Enter Puma Biotech, which is paying a modest $7 million upfront for rights to alisertib (formerly MLN8237) and plans to run clinical trials of the compound in breast and lung cancers. Takeda is also in line for just over $287 million in potential milestone payments, plus royalties on net sales if it reaches the market.
Takeda had high hopes for alisertib – one of the top assets in its $8.8 billion buyout of Millennium Pharma way back in 2008 – but those were dashed in 2015 when the drug failed to move the needle in a trial involving patients with peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL).
