Washington Editor

Corixa Corp. late Tuesday said it reacquired certain rights to a lung cancer vaccine program from partner Japan Tobacco Inc.

While Corixa did not release financial terms of the transaction, Steven Gillis, chairman and CEO of Seattle-based Corixa, told BioWorld Today the motivation behind Japan Tobacco's decision to drop the program is consistent with the restructuring and re-evaluation of its pharmaceutical aspirations.

"JT has gone through a bit of a retrenchment in that they have been exiting a number of their previously announced partnerships due to problems they have had within their own organization, and they've had kind of a shift in orientation as well," he said.

Indeed, just a few months ago, Japan Tobacco, of Tokyo, ended a deal with Cell Genesys Inc., of Foster City, Calif., to develop cancer vaccines in Cell Genesys' GVAX portfolio. (See BioWorld Today, Oct. 21, 2002.)

Regarding the Corixa situation, Japan Tobacco will retain some rights associated with commercialization of the collaboration's lead non-small-cell lung carcinoma vaccine candidate. The companies, along with partner, Zambon Group SpA of Milan, Italy, filed an investigational new drug application with the FDA in December. Gillis said clinical trials should begin "fairly soon."

Under the restructured arrangement, Japan Tobacco retains rights in Japan while Corixa retains all rights in North American and in territories not licensed to Zambon, which owns rights in Europe, the countries of the former Soviet Union, Argentina, Brazil and Colombia. Zambon and Corixa will share rights in China.

Corixa and Japan Tobacco will pay each other fees, and potentially milestones and royalties.

Gillis said that up to this point, the program had been fully funded by Zambon and Japan Tobacco. He wouldn't discuss the amounts of the milestones, but the company said in a prepared statement that Corixa received a $1 million payment from Zambon associated with the initial clinical testing of the non-small-cell lung cancer vaccine.

Corixa signed both partners in 1999. The Japan Tobacco deal was valued at $40 million, while the Zambon agreement was valued at $21.5 million. (See BioWorld Today, May 25, 1999, and June 17, 1999.)

But now, Corixa holds exclusive rights to all other antigens discovered in the lung cancer vaccine program previously held by Japan Tobacco.

The restructuring comes on the heels of Corixa's modified agreement with GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals, of Rixensart, Belgium (a subsidiary of London-based GlaxoSmithKline plc), regarding a cancer vaccine partnership. Corixa has regained rights to therapies for prostate and breast cancer via the 1997 deal, and has agreed to pay up to $32 million for proof-of-principle trials. On completion, GSK will have the option of determining whether it wants to buy back the worldwide exclusive licenses from Corixa. (See BioWorld Today, Jan. 31, 2003.)

Thomas Dietz, an analyst with Pacific Growth Equities in San Francisco, said in a research note, "We believe visibility into the promise of Corixa's early antigen discovery work along with its platform adjuvant technology is emerging."

In other business, Corixa said the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) action date for Bexxar is May 2. (Federal law requires the FDA to act on a drug or biologics application on or before the PDUFA date, which varies in length of time, depending on the type of application.) The FDA's Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee in December recommended approval of Bexxar (tositumomab and iodine-131 tositumomab), as a radioimmunotherapy for the treatment of low-grade or transformed low-grade non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. (See BioWorld Today, Dec. 18, 2002.)

Corixa's stock (NASDAQ:CRXA) fell 2 cents Wednesday, to close at $5.46.