Merck drops two COVID-19 vaccine candidates

25 January 2021

In a significant setback for the US pharma giant, Merck & Co (NYSE: MRK) today announced that it 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 I 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.

News of the discontinuation pushed Merck’s shares 1.2% lower to $80.01 in pre-market trading.

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