QLT sees at least one deal next year

21 Dec, 2009

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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