Eisai Gives Dacogen Rights to Otsuka

Japanese drugmaker Eisai’s U.S. subsidiary is selling and assigning its U.S., Canadian and Japanese development and marketing rights to Dacogen to Otsuka Pharmaceuticals. The deal includes the rights to a patent for the metabolic enzyme inhibitor E7727.

Eisai will retain its rights to the drug in Mexico, where it is currently under regulatory review, spokeswoman Suzanne Grogan told Drug Daily Bulletin.

Dacogen (decitabine) is an injected DNA methylation inhibitor originally developed by Otsuka’s U.S. subsidiary, Astex Pharmaceuticals. The drug was approved by the FDA to treat myelodysplastic syndromes, including previously treated and de novo and secondary MDS of all French, American and British hematological subtypes, and for intermediate-1, -2 and high-risk International Prognostic Scoring System groups. In the EU, the drug is marketed by Janssen Pharmaceuticals for acute myeloid leukemia.

The deal with Otsuka will allow Eisai to reallocate funding and resources currently devoted to the drug in the U.S., Canada and Japan.

Dacogen reaped about $93 million in the U.S. in the first half of its 2013 fiscal year, which ended in March. — Lena Freund

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