Jazz rolls the dice on a bil­lion-dol­lar gam­ble on a new drug for SCLC — shoot­ing for a 2020 launch

Two days af­ter fil­ing their can­cer drug lur­binecte­din in the hunt for an FDA ap­proval, Spain’s Phar­ma­Mar has snagged $200 mil­lion in cash as a down pay­ment for a new pact with a US part­ner.

Jazz is hand­ing off the cash and promis­ing $800 mil­lion more in a bil­lion-dol­lar bet that the drug can carve a straight path from pos­i­tive Phase II da­ta right in­to the lu­cra­tive mar­ket for small cell lung can­cer — a tough field for drug hunters. Out of the $800 mil­lion, $250 mil­lion is re­served for reg­u­la­to­ry ap­provals as they steer the drug to a po­ten­tial 2020 launch.

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