Merck said Monday the key drug from its $11.5 billion purchase of the biotech Acceleron met its main goal in a key clinical trial.
The medicine, sotatercept, is meant to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension, a disease in which high blood pressure in the arteries of the lungs leads to difficulty breathing and walking. Merck did not disclose detailed results in its press release, but said that the medicine resulted in a “statistically significant and clinically meaningful” increase in the distance patients could walk in six minutes. Results were also statistically significant on eight out of nine other measures of efficacy. The one in which efficacy was not demonstrated was a measure of the emotional and cognitive benefits of being on the drug.
Full data will be released at a medical meeting or in a medical journal at a later date.
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