An exterior view of the entrance to Merck’s headquarters on February 05, 2024 in Rahway, New Jersey.
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Mark Wednesday said it has snapped up the rights to an experimental weight loss pill from Chinese drugmaker Hansoh Pharma in a deal worth up to $2 billion.
The oral drug has not yet entered human trials, and Merck did not specify in which diseases it plans to test the drug first. Still, it boosts the pharmaceutical company’s chances of winning a slice of the growing obesity drug market, which some analysts expect to be worth more than $100 billion a year by the early 2030s.
Including several other drug dealers Pfizer And Rocheis racing to develop a more convenient obesity pill that can compete with Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly’s blockbuster injections.
Under the terms of the agreement, Merck Hansoh Pharma will acquire an exclusive worldwide license to develop, manufacture and commercialize HS-10535, an experimental oral drug that targets a gut hormone called GLP-1. of Novo Nordisk The popular weight loss drug Wegovi and the diabetes treatment Ozempic similarly target GLP-1 to reduce appetite and regulate blood sugar.
According to a news release, Merck will pay Hansoh $112 million upfront for the rights to the drug, with the possibility of an additional $1.9 billion in milestone payments and sales royalties.
Merck said a pre-tax charge of $112 million, or 4 cents per share, will be included in fourth-quarter results.
In the release, Dean Lee, president of Merck Research Laboratories, said the oral drug “has the potential to provide additional cardiometabolic benefits beyond weight loss.”
Merck CEO Rob Davis said early last year that the company is seeking GLP-1 treatments with benefits beyond weight loss.
“I think everybody recognizes that weight management is difficult to get reimbursed. But if you can show cardiovascular outcomes, if you can show diabetes outcomes, for which you’re starting to see data, if you can see benefit in fatty liver disease. . .it’s a Areas where we think there are opportunities,” he said at a conference at the time.
This is the latest transaction involving an experimental GLP-1 drug from China. AstraZeneca Chinese company Eccogene licensed an experimental oral drug last year, which has since moved into mid-stage development.
