug TH-302.

San Francisco-based Threshold is a biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of drugs targeting tumor hypoxia, the low oxygen condition found in microenvironments of most solid tumors as well as the bone marrows of patients with some hematologic malignancies.

TH-302 is currently undergoing a Phase III clinical trial in patients with soft tissue sarcoma, a rare group of tumors that develop in the soft, supporting tissues of the body.

The drug is also undergoing a randomized Phase II trial in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer, as well as clinical studies in other solid tumors and hematological malignancies, both companies said in a statement.

Threshold said that TH-302 has been investigated in over 550 patients in Phase I/II clinical trials to date in a broad spectrum of tumor types, both as a monotherapy and in combination with chemotherapy treatments and other targeted cancer drugs.

Threshold has several ongoing clinical trials including, but not limited to, a controlled Phase 2 trial of TH-302 in combination with gemcitabine versus gemcitabine alone in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer and a Phase 3 study evaluating TH-302 in combination with doxorubicin versus only doxorubicin in patients with soft tissue sarcoma.