Merck obtains FDA nod for Verquvo

The Food and Drug Administration has given its blessing to Merck for Verquvo, a soluble guanylate cyclase stimulator that is used to reduce the risk of cardiovascular death and heart failure hospitalization following a hospitalization for heart failure or need for outpatient intravenous diuretics in adults with symptomatic chronic heart failure and ejection fraction less than 45%.

Verquvo has been shown to reduce the risk of cardiovascular death and heart failure hospitalization following a hospitalization for heart failure or need for outpatient IV diuretics. We are pleased to offer a meaningful new treatment option for appropriate patients with symptomatic chronic heart failure,” said Roy Baynes, senior vice president and head of global clinical development, chief medical officer, Merck Research Laboratories. “This approval builds upon Merck’s proud history of developing therapies for the treatment of patients with cardiovascular disease.”

“Patients with symptomatic chronic heart failure and reduced ejection fraction have a high risk for hospitalization after experiencing symptoms of heart failure requiring outpatient IV diuretic treatment or hospitalization. By some estimates, more than half of these patients are rehospitalized within a month of discharge due to a worsening event and approximately one in five die within two years,” said Paul  Armstrong, cardiologist and distinguished university professor of medicine at the Canadian VIGOUR Centre, University of Alberta, and study chair of the VICTORIA trial. “The approval of Verquvo provides doctors, health care professionals, and patients with a welcome new option to current available therapies.”