Onyx Pharmaceuticals and Bayer Healthcare Restructure Global Oncology Partnership

Today Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Bayer HealthCare restructured their partnership for the global development and marketing of Nexavar® (sorafenib) tablets and entered into a new agreement related to regorafenib, a late-stage oncology compound.Under the terms of the agreements, regorafenib is a Bayer compound, and Bayer will have the final decision-making authority for global development and commercialization. Onyx will receive a royalty on any future global net sales of regorafenib in oncology. In addition, Bayer will contract the Onyx sales force to promote regorafenib, along with Bayer sales representatives, in the United States.The status of Nexavar under the revised Collaboration Agreement remains largely unchanged. Onyx and Bayer are free to use their respective Nexavar sales forces to promote regorafenib and additional products outside of the collaboration in the future. Bayer will purchase Onyx's royalty rights for sales of the product in Japan in exchange for a one-time payment to Onyx. Bayer will have no obligation to pay Nexavar royalties to Onyx on Japanese sales after December 31, 2011. Further, in the event of a change of control or acquisition of Onyx, the current profit-sharing, co-development and U.S. co-promotion of Nexavar will be preserved."These new agreements strengthen the collaboration and provide Onyx the opportunity to participate significantly in the market potential of regorafenib," said N. Anthony Coles, M.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Onyx Pharmaceuticals. "Together we are taking our collaboration to the next level by more effectively structuring our future working relationship. Onyx and Bayer are committed to benefitting patients worldwide and ensuring that the potential of both Nexavar and regorafenib is fully realized.""These agreements set the stage for the next chapter in our successful partnership," said Dr. Joerg Reinhardt, Chairman of the Bayer HealthCare Executive Committee. "Innovation is central to Bayer's mission 'Science for a Better Life,' and our ongoing collaboration with Onyx demonstrates the priority we place on working with partners to identify, develop and commercialize new medicines to meet unmet or under-served medical needs."These agreements also settle and dismiss all claims related to the complaint filed by Onyx against Bayer Corporation and Bayer A.G. in the U.S. District Court (Case No. CV09-2145 MHP).