Merck licenses chinese cancer drug, searching for next keytruda blockbuster
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Adam Feuerstein is a senior writer and biotech columnist, reporting on the crossroads of drug development, business, Wall Street, and biotechnology. He is also a co-host of the weekly
biotech podcast The Readout Loud and author of the newsletter Adam’s Biotech Scorecard. You can reach Adam on Signal at stataf.54. In a move to safeguard the company’s dominant position in
cancer, Merck said Thursday it will license a new cancer drug from LaNova Medicines, a Shanghai-based firm, for $588 million upfront and as much as $2.7 billion in potential milestone
payments. The cancer immunotherapy Keytruda, Merck’s most important product and the best-selling drug in the world with $23 billion in annual sales, is set to lose patent protection and face
competition from generic drugmakers as early as 2028, and investors are already fretting about what will happen at Merck when revenues from the medicine begin to decline. “At Merck, we
continue to assemble a strong and diversified oncology pipeline spanning differentiated mechanisms and multiple modalities,” said Dean Li, the president of Merck Research Laboratories, in a
statement. “This agreement adds to Merck’s growing oncology pipeline and we look forward to advancing LM-299 with speed and rigor for patients in need.” STAT+ Exclusive Story Already have an
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