Shire, through its Baxalta subsidiary, has returned the worldwide rights for the development and commercialization of the blood-cancer therapeutic, pacritinib, to CTI BioPharma, a Seattle, Washington-based biopharmaceutical company. Baxalta will pay CTI BioPharma a one-time cash payment of approximately $10.3 million as reimbursement for certain expenses incurred or to be incurred.

CTI BioPharma has agreed in exchange to provide a one-time payment of approximately $10.3 million to Baxalta upon the first regulatory approval or any pricing and reimbursement approvals of a product containing pacritinib. The one-time payment represents certain amounts paid by Baxalta for the benefit of the pacritinib program manufacturing efforts. CTI BioPharma has also agreed not to transfer, license, sublicense, or otherwise grant rights with respect to intellectual property of pacritinib unless the transferee/licensee/sublicensee agrees to be bound by the terms of the termination agreement between CTI BioPharma and Baxalta. CTI BioPharma has not acquired a trademark owned by Shire.

Pacritinib is an oral tyrosine kinase inhibitor that acts on Janus associated kinase 2 and FMS-like tyrosine kinase 3. It is in clinical development for treating myelofibrosis.

In June 2016, Baxalta became an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Shire, following Shire’s $32-billion acquisition of Baxalta.

Source: CTI Biopharma