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Merck Deal Gives Lundbeck US Foothold

 
• By Chris Morrison

Lundbeck's $270 million deal with Merck & Co. to develop and commercialize the Phase III gaboxadol for sleep disorders in the US finally gives the Danish CNS specialist a foothold in the US market. Gaboxadol provides Merck an entry into the burgeoning insomnia market and the deal-the company's largest-ever single-product pact-is indicative of the Big Pharma's growing flexibility and acceptance of external research.

Big Pharma is waking up to the opportunities of treating insomnia. The market for such drugs is often compared to the depression market of the early 1980s. And if the next-generation insomnia treatments are approved and reach sales figures anywhere near the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) that revolutionized the treatment of anxiety and depression over the last two decades, the blockbuster bets placed by Pfizer Inc. and, now, Merck & Co. Inc. , will have paid off handsomely.

In the latest such deal, Merck, hungry for late-stage product candidates after several setbacks last year, in mid February paid...

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