Pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences has purchased a voucher for accelerated review of a drug of the company's choice from Canadian pharmaceutical company Knight Therapeutics for $125 million, according to a report from NPR.
The voucher guarantees review of a chosen Gilead drug four months faster than normal FDA approval.
These priority vouchers date back to 2007, when they were created to help incentivize companies to develop drugs for tropical diseases for which pharmaceutical research and development had stagnated. A faster review could potentially be profitable for pharmaceutical companies, according to the report.
This is not the first accelerated review-voucher that has changed hands. Earlier this year, company BioMarin sold a voucher it received for developing a drug for Morquio A syndrome for $67.5 million.
Knight acquired their voucher in March 2014 when the FDA approved their drug Impavido, which treats leishmaniasis, commonly found in tropical areas.
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