ArQule Snags $60M From Daiichi Sankyo

ArQule, a Woburn, MA-based cancer drug developer, said today it will receive a $60 million payment through a partnership with Tokyo-based Daiichi Sankyo. The companies will co-develop ARQ-197, a drug designed to block a target on cancer cells called c-Met. Separately, ArQule (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ARQL]]) said Swiss pharma giant Roche declined an option to develop another drug, called ARQ-761.

Author: Luke Timmerman

Luke is an award-winning journalist specializing in life sciences. He has served as national biotechnology editor for Xconomy and national biotechnology reporter for Bloomberg News. Luke got started covering life sciences at The Seattle Times, where he was the lead reporter on an investigation of doctors who leaked confidential information about clinical trials to investors. The story won the Scripps Howard National Journalism Award and several other national prizes. Luke holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and during the 2005-2006 academic year, he was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT.