Merck joins forces with AstraZeneca on Lynparza in a deal worth a potential $8.5 billion

27 July 2017
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US pharma giant Merck & Co (NYSE: MRK) has entered a global strategic oncology collaboration to co-develop and co-commercialize AstraZeneca’s (LSE: AZN) Lynparza (olaparib) for multiple cancer types.

News of the deal, which should provide considerable financial benefits for AstraZeneca, was totally overshadowed by the revelation that results from the company’s much awaited Mystic trial failed to meet its primary endpoint, sending AstraZeneca’s shares down 16% in morning trading.

The Anglo-Swedish pharma major’s Lynparza is an innovative, first-in-class oral poly ADP ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitor currently approved for BRCA-mutated ovarian cancer in multiple lines of treatment. In the first half of this year, the drug generated sales of $116 million.

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