Threshold lands $25M upfront, possible $525M more, in cancer drug deal

Threshold Pharmaceuticals Inc. landed a $25 million upfront payment — with the potential of $525 million more in milestone payments — after inking a co-development and commercialization deal with Merck KGaA around an experimental cancer-fighting drug.
Threshold’s TH-302 is in a Phase III trial of patients with soft tissue sarcoma and a Phase II trial of patients with advanced pancreatic cancer.
The drug targets oxygen-deprived regions of tumors — so-called “hypoxic domains” — that are tough for drugs to reach effectively without serious side effects. Those regions are more prevalent in fast-growing and aggressive cancers like pancreatic tumors and sarcomas.