OREANDA-NEWS. June 27, 2012. R-Pharm announced that it has entered into a licensing agreement with MSD, known in the United States and Canada as Merck (Merck & Co Inc. Whitehouse Station, NJ, USA), for rights to a novel investigational, hepatitis C once-daily protease inhibitor, narlaprevir. The agreement provides an opportunity for R-Pharm to conduct late-stage clinical trials in Russia, which is among the goals of the Russian government's Pharma 2020 initiative. Under the terms of the agreement, R-Pharm gains rights to develop and commercialize narlaprevir in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). R-Pharm will pay MSD (acting through a subsidiary), an upfront payment and undisclosed royalties on sales of narlaprevir. MSD has retained the right to co-promote narlaprevir in these regions and retains rights to the candidate outside of Russia and the CIS countries. “The agreement between MSD and R-Pharm is a good example of collaboration between a leading global pharmaceutical company and a leading Russian pharmaceutical company to advance health care for the people of Russia”, said Vasily Ignatiev, CEO of R-Pharm. “This agreement has been executed with support of the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade in close alliance with the Federal Program. Strategic collaboration between R-Pharm and MSD will allow patients in Russia to get access to novel medicines in the area of high unmet medical needs and strong social demand.” Narlaprevir is a second generation NS3 serine protease inhibitor developed by MSD. In a Phase 2a clinical study, narlaprevir administration resulted in a robust decline in the level of hepatitis C virus detected in the blood and high sustained viral response rates when followed by standard of care in both treatment-experienced and treatment-naive HCV genotype 1-infected patients. "MSD is pleased that through this agreement, R-Pharm can pursue the development of this potentially important technology for the treatment of hepatitis C, an area of substantial unmet need in Russia" said Kevin Ali, President, Emerging Markets, MSD. "This unique technology transfer deal is consistent with the Russian Government's desire to create a stronger local innovative pharma industry to drive economic growth in the sector. Developing narlaprevir will enable R-Pharm to gain deep experience in late stage clinical trials – the crucial phase of drug development.".