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Speaker 1: Mark has been one of the top performers more than

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Speaker 1: twenty percent year. Today, the company winning FDA approval for

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Speaker 1: a new drug that treats a rare form of high

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Speaker 1: blood pressure. The drug's clearance coming at a critical time

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Speaker 1: for merk as it prepares to lose market exclusivity for

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Speaker 1: its cancer drug Keytruder. Merks CEO Robert Davis joins us

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Speaker 1: now for more rop. Good morning to you, great, good morning.

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Speaker 1: Can we talk about that approval yesterday? How much for breakthrough?

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Speaker 2: Well, you know, this is really, we think something special.

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Speaker 2: The disease we are hopefully able now to really make

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Speaker 2: a difference in is pulmonary arterial hypertension. And this is

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Speaker 2: a rare disease. It's not a well known disease, but

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Speaker 2: it's a devastating disease. You know, this is a disease

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Speaker 2: that primarily affects women in the prime of life age

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Speaker 2: thirty to sixty. Mortality rates of forty three percent and

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Speaker 2: five years. So you can imagine impact not only to

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Speaker 2: the patient but to the family of people who otherwise

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Speaker 2: are in the prime of life. Is really tragic. Thankfully,

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Speaker 2: and hopefully we'll make a difference in that. This drug

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Speaker 2: now we're bringing forward. It's called wind Rever is a biologic.

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Speaker 2: It's a first in class medicine. It's a new mechanism

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Speaker 2: of action called an active and signaling inhibitor. And what

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Speaker 2: it actually does is potentially remodels the blood vessels, your

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Speaker 2: arterior vessels that allows them to open up. Because what

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Speaker 2: pH does It causes your blood vessels and your lungs

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Speaker 2: to thicken and narrow, which ultimately leads to heart disease.

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Speaker 1: How often do you take this? Every three weeks? How

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Speaker 1: does this work?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so it's a three week subcutaneous injection. Can be

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Speaker 2: done by the patient or caregiver, and so this would

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Speaker 2: be something you would administer we expect most people do

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Speaker 2: in home.

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Speaker 3: I wish we could go into a whole segment about

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Speaker 3: how you come up with these names when vera key, Truto,

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Speaker 3: We can do that another time. You want to get

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Speaker 3: a sense though, this whole idea of how you got

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Speaker 3: into this through an acquisition to partner with someone, and

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Speaker 3: then what the importance is of looking beyond some of

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Speaker 3: the mainstays like cancer. It's sort of that diversity that

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Speaker 3: we were just hearing about.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well, you know, obviously or a science led science

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Speaker 2: driven company, and this came about because we were already

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Speaker 2: starting to look into this space. So our cardiovascular teams

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Speaker 2: within Merk we're doing work in this space. When they

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Speaker 2: saw the data from a company called Acceleron that had

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Speaker 2: this asset, they came to me and said, you know,

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Speaker 2: we're excited. This can be a difference maker, and that's

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Speaker 2: why we moved on this and it really now is

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Speaker 2: a foundational element in our broader cardiovascular and cardio metabolic portfolio.

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Speaker 2: So it is one where we see the value diversification. Obviously,

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Speaker 2: we're a leader in oncology, we're a leader in vaccines,

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Speaker 2: we're increasingly moving into immunology, and this move into cardiometabolic space,

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Speaker 2: which is significant for us.

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Speaker 3: There are a lot of people who are listening who

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Speaker 3: invest increasingly in healthcare, and all they want to hear

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Speaker 3: about is what's your solution for weight loss? Because that's

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Speaker 3: really the reason why so many people have gone into

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Speaker 3: the healthcare stocks and into the industry. You are working

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Speaker 3: on a GLP one type of drug, but that's not

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Speaker 3: for weight loss, it's for fatty liver. Why are you

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Speaker 3: pro this differently and not necessarily directed at the weight

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Speaker 3: loss itself and more on some of the illness that

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Speaker 3: potentially some of the some of it can cause.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well, so the mechanism you're talking about, we have

