Merck Embraces Heart Research and Deals as Rival Pfizer Flees

By Shannon Pettypiece

Nov. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Merck & Co. is boosting its research in heart disease, the leading cause of death in the U.S., even as rival Pfizer Inc. abandons the field.

Merck has about 1,200 researchers working on heart medicines and wants to buy or collaborate with companies with promising cardiac treatments, said Richard Pasternak, the Whitehouse Station, New Jersey-based drugmaker's head of cardiovascular research, in a telephone interview. Pfizer Inc., the world's biggest drugmaker, said in September it was ending early-stage heart research.

Pfizer and other drug companies are plowing resources into cancer, diabetes and neurological disorders that have higher sales potential and might face easier regulatory approval. Merck remains committed to treatments for heart disease because it would be ``foolish and irresponsible,'' said Pasternak, to walk away from a field that kills 17 million people worldwide each year. Heart drugs generated more than $30 billion in global sales last year, according to IMS Health Inc.

``As a public company, we have a responsibility not only to our shareholders, but also to the public,'' said Pasternak in a telephone interview. ''I think it is a responsible position.''

Merck is experimenting with drugs to reduce blood vessel inflammation, which can contribute to a heart attack or stroke, and developing blood pressure medicines with fewer side effects. It is also studying a treatment to raise so-called good cholesterol, believed to flush out artery-clogging plaque.

Cardiac Trove

Merck has eight heart drugs in human testing, almost a fifth of all the company's late-stage research projects. That's a bigger devotion to heart drugs than GlaxoSmithKline Plc, Europe's largest drugmaker, with 5 percent of its experimental drugs for heart disease.

Pasternak said the company wanted to reaffirm its commitment to heart research after the Pfizer announcement. He said many employees at Merck have been asking him whether Merck will be following Pfizer's lead.

The shift by drugmakers away from heart disease has made it difficult for smaller companies working on heart medicines to raise cash from venture capitalists, Pasternak said.

``I don't think numerically there are as many early biotech opportunities in the cardiovascular space as on neuroscience or oncology,'' said Pasternak. ``I think there are really rich opportunities, but venture capitalists and hedge funds and investors are saying the same thing as some of the drugmakers, which is that cardiovascular is a tougher road and it isn't as attractive a road and that we've done most of what we can do so let's go into new areas.''

Long Trials

Testing drugs against cholesterol, blood pressure and other chronic heart conditions can involve 10,000 patients and take nearly a decade because the medicines are typically taken long- term and by a large population. More specialized drugs, like treatments for cancer or rare genetic disorders, usually require smaller trials.

Pasternak said drugmakers should develop ``more creative ways'' to study experimental drugs, such as using genetic profiling to identify those most likely to benefit or targeting products toward specific groups of patients.

To contact the reporter on this story: Shannon Pettypiece in New York at spettypiece@bloomberg.net