HQ Team
March 25, 2025: Merck & Co., Inc. has bought global rights for an experimental oral drug to treat heart diseases from China’s Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd. in a $2 billion deal.
The licensing agreement for the investigational drug HRS-5346 is scheduled to be completed by June this year, according to a Merck statement.
The drug, small molecule Lipoprotein(a), or Lp(a), inhibitor is currently in mid-stage trials in China. Lipoprotein(a), or Lp(a), is a type of lipoprotein that carries cholesterol, fats and proteins in the blood. It is produced in the liver.
Lp(a) can accumulate in blood vessel walls, forming atherosclerotic plaques similar to LDL cholesterol.
Risk factor
These plaques can limit blood flow to vital organs and result in conditions such as heart attack, stroke and other cardiovascular diseases. Elevated Lp(a) is a genetically determined condition and an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Approximately 1.4 billion people worldwide have elevated levels of Lp(a).
“Elevated blood concentrations of Lp(a) provide a well-documented risk factor for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, affecting as many as 1 in 5 adults globally,” said Dr Dean Y. Li, President of Merck Research Laboratories.
“HRS-5346, an investigational oral small molecule inhibitor of Lp(a) formation, is an important addition that expands and complements our cardio-metabolic pipeline.”
Merck got the rights to exclusively develop, manufacture and commercialize HRS-5346 worldwide, excluding the Greater China region.
$200 million upfront
Hengrui Pharma will receive an upfront payment of $200 million and is eligible to receive milestone payments associated with certain development, regulatory and commercial milestones up to $1.77 billion, as well as royalties on net sales of HRS-5346, if approved, according to the statement.
“We believe Merck’s clinical expertise and global scale will help accelerate the development of HRS-5346 and potentially provide more patients with an additional option to reduce their risk of atherosclerosis,” said Dr Frank Jiang, Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer of Hengrui Pharma.
Merck expects to record a pre-tax charge of $200 million, or approximately $0.06 per share, to be included in GAAP and non-GAAP results in the quarter the transaction closes.
Oncology, metabolic diseases
Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals’s therapeutic areas of focus include oncology, metabolic and cardiovascular diseases, immunological and respiratory diseases, and neuroscience.
So far, Hengrui has commercialised 19 new molecular entity drugs and four other innovative drugs in China.
Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death globally, taking an estimated 17.9 million lives each year.
These diseases are a group of disorders of the heart and blood vessels and include coronary heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, rheumatic heart disease and other conditions.
More than four out of five CVD deaths are due to heart attacks and strokes, and one-third of these deaths occur prematurely in people under 70 years of age, according to the World Health Organization.
