Merck & Co/S-P enter new LDL drug accord

Merck & Co has signed an agreement to commence development of a combination product of its drug ezetimibe together with Pfizer's mega-blockbuster cholesterol-lowerer Lipitor (atorvastatin), as part of a collaboration with fellow US drug major Schering-Plough. The development program is timed such that this combination product could be available when the main Lipitor patents expire which, in the USA, is expected to be in March 2010.

The enterprise will be managed by the joint venture that the companies formed in 2000 to develop and market new prescription medicines in cholesterol management and respiratory disease such as Zetia (ezetimibe) and Vytorin (ezetimibe/simvastatin). The cholesterol-management market is one of the largest worldwide, with total global sales of $32.0 billion, according to IMS Health, and US turnover of $22.0 billion in 2006.

The two companies unveiled their development plans, at a time when presentations at the American College of Cardiology meeting in New Orleans cast doubts about the future of a rival approach to cholesterol-reducing therapy, using compounds designed to boost the level of high-density lipoprotein, or good cholesterol. The most advanced of these cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CEPT) inhibitors, Pfizer's torcetrapib, was discontinued last year amid safety concerns but recent efficacy results presented at the ACC were disappointing anyway (see page 19).