(Reuters) – Pharmaceutical company Merck & Co said on Monday that it would halt the development of its two COVID-19 vaccines and focus pandemic research on treatments, with initial data from an experimental oral antiviral expected in late March.
Merck was late to enter the race to develop a vaccine to protect against the coronavirus, which has already killed more than 2 million people and continues to increase in many parts of the world, including the United States.
The company will record a pre-tax discontinuation charge in the fourth quarter for candidate vaccine V591, which it acquired with the purchase of Austrian vaccine manufacturer Themis Bioscience, and V590, developed with the non-profit research organization IAVI, Merck said in an announcement.
In the first tests, both vaccines generated lower immune responses than those seen in people who recovered from COVID-19, as well as those reported for other COVID-19 vaccines, the company said.
The announcement is a setback for the fight against the pandemic and comes a month after Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline postponed the launch of their injection until the end of 2021, highlighting the challenges of developing vaccines at record speed.
Tens of millions of vaccine doses from rivals Pfizer Inc and German partner BioNTech, as well as Moderna Inc, have been administered globally so far.
Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca Plc and others are also rushing to develop safe and effective vaccines to protect against the virus.
Merck said it would focus COVID-19’s research and manufacturing efforts on two experimental 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 that is being studied in hospitals and outpatient clinics.
Merck said a Phase 2/3 trial of the drug was scheduled to end in May, but initial results of effectiveness were expected in the first quarter and would be made public if clinically significant.
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, are expected in the first trimester.
Merck’s shares fell 1% to $ 80.12 in trading before the bell.
Reporting by Deena Beasley and additional reporting by Manas Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Anil D’Silva