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Speaker 2: a GLP one glucagon dual agonist. And this is important

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Speaker 2: because while it brings weight loss benefits frankly similar to

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Speaker 2: what you'd see with the zepic, our primary focus, as

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Speaker 2: you point out, is fatty liver disease, which is a

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Speaker 2: really an untreated area today, and our view of this

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Speaker 2: space is obesity is important, but increasingly it's the cool

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Speaker 2: mobidities around obesity. It's you know, it's heart disease, it's diabetes,

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Speaker 2: it's liver disease. And so if we can affect those

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Speaker 2: and bring outcomes that benefit patients clinically, there they get

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Speaker 2: the weight benefit. But then as you think about reimbursement,

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Speaker 2: as you think about value, that's where the value comes

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Speaker 2: to society because actually we're making people more healthy than

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Speaker 2: just losing weight.

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Speaker 3: Is this mostly a coverage play? Essentially, it's easy for

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Speaker 3: this to get reimbursed and ensured. And that's one reason

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Speaker 3: why if you gear it as some of the illnesses,

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Speaker 3: you won't have to get into the whole debate. That's

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Speaker 3: percolating elsewhere.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well, again from a Mirkent perspective, it starts with

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Speaker 2: the patient at the center, so we see this as

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Speaker 2: a disease that needs to be dealt with. But yes,

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Speaker 2: I think the benefit of this is if you can

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Speaker 2: show outcome, if you can show that there's something beyond

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Speaker 2: just a weight loss, then your ability to be and

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Speaker 2: reimbursed and the ability to show value to society is different.

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Speaker 2: It will be different.

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Speaker 3: But to your point, if obesity leads to so many

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Speaker 3: other health issues, at some point, will insurance the government

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Speaker 3: even be able to put this under their plans.

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Speaker 2: We would expect so, yes, for sure, and I think

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Speaker 2: you're already starting to see that that start to shift.

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Speaker 2: And it will be the outcomes driven approaches that drive

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Speaker 2: that for sure.

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Speaker 1: We started this conversation by talking about this new drug

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Speaker 1: that you've developed, got approval, stock run away high. Yesterday

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Speaker 1: I was going through the cost, so the cost could

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Speaker 1: be about two hundred and forty two thousand dollars ea.

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Speaker 1: I've always struggled with this and I want you to

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Speaker 1: explain to me why is it so much more expensive

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Speaker 1: in America compared to say, the prices that I see

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Speaker 1: for drugs abroad in Europe in the UK. What explains

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Speaker 1: that difference.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well, you know, it's hard to do in apples

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Speaker 2: to apples comparison. If you look at what drugs are

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Speaker 2: as a percentage of total health care spend in the

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Speaker 2: United States, they run about fourteen to fifteen percent. If

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Speaker 2: you look across Europe, for instance, it's about the same,

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Speaker 2: it's about twelve to thirteen percent. So the reality of

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Speaker 2: but is that healthcare as a total area, not just drugs,

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Speaker 2: in the United States is more expensive. The percentage of

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Speaker 2: cost of drugs in the United States is equal to

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Speaker 2: what it is outside the United States. So it's hard

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Speaker 2: to just take one element of the healthcare system and say,

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Speaker 2: let's focus on it, not understanding the broader questions. You know,

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Speaker 2: if you're in the United States, the thing we benefit

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Speaker 2: from you get the fastest access, you get the most

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Speaker 2: access to the most innovative medicine, driven by an industry

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Speaker 2: that is based here in the United States and exports

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Speaker 2: to the world. You know, so you need to look

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Speaker 2: at the totality of what we see as really three elements.

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Speaker 2: You have to think about access, affordability, but then also

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Speaker 2: making sure you're protecting the innovation ecosystem that we value

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Speaker 2: in this country.

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Speaker 1: Rob we appreciate the breakthrough, that's for sure. In the

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Speaker 1: last twenty four hours of major breakthrough. Thank you very

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Speaker 1: much for being with us. Robert Davis there, the Merk

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Speaker 1: CEO