Lupus drug collaboration terminated at no expense to either company.
Genelabs Technologies regained full development and licensing rights in Japan for its investigational lupus drug Prestara™ (GL701), under the terms of a termination agreement between the company and Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma. In October, Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma was formed by the merger of Tanabe Seiyaku and Mitsubishi Pharma.
Genelabs and Tanabe Seiyaku signed a collaboration and license agreement in January 2004. The agreement provided that Tanabe was responsible for conducting all development work and obtaining regulatory approval for Prestara in Japan.
Under the terms of the agreement, Genelabs received an initial $2 million nonrefundable license fee. No milestone payments were ever made. Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma continues to own common stock in Genelabs, which were purchased for $2.6 million in connection with the collaboration and license agreement.
