LONDON, Aug 17 (APM) - Merck & Co is giving up on its marketed heart drug Zontivity, it has been announced.
The company hinted at the prospect of dropping Zontivity earlier this year, in its annual filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It disclosed its plans to stop marketing Zontivity as it announced it is cutting 148 sales and marketing jobs associated with the drug in a so-called WARN notice to the state of Pennsylvania.
Launched in the U.S. in May 2014, Zontivity (vorapaxar) is approved to prevent blood clots in patients with a history of heart attack. The company was understood to be planning to roll out the drug in certain European countries this year.
But if "efforts to build product awareness in the United States or the launches in Europe are not successful," Merck & Co said in the SEC filing, it might write off the drug.
According to the company, the drug has patent protection through to 2027 and would be eligible for an additional six months of paediatric exclusivity.
Merck & Co bought Zontivity in its 2009 buyout of Schering-Plough. It was a first-in-class PAR-1 drug designed to compete with warfarin in stroke patients, and analysts had forecast its sales could peak at $5 billion a year.
Its 2014 approval included a "black box" warning about bleeding risks. Since then, newer antiplatelets have been launched, including AstraZeneca's Brilinta (ticagrelor), approved for post-heart attack treatment, and Eli Lilly's Effient (prasugrel).
There is also a range of next-generation warfarin rivals, including Bristol-Myers Squibb and Pfizer's Eliquis (apixaban); Johnson & Johnson and Bayer's Xarelto (rivaroxaban); and Boehringer Ingelheim's Pradaxa (dabigatran).
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