Staff Writer

After recently putting its land and corporate building up for sale, cash-strapped QLT Inc. said its subsidiary QLT USA Inc., has agreed to sell its acne gel Aczone to Allergan Sales LLC for $150 million.

The proceeds from that latest sale are expected to be passed onto shareholders, possibly as a dividend, buy-back or a combination of the two. Currently, QLT is facing a negative balance of $150 million, spokeswoman Therese Hayes told BioWorld Today.

The Vancouver, Canada-based company has set aside $120 million in restricted cash for litigation involving royalties on sales of Visudyne (Novartis AG), Hayes said. QLT is planning to appeal a court decision that would require the company to pay certain royalties on the product, she said.

In addition, Hayes said, QLT has another $125 million, but has convertible debt coming due in September that would put the company in the red.

Under the deal with Allergan, the company would get worldwide rights to Aczone, a prescription topical medicine approved in the U.S. and Canada for the treatment of acne vulgaris.

The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of this year. The transaction, which is subject to clearance under antitrust law, already has been approved by the board of directors of both companies.

Allergan said it expects to launch Aczone gel (5 percent dapsone) in the fourth quarter to dermatologists in the U.S. and Canada.

The planned sale of Aczone comes nearly three months after the FDA removed screening and monitoring requirements from Aczone labeling. Approved by the FDA in 2005, Aczone carried a label requiring that patients undergo screening for G6PD enzyme deficiency and regular blood monitoring for patients with the deficiency during Aczone treatment. But in March, QLT said the agency lifted those requirements based on a Phase IV clinical trial in 56 safety-evaluable G6PD-deficient patients.

No clinically meaningful changes in safety-related parameters were observed in the trial.

Earlier this month, Health Canada similarly removed the G6PD screening and monitoring requirements based on the post-market safety study.

Other assets that QLT has offered for sale include Eligard and the Atrigel drug delivery system.

In May, QLT agreed to sell the land and building comprising its corporate headquarters and an adjacent undeveloped parcel of land in Vancouver, British Columbia. The deal is expected to close by mid-August, QLT said.

QLT has been reeling and selling itself off since early this year after Visudyne (verteporfin) partner Novartis AG, of Basel, Switzerland, said that global sales fell about 40 percent in the fourth quarter to $45.5 million, and dropped almost the same percentage for the full year, to $214.9 million.

Shares in QLT (NASDAQ:QLTI) rose 13 cents Monday, to close at $3.93.