Merck has released that its drug, Winrevair, reduced the risk of death in patients suffering from a rare condition that causes high blood pressure in the lungs or Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), after the drug was approved to be sold in the United States.
Winrevair was approved as a treatment for PAH, a progressive condition characterized by constriction of arteries in the lungs that results in shortness of breath, chest pain, and dizziness.
Merck & Co., Inc. is a global pharmaceutical company based in New Jersey, USA. It was once part of the German Merck Group, founded in 1668. Known as Merck Sharp and Dohme or MSD in other parts of the world, the company is one of the world’s biggest manufacturers. It is among the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies, ranking usually in the first five drug makers globally in terms of sales.
Merck was established in 1891 as the American subsidiary company of the Merck Group. Merck grows and synthesizes drugs, vaccines, and biological and molecular treatments, also over animal healthcare. It has several best-selling drugs, such as cancer immunotherapy, anti-diabetic drugs, and vaccines for HPV and chickenpox, which collectively hold a high market value as of the period ending 2020.
The company said the drug achieved the primary endpoint of cutting the time to disease progression, lung transplantation, or death by half in a phase III trial involving 172 patients with the advanced stages of the illness on standard background therapy.
The disorder is present in approximately 40,000 patient populations across the country. An independent data monitoring committee has advised early termination of the study but would allow participants to continue to receive the treatment, Merck said.
Winrevair presently costs about $238,000 per year and was the first treatment from the class of drugs that targets a type of protein called activin. The drug accounts for $149 million in sales in the third quarter in Merck despite controversy over potential bleeding risk. “That’s why Winrevair seems safe to us despite potential side effects in severe patients — to which, most likely, it will restrict itself,” the Oppenheimer analysts said in a note earlier this month.
