QLT Inc expects to strike at least one licensing deal over the next year to add to the Canadian biotech company's growing portfolio of eye-care products. With about $190 million in cash to spend, QLT has its sights set on treatments for glaucoma, a market estimated in the United States to be worth about $2 billion a year. Other areas could include treatments for dry-eye and retina diseases.
The Vancouver, British Columbia-based company has built up a war chest recently as it jettisoned non-core assets to return to its core business of eye-care products. It has unloaded a number of assets, including its US operations and its Eligard prostate cancer treatment, sold an acne treatment and divested its Vancouver headquarters for a total of more than $300 million. It also restructured the US marketing deal for its Visudyne anti-blindness treatment. Part of the money was used to pay off debt as well as buy back a large chunk of its outstanding shares.
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