Merck & Co to plough on in Alzheimer's after latest failure

US pharma giant Merck & Co (NYSE: MRK) has halted a Phase III trial of verubecestat (MK-8931) in people with prodromal Alzheimer’s disease (AD) based on a recommendation by the external Data Monitoring Committee (eDMC).

Verubecestat is a small molecule inhibitor of the beta-site amyloid precursor protein cleaving enzyme 1 (BACE1) and it had been seen as a promising prospect even in the graveyard of hopeful candidates that is the Alzheimer’s drug development space.

But a trial of verubecestat in patients with more advanced disease was  stopped last year and now the APECS study has gone the same way. The eDMC concluded that it was unlikely that a positive benefit to risk ratio could be established if the trial continued.