Onyx licenses to Ono Japanese rights to cancer drug

* Japan rights go for $59 mln upfront, total exceeds $300 mln

* Onyx to retain rights outside of Japan

By Deena Beasley

LOS ANGELES, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc (ONXX.O) has sold the Japanese marketing rights for its experimental multiple myeloma drug and a related compound to Ono Pharmaceutical Inc (4528.OS) in a deal valued at more than $300 million, plus potential royalties.

The licensing agreement, which has an upfront payment of about $59 million, covers carfilzomib, which Onyx expects will soon be reviewed by U.S. regulators as a treatment for multiple myeloma, and a related drug called ONX0912.

Ono has exclusive rights to develop and commercialize both compounds for all oncology indications in Japan, while Onyx retains commercialization rights in all other regions of the world, the U.S. company said on Wednesday.

Onyx Chief Executive Officer Tony Coles said the company expects to keep rights to the drugs in the United States and Europe, but retains the flexibility to carry out licensing deals in other parts of Asia and the world.

"We like the access this provides for us in Japan," he told Reuters in a telephone interview.

In July, Onyx unveiled data in which nearly a quarter of extremely ill multiple myeloma patients who were no longer being helped by current medicines responded to carfilzomib -- a far higher rate than would have been expected.

ONX0912, an oral drug with the same mechanism of action as carfilzomib, which is given intravenously, is currently in Phase 1 testing.

Onyx said it expects to submit a new drug application for carfilzomib to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration by year-end, with a request for six-month accelerated approval.

(Reporting by Deena Beasley; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)