Merck KGaA, GSK end partnership on former cancer drug hopeful
Reuters
Published Sep 30, 2021 09:49PM ET
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany's Merck KGaA and Britain's GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK) on Thursday ended their collaboration on cancer treatment bintrafusp alfa, once seen as one of Merck's most promising experimental drugs.
Merck said the move was a mutual decision, mostly due to disappointing lung cancer trial data, adding that no milestone payments were made by GSK and no future milestone obligations remain.
Merck KGaA said in January that a late-stage lung cancer study, which was testing bintrafusp alfa against U.S. namesake Merck & Co's bestseller Keytruda in a certain type of lung cancer was stopped early because the drug was unlikely to show the desired effect.
GSK was co-developing the drug with Merck under a 2019 agreement that could have seen it pay up to 3.7 billion euros ($4.5 billion) to the German company.
Merck said it would end several remaining bintrafusp trials including on lung cancer, breast cancer and bladder cancer. One trial testing the drug against Cervical cancer would continue, it added.
Family-controlled Merck KGaA and Merck & Co Inc, known as MSD outside North America, share historic roots but have been under separate ownership since World War One.
Earnings growth in Merck's diversified business has recently been driven by biotech lab supplies, which have benefited from a scramble to ready treatments and vaccines against the coronavirus, offsetting sluggish drug revenue growth.
($1 = 0.8264 euros)
Get The News You Want
Written By: Reuters
Trading in financial instruments and/or cryptocurrencies involves high risks including the risk of losing some, or all, of your investment amount, and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices of cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and may be affected by external factors such as financial, regulatory or political events. Trading on margin increases the financial risks.
Before deciding to trade in financial instrument or cryptocurrencies you should be fully informed of the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite, and seek professional advice where needed.
Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. The data and prices on the website are not necessarily provided by any market or exchange, but may be provided by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual price at any given market, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Fusion Media and any provider of the data contained in this website will not accept liability for any loss or damage as a result of your trading, or your reliance on the information contained within this website.
It is prohibited to use, store, reproduce, display, modify, transmit or distribute the data contained in this website without the explicit prior written permission of Fusion Media and/or the data provider. All intellectual property rights are reserved by the providers and/or the exchange providing the data contained in this website.
Fusion Media may be compensated by the advertisers that appear on the website, based on your interaction with the advertisements or advertisers.