Endocyte plummets on decision to stop vintafolide Ph III trial; posts financials

3 May 2014

US pharma giant Merck & Co (NYSE:MRK) and partner Endocyte (Nasdaq: ECYT) revealed on Friday that the Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) of the vintafolide Phase III PROCEED trial of their vintafolide has recommended that the trial be stopped because vintafolide did not demonstrate efficacy on the pre-specified outcome of Progression-Free Survival (PFS) in patients with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer.

As a result of the announcement Endocyte’s shares nose-dived 62% to $6.65 at 9:52 am New York time, after its biggest intraday drop since December 2011. Merck, which acquired the rights to sell the drug in a deal worth a potential $1 billion to Endocyte (The Pharma Letter April 17, 2012), dipped 1.3% to $58.87.

No safety concerns

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