On Dec. 29, 1999, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Bexarotene (Targretin) to treat cutaneous T-cell lymphoma—a rare disorder of the immune system where T-cells, a type of white blood cell that fights infections and other diseases, become cancerous and affect the skin and blood.

Bexarotene was developed by the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) and the La Jolla Cancer Research Foundation (now the Sanford-Burnham Research Institute), and licensed to Ligand Pharmaceuticals located in San Diego.

Bexarotene was subsequently licensed worldwide rights to a Japanese pharmaceutical company, Eisai, in 1999. It is now marketed in the U.S. by the Canadian pharmaceutical company, Valeant, which acquired rights to the drug from Eisai in 2013. Eisai continues to market the drug in other countries.