Blockbuster drugs face patent cliff, and this multinational pharmaceutical company is accelerating acquisitions

[Pharmaceutical News] Recently, Merck and Orion announced that they have reached a global research and development cooperation agreement to jointly develop Orion's investigational therapy ODM-208 and other drugs targeting cytochrome P450 11A1 (CYP11A1), which is a steroid synthes.
important enzymes in the proce.
It is understood that ODM-208 is a CYP11A1-specific oral non-steroidal inhibitor discovered and developed by Orion for the treatment of hormone-dependent cancers, such as prostate canc.
It is currently in Phase 2 clinical trials for the treatment of metastatic castration-resistant prostate canc.
Globally, prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in men, with an estimated 4 million diagnosed in 202Approximately 10-20% of advanced prostate cancers transform into castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) within 5 yea.
In order to expand the R&D pipeline, Merck has always been willing to "spend mone.
As early as 1992, Merck's R&D investment exceeded 1 billion US dollars, and by 2017, the company's R&D investment reached 12 billion US dollars, an increase of almost 10 tim.
In recent years, in order to further enrich the product pipeline, in addition to continuing to increase investment in independent innovation, the R&D cooperation initiated by it is also increasi.
On May 16, 2022, Kelun Pharmaceuticals announced that its holding subsidiary Kelun Biotech signed an amendment to the license agreement with Merck & .
The paid exclusive license for Project A is for Merck to conduct commercial development outside of Greater China (including Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwa.
In April 2021, Ningbo Minohua Pharmaceutical announced that it had signed a ten-year strategic cooperation agreement with Interwell, a subsidiary of Merck, and the two parties decided to jointly establish a long-term and stable business in the fields of pet medicine, veterinary medicine and animal health ca.
Custom R&D Manufacturing (CDMO) partnersh.
The two parties have identified nine products as the first batch of cooperative varieties, and Merck will pay the research and development expenses and provide corresponding production and operation capital suppo.
In December 2020, Merck and Janux Therapeutics entered into a strategic collaboration potentially worth over $1 billion to develop next-generation T-cell engager (TCE) immunotherapies for the treatment of canc.
In the same year, Merck also cooperated with Seagen to jointly develop the LIV-1 ADC drug ladiratuzumab vedotin, and conducted clinical studies on the combination of the drug and Keytruda (Merck's PD-1 inhibito.
Based on this cooperation, Merck will pay Seagen a $600 million advance payment and a milestone payment of up to $6 billion, and will make an equity investment of $1 billion in Seag.

For the continuous acquisitions and cooperation initiated by Merck, the industry believes that it may be It is due to the fact that it is seeking performance growth points other than K dru.
After all, some analysts say that K drugs, which account for nearly half of Merck's revenue, will face the risk of key patents expiring in 202It is understood that Merck's 2021 financial report shows that the annual sales of 4704 billion US dollars, the pharmaceutical business income of 4753 billion US dollars, of which K drug (Keytruda) sales reached 1186 billion US dollars, accounting for 42% of the total pharmaceutical business reven.
The Evaluate Pharma analysis report once pointed out that K drug is expected to replace AbbVie's Humira in 2023, and is expected to reach global sales of $232 billion in 202
However, although the K drug market is still growing, and it has won the first-line treatment for more than ten tumor indications such as non-small cell lung cancer, esophageal cancer, cervical cancer, head and neck squamous cell cancer, and colorectal cancer, it can be Nor is it "invulnerabl.
Fierce Pharma previously released a list of blockbuster patented drugs whose patents will expire within 10 years, and K drug is on the li.
The list shows that some key patents of K medicine will expire in 2028, and many pharmaceutical companies are currently developing biosimilars of Keytru.
Therefore, it is conceivable that Merck will accelerate the development and acquisition of potential new drugs for the upcoming patent cliff of K drug and for better development in the futu.
In fact, judging from Merck's mergers and acquisitions activities in recent years, the company is indeed continuing to look for momentum other than K dru.
It is worth mentioning that, not long ago, there was news that Merck wanted to acquire Seagen, an ADC (antibody conjugated drug) company, which is a leading company in the field of global ADC drug research and developme.
According to public information, Seagen was established in 1998, formerly known as Seattle Gene, and built a patented ADC technology platform many years a.
From 2002 to 2010, Seagen obtained revenue by licensing ADC technology to large overseas pharmaceutical compani.
In 2011, its ADC drug Adcetris was approved for marketi.
Up to now, Seagen has 4 new ADC drugs approved for marketing, and a number of new ADC drugs are under developme.
Disclaimer: Under no circumstances does the information or opinions expressed in this article constitute investment advice to anyo.