The $1B Mer­ck-Bay­er drug that di­vid­ed car­di­ol­o­gists in March gets pri­or­i­ty re­view

Three months af­ter Mer­ck pub­lished in the New Eng­land Jour­nal of Med­i­cine da­ta that left doc­tors and in­vestors di­vid­ed over just how well its ex­per­i­men­tal heart drug worked, the FDA has hand­ed that drug pri­or­i­ty re­view. A de­ci­sion is now due by Jan­u­ary 20, 2021.

Mer­ck first an­nounced the drug, known as veri­ciguat, as a Phase III suc­cess last No­vem­ber. In 2016, Mer­ck had paid $1 bil­lion up­front for US rights to the Bay­er-de­vel­oped drug. Ear­ly pro­jec­tions fore­saw a few hun­dred mil­lion a year in sales, but the un­spec­i­fied late-stage suc­cess raised the pos­si­bil­i­ty for far more. Af­ter all, No­var­tis’s flag­ship heart drug, En­tresto, was earn­ing $1.7 bil­lion per year and was ex­pect­ed to reach up to $4 bil­lion in an­nu­al sales.

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