Merck abandons ridaforolimus partnership

Merck has told Ariad Pharmaceutical it is terminating its global development and commercialisation licenses for ridaforolimus, which has the proposed trade name Taltorvic.

It will mean that all rights related to ridaforolimus in oncology will return to Ariad by November this year.

The mTOR inhibitor failed to receive approval in the USA, with the Food and Drug Administration asking for further clinical trials, and Merck stopped the European filing for ridaforolimus last year.

Ariad had initially granted Merck an exclusive license for the development, production and distribution of the drug, with the partner company agreeing to cover 100 percent of the costs for this project.

Furthermore, Merck paid Ariad $75 million (44.99 million pounds) in upfront and milestone payments, with further potential payments of up to $289 million.

Merck had originally planned to invest up to $700 million in the ridaforolimus project, which saw phase III clinical trials in advanced sarcomas.