Merck to acquire NovaCardia for $350 million

27 July 2007

Mumbai: Merck & Co. will acquire San Diego-based biotech firm NovaCardia Inc. in a $350 million all-stock deal, thereby adding a promising cardiovascular drug to Merck''s pipeline.

Venture capital-backed NovaCardia''s owners opted to accept Merck shares rather than taking NovaCardia public in an uncertain market.

Eckard Weber founded NovaCardia around the drug KW-3902 which he bought from the Japanese firm Kyowa Hakko Kogyo Co. Ltd. NovaCardia developed it as a treatment for kidney dysfunction associated with congestive heart failure.

The lead product candidate, KW-3902, is in Phase 3 clinical trials. It aims to treat the effects of congestive heart failure, but it does not address the cause of the disease, which is a weakened heart muscle that doesn''t pump enough blood.

NovaCardia expects to take the drug to market, perhaps by late 2009, and build a small sales force to target acute care and hospital settings.

The company also plans to spin off a new unit for clinical development of its second compound, K201 (JTV-519), for atrial fibrillation, or arrhythmia.

NovaCardis''s largest shareholder is Domain Associates LLC of Princeton , N.J. which owns 25 per cent in the company. NovaCardia raised a total of $80 million in venture funding.