Merck Sharp and Dohme and Pfizer agree diabetes collaboration

Merck Sharp and Dohme is to partner fellow pharmaceutical giant Pfizer on the development of a promising new treatment for type 2 diabetes.

The worldwide collaboration agreement – which excludes Japan – pertains to the commercialisation of Pfizer's ertugliflozin, an investigational oral sodium glucose cotransporter inhibitor that is set to commence phase III trials this year.

Representatives of both companies will ally to study the potential applications of ertugliflozin monotherapy and ertugliflozin-containing fixed-dose combinations with metformin and Januvia.

The alliance will see Merck and Pfizer sharing potential revenues and certain costs on a 60-40 percent basis.

Nancy Thornberry, senior vice-president and diabetes and endocrinology franchise head at Merck Research Laboratories, said: "We believe ertugliflozin has the potential to complement our strong portfolio of investigational and marketed products and we look forward to collaborating with Pfizer on its development."

This comes after the company allied with Bristol-Myers Squibb last month to carry out trials of a pair of new therapies for chronic hepatitis C.