(Reuters) – Pharmacist Merck & Co said Monday it would halt development of its two COVID-19 vaccines and focus pandemic research on treatments, with the first data on an experimental oral antiviral expected by the end of March.
Merck was too late to enter the race to develop a vaccine to protect against the coronavirus, which has killed more than 2 million people to date and continues in many parts of the world, including the United States. increase.
The company will record a pre-tax discontinuation fee in the fourth quarter for vaccine candidate V591, which it acquired with the purchase of Austrian vaccine maker Themis Bioscience, and V590, developed with nonprofit research organization IAVI, Merck said in a statement.
In early studies, both vaccines generated immune responses that were inferior to those of people recovered from COVID-19 and reported for other COVID-19 vaccines, the company said.
The announcement is a setback in the fight against the pandemic and comes a month after Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline delayed the launch of their injection until the end of 2021, underscoring the challenges of developing vaccines at record speed.
Tens of millions of doses of vaccines from rivals Pfizer Inc and German partner BioNTech and from Moderna Inc have been administered worldwide to date.
Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca Plc and others are also racing to develop safe and effective vaccines to protect against the virus.
Merck said the COVID-19 would focus research and manufacturing efforts on two research drugs: MK-7110 and MK-4482, which it now calls molnupiravir.
Molnupiravir, which is being developed in collaboration with Ridgeback Bio, is an oral antiviral drug that is being studied in both hospital and outpatient settings.
Merck said a Phase 2/3 study of the drug would end in May, but initial efficacy results were expected in the first quarter and would be made public if clinically meaningful.
Merck said the results of a phase 3 study of MK-7110, an immune modulator being studied as a treatment for patients hospitalized with severe COVID-19, were expected in the first quarter.
Shares of Merck fell 1% to $ 80.12 in pre-bell trading.
Reporting by Deena Beasley and additional reporting by Manas Mishra in Bengaluru; Edited by Shri Navaratnam and Anil D’Silva