Progenics regains rights from licensees of MNTX, sells rights to Wyeth

By E. Janene Geiss

Philadelphia, Dec. 23 - Progenics Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced Friday that it has regained a substantial portion of the royalty and milestone rights for its lead investigational drug, methylnaltrexone (MNTX).

In a separate announcement, Progenics then said it was giving Wyeth worldwide rights to MNTX with Progenics retaining an option to co-promote the product in the United States as part of an exclusive, worldwide agreement for the joint development and commercialization of MNTX.

Progenics and Wyeth will collaborate on development of the drug for the treatment of opioid-induced side effects, including constipation and post-operative bowel dysfunction.

The transaction with Wyeth includes an upfront payment of $60 million to Progenics with as much as an additional $356.5 million payable upon achievement of certain milestones, according to a news release.

Wyeth also will pay Progenics royalties on worldwide sales of MNTX and co-promotion fees within the United States. Wyeth also is responsible for all future development and commercialization costs, officials said.

Before it could enter the deal with Wyeth, Progenics had to extinguish the company's obligations to rights on the MNTX patent portfolio that were licensed for future royalties in October 2001.

In exchange for terminating their rights, the licensors received a total of 686,000 shares of Progenics' common stock and $2.6 million in cash, officials said.

The licensors have been granted registration rights for the resale of a majority of the Progenics shares they received, officials said.

Progenics said it plans to file a secondary shelf registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission covering the resale of these shares.

A majority of the shares covered by the statement will be freely tradable once it becomes effective; the remaining shares are subject to escrow and other restrictions that will expire between December 2006 and April 2007, officials said.

Progenics also said it plans to file a primary shelf registration statement with the SEC for the sale by Progenics of up to 4 million shares of common stock.

Progenics said it has no current intention to sell any of these shares.

Progenics is a Tarrytown, N.Y., biopharmaceutical company focusing on development and commercialization of therapeutic products to treat the debilitating conditions and life-threatening diseases, including HIV infection and cancer.

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