Merck, a U.S.-based multinational pharmaceutical company, has announced that it will stop developing a COVID-19 vaccine. Merck was developing two types of Corona 19 vaccines, but it was months behind other pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer and Modena.
According to Bloomberg News on the 25th (local time), Nick Katsonis, senior vice president of clinical research for infectious diseases and vaccines at Merck Research Lab, made this statement in an interview. “We didn’t get the interim results needed to continue the study,” he explained.
Merck was developing a Corona 19 vaccine based on the existing Ebola vaccine and measles vaccine technology. However, clinical results have shown that Merck’s vaccine is less effective than other Corona 19 vaccines.
Bloomberg News said, “There was no one in the market expecting the Merck vaccine to enter the initial Corona 19 vaccine in the United States, but the news came out amid the emergence of the Corona 19 mutant virus and anxiety about the vaccine supply.
Merck plans to focus on the development of existing COVID-19 treatments such as MK-7110. Already, some of the production lines are being converted for the production of COVID-19 treatment. Vice President Katsonis said, “I expect to be able to release a cure by the middle of this year.” The US government has already paid