Cast aside by Merck KGaA, new MS drug shows promise

21 February 2017

Apitope, the privately-owned UK and Belgium-based biotech firm, has announced positive results from an early clinical study of its lead product candidate for the treatment of multiple sclerosis.

ATX-MS-1467 is a novel therapeutic which consists of four short peptides derived from myelin basic protein, a key autoantigen in multiple sclerosis.

German drugmaker Merck KGaA (MRK: DE), which bought the rights to the drug in 2009, financed the 93-person Phase IIa study, but backed out of development late last year.

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