Surprising research setback at German Merck; Observers had not...

Surprising research setback at German Merck; Observers had not expected the cancer drug to be discontinued: Emily Field, analyst at the British investment bank Barclays, for example, assumed on Monday evening that the "surprising research setback" would have a significant negative impact on the shares of the Darmstadt-based company. In morning trading on Tuesday, the shares slumped by more than ten per cent.
Michael Shah, analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, also finds the cancellation "surprising", as the drug had been convincing in earlier studies. The pharmaceutical pipeline would now lack medium-term growth drivers. Deals are now needed to strengthen the "thin late-stage pipeline".
Even in corporate circles, the drug was viewed favourably until recently. Danny Bar-Zohar, Chief Medical Officer of Merck's pharmaceutical division, was "disappointed" with the results of the study. A planned interim analysis had shown that the drug in all probability did not achieve the most important objective - patients should survive longer than with the comparator treatment. Xevinapant was to be used in patients with head and neck cancer.
Xevinapant was already in the final pivotal phase 3 when the company decided to discontinue the trials. This is disastrous for Merck. After all, a lot of money had been invested in development up to the third clinical trial.
Michael Shah, analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, also finds the cancellation "surprising", as the drug had been convincing in earlier studies. The pharmaceutical pipeline now lacks medium-term growth drivers. Deals are now needed to strengthen the "thin late-stage pipeline".

So what does this mean for immuteo? There is high risk of failure in phase 3 or late stage studies. But because of the biomarkers analysis I am convinced that our probability for success is greater than 50 %. We will get hopefully the results of the primary readout of tacti 003!
Maybe the German Merck KGaA could be interested in this indication? They need more potential blockbusters.