Windfall for cancer fight

AN Australian research institute has scored a $400 million royalties windfall for its groundbreaking anti-cancer medicine.

The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research has partially sold the royalty rights to venetoclax, a treatment that inhibits a protein that makes cancer cells in chronic lymphocytic leukaemia patients resistant to other therapies.

The royalties deal with a Canadian organisation includes an upfront $US250 million cash payment and a potential milestone payment of $US75 million.