Four months after filing for bankruptcy, Clovis Oncology has found a buyer for its remaining assets including the rights to ovarian cancer drug Rubraca.
Pharma& Schweiz GmbH of Switzerland submitted the highest bid at an auction on March 30, Clovis said (PDF) in an SEC filing. The agreement is for $70 million up front, plus an additional $50 million tied to regulatory milestones and $15 million in sales-related milestones.
If the purchase agreement is not consummated, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories of India has been identified as a “back-up bidder,” the filing says.
In December, when Clovis filed for bankruptcy, it also revealed as part of the procedure that it was selling a cancer candidate, FAP-2286, to Novartis for $50 million, with an additional $334 million due if milestones are hit and $297 million if sales goals are reached.
In its bankruptcy filing, Clovis said it had assets of $319 million compared to $754 million in debt. The company secured a $75 million loan to fund its operations during the procedure.
Commercial challenges with Rubraca, which was approved in 2016, had much to do with the failure of the 14-year-old company. Sales of Rubraca peaked in 2020 at $164 million. The pandemic reduced the number of women diagnosed with ovarian cancer, the company said.
And in June of last year, Clovis pulled its approval in BRCA-mutated ovarian cancer after at least two prior chemotherapies. The move came after the FDA said patient survival trends in a phase 3 trial suggested Rubraca may pose potential harm for ovarian cancer patients in certain subgroups.
Rubraca is in the PARP inhibitor class of cancer drugs, which have recently come under scrutiny. AstraZeneca and Merck's Lynparza and GSK’s Zejula are also PARP inhibitors that have received increased attention.