Jan 25th: Merck, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, announced that the company is discontinuing development of its SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 vaccine candidates, V590 and V591, and plans to focus its SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 research strategy and production capabilities on advancing two therapeutic candidates, MK-4482 and MK-7110. This decision follows Merck’s review of findings from Phase 1 clinical studies for the vaccines. In these studies, both V590 and V591 were generally well tolerated, but the immune responses were inferior to those seen following natural infection and those reported for other SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 vaccines. Merck continues to advance clinical programs and to scale-up manufacturing for two investigational medicines, MK-7110 and MK-4482 (molnupiravir); molnupiravir is being developed in collaboration with Ridgeback Bio. Merck and its collaborators plan to submit the results of the Phase 1 studies for V590 and V591 for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. In addition to advancing the development and production of MK-7110 and MK-4482, Merck will continue to conduct SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 research. Merck will also continue to evaluate the potential of the measles-virus vector and vesicular stomatitis virus vector-based platforms and pursue broader pandemic-response capabilities.
For further information, see Yahoo Finance (https://finance.yahoo.com/news/merck-discontinues-development-sars-cov-114500602.html) and StatNews (https://www.statnews.com/2021/01/25/in-a-major-setback-merck-to-stop-developing-its-two-covid-19-vaccines-and-focus-on-therapies/?utm_source=STAT%20Newsletters&utm_campaign=269b928b55-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2021_01_24_10_13&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8cab1d7961-269b928b55-150921589)
