Dendreon Corporation (NASDAQ: DNDN) is supposed to be the king of prostate cancer with its PROVENGE treatment.  Unfortunately, PROVENGE sales ran slower than expected after the FDA took forever to approve it and after the Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements took a considerable time.

Now the company has news out that it has agreed to sell its royalty interest related to intellectual property licensed to Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE: MRK) associated with VICTRELIS under the Schering unit for $125 million in cash.

VICTRELIS is a treatment for chronic hepatitis C as a protease inhibitor. The press release noted that the royalty interest was acquired by CPPIB Credit Investments Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of CPP Investment Board (CPPIB).

The intellectual property related to VICTRELIS was co-developed by Corvas International, Inc. and Schering and, was acquired by Dendreon in July 2003.  The transaction is expected to close in December 2011.

The move is aimed at strengthening its cash position and to enable the company to further invest in its core business initiatives.

Dendreon shares are flat at $8.80 and its market cap is currently $1.3 billion.  To show how bad this one has been, Dendreon’s 52-week trading range is $6.46 to $43.96.

JON C. OGG

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