Cardiome Pharma has a heart for those with cardiovascular ailments. The company is in the business of developing new therapies to treat atrial arrhythmia and other heart conditions. Cardiome Pharma's lead drug candidate is vernakalant hydrochloride, which treats acute and chronic atrial arrhythmia (abnormal heart rhythm). It has a collaboration with Merck for the development and marketing of vernakalant in its oral and intravenous forms outside North America. Astellas Pharma US holds North American rights to the intravenous version of the drug. The publicly-held company's other candidate is GED-aPC, a drug it licensed from Eli Lilly, designed to treat cardiogenic shock following a heart attack.