Mer­ck scoops up a PhII J&J dis­card in a bar­gain-base­ment deal. And this time they’re shoot­ing at NASH

When J&J turned to South Ko­rea’s Han­mi for a GLP-1/glucagon dual re­cep­tor ag­o­nist obe­si­ty drug, the phar­ma gi­ant paid $105 mil­lion in a cash up­front for the li­cens­ing rights and plot­ted a big clin­i­cal tri­al pro­gram to test it. A year ago, like a few of Han­mi’s big part­ners, J&J re­viewed their tri­al da­ta and walked away, hand­ing it back.

Now Mer­ck is step­ping up to grab it for their NASH pipeline — and they got it a lot cheap­er than J&J.

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