After laying off most of its staff in recent years and suffering an FDA rejection, Spectrum Pharmaceuticals is cashing out.
In an agreement unveiled Tuesday, another drugmaker, Assertio Holdings, said it's taking over all outstanding Spectrum shares in an all-stock and contingent value rights deal.
Spectrum shareholders will receive 1.1783 shares of Assertio stock for each share of Spectrum stock they own, the companies said. The deal is worth approximately $248 million.
Spectrum’s investors will also be eligible for a payout of up to $43 million if Spectrum's only approved drug, Rolvedon, hits certain sales milestones.
Boston-based Spectrum has been through significant turmoil in recent years. In 2018, Bloomberg reported that the company was weighing a potential sale worth $2 billion or more. The next year, the company sold its portfolio of seven marketed products to Acrotech, an Aurobindo subsidiary.
After that deal, Spectrum cut staffers to “right-size" its operations, then-CEO Joe Turgeon said in a statement at the time.
Since then, the company brought a new product to market with Rolvedon, which scored FDA approval in September 2022. The injection won an approval to lower the chance of febrile neutropenia-related infection in adults with non-myeloid malignancies who are on myelosuppressive cancer drugs.
The approval marked Spectrum’s “transformation to a commercial-stage company,” CEO Tom Riga said in a statement at the time.
Spectrum is “excited to combine with Assertio,” Riga said in a new statement. “Our mission at Spectrum has always been to make a difference in the lives of patients and with Assertio, we have a partner that will enable us to deliver on this promise.”
After the Rolvedon approval, Spectrum suffered an FDA rejection for its lung cancer prospect poziotinib and laid off more staffers. The company ended 2022 with a team of fewer than 40 sales employees. At the end of 2021, the company employed 164 people.
Assertio intends to keep the majority of Spectrum’s commercial team and infrastructure and bolster the firm with approximately $60 million in annual operating costs. The transaction is expected to close during this year’s third quarter.
For its part, Assertio rebranded itself from its past as Depomed in 2018. The company wanted to step away from its opioid-related past shortly after dumping its opioid franchise Nucynta and catching heat in a 2017 Senate probe related to opioid marketing.