BioCentury
ARTICLE | Company News

Cardiome, Merck deal

March 11, 2013 7:00 AM UTC

Cardiome paid former partner Merck the final $13 million under a December agreement to pay the pharma $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 vernakalant to treat atrial fibrillation (AF). As part of the agreement, Cardiome will pay an additional $3 million for the finished goods inventory of IV vernakalant and for the IV and oral API (see BioCentury, Dec. 24, 2012).

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). ...