Cardiome, Merck deal

Cardiome agreed to pay former partner Merck $20 million by March 31, 2013, to settle $50 million in debt obligations under an amended 2009 deal to develop and commercialize IV and oral formulations of atrial fibrillation (AF) product vernakalant. In September, Merck said it would return all rights to develop and commercialize both formulations to Cardiome, terminating the 2009 deal. As part of the termination, Cardiome lost access to a $100 million credit facility from Merck, $50 million of which has been drawn down. Cardiome said the payment, which will terminate the credit facility, will be made from its cash balance of $53.6 million as of Sept. 30 (see BioCentury, Oct. 1).

Merck had exclusive, worldwide rights to the oral formulation and exclusive rights to the IV formulation outside North America, where Astellas Pharma Inc. (Tokyo:4503, Tokyo, Japan) had rights under a 2003 deal with Cardiome. In 2011, Astellas transferred North American rights to the IV formulation to Merck (see BioCentury, Oct. 20, 2003; April 13, 2009 & Aug. 1, 2011). ...