UPDATE 2-France's NicOx to buy back eye drug rights from Pfizer

* Regains rights to PF-03187207 glaucoma drug candidate

* Gets access to certain Pfizer data on eye drug Xalatan

* Open to finding new partner for PF-03187207

* Shares rise as much as 6.7 percent shortly after open

(Adds share reaction, analyst, details)

PARIS, Aug 6 (Reuters) - French biotech firm NicOx (NCOX.PA) will buy back the rights to develop and market a drug that seeks to treat eye disease glaucoma from U.S. drugmaker Pfizer (PFE.N) and said it was open to finding another partner.

Last year, Pfizer decided not to take PF-03187207 into final Phase III clinical trials after a mid-stage study failed to meet its main goal, denting NicOx shares. NicOx had been working on developing eye drugs with Pfizer for over four years.

Shares in NicOx, which did not disclose the financial details of the deal, rose as much as 6.7 percent shortly after the stock market opened on Thursday. They added 4.8 percent to reach 9.94 euros by 0731 GMT, giving NicOx a value of 425 million euros.

Some analysts said the agreement was to be expected, with one Paris-based analyst calling NicOx shares "volatile".

"NicOx did not have much choice other than taking back the product," one Paris-based analyst, who declined to be identified, said. "It will not have cost them much and they could find a partner."

As well as PF-03187207, which has completed two mid-stage tests in patients with primary open-angle glaucoma and ocular hypertension, NicOx has won access to data on Pfizer's eye drug Xalatan. Pfizer said the research and development programme was no longer core to its strategy.

In addition, NicOx will regain rights to several new nitric oxide-donating compounds seeking to treat diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma, eye diseases which can cause blindness.

"We will evaluate opportunities for advancing PF-03187207 into Phase III (clinical trials), including possible third-party partnerships," Gavin Spencer, NicOx's vice president of business development, said in a statement on Thursday.

Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases which can lead to the loss of peripheral vision and eventually total blindness. Diabetic retinopathy represents the most common cause of blindness among adults.

NicOx is also looking for a partner to help it market its experimental anti-inflammatory drug naproxcinod in the United States but the biotech firm said in June completion of such talks could face a delay [ID:nLI706981].

(Reporting by Caroline Jacobs; additional reporting by Noelle Mennella; editing by John Stonestreet and Lin Noueihed)