By Colin Kellaher
Merck & Co. is licensing a potential oral obesity drug from Hansoh Pharma in a deal potentially worth more than $2 billion to the Chinese biopharmaceutical company.
Merck on Wednesday said it will make an upfront payment of $112 million to Hansoh in exchange for an exclusive global license to HS-10535, an investigational small-molecule GLP-1 receptor agonist.
The Rahway, N.J., drugmaker said Hansoh also is eligible to receive up to $1.9 billion in milestone payments, along with royalties on product sales.
GLP-1 drugs, which work in part by mimicking a gut hormone to suppress appetite and make users feel full, are used to treat both Type 2 diabetes and obesity. These include the blockbuster injectable drugs Ozempic and Wegovy from Novo Nordisk and Mounjaro and Zepbound from Eli Lilly, and pharmaceutical companies are racing to break into the burgeoning sector with weight-loss pills.
Merck said it plans to evaluate HS-10535's potential to provide additional cardiometabolic benefits beyond weight loss.
The company said it will post a fourth-quarter charge of four cents a share related to the Hansoh deal.
Write to Colin Kellaher at colin.kellaher@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 18, 2024 07:24 ET (12:24 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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