Independent pharmaceutical company Specialised Therapeutics Asia (STA), headquartered in Singapore, has signed a new license deal, enabling it to provide a global advanced sarcoma therapy to patients in Australia, New Zealand and throughout SE Asia.

Under the terms of the agreement, STA will provide the marine-derived compound YONDELIS (trabectedin) to patients throughout Australia, New Zealand and in South East Asia under exclusive license from Spanish company PharmaMar.

YONDELIS – which has been shown to improve progression-free survival when used as second-line therapy for patients with unresectable or metastatic liposarcoma (LPS) or leiomyosarcoma (LMS)  – is already approved and has been available to patients in the United States since 2015, and in Europe since 2007.

Until now, it has not been available in Australia and New Zealand, although it is currently provided to patients in Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei via a previous pharmaceutical arrangement. Former product licensee Janssen will continue to distribute YONDELIS in Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei until marketing authorisation is formally transferred to STA.