Merck CEO indicates interest in GLP-1 combination therapies, may pursue deals

Not want­i­ng to be left out in the cold, Mer­ck now plans to pur­sue GLP-1 com­bi­na­tion ther­a­pies amid grow­ing ex­cite­ment about the lu­cra­tive po­ten­tial of a drug class that may treat a wide range of con­di­tions.

CEO Rob Davis de­scribed the drug­mak­er’s in­ter­est on Thurs­day at the Gold­man Sachs Health­care C-suite Un­script­ed Con­fer­ence, re­spond­ing to a ques­tion about the role of GLP-1s in the broad­er meta­bol­ic space. Mer­ck is look­ing for reg­i­mens in­ter­nal­ly and through a “busi­ness de­vel­op­ment per­spec­tive” that not on­ly shows weight loss im­prove­ments but al­so ben­e­fits in oth­er ar­eas like heart dis­ease and fat­ty liv­er dis­ease, Davis said.

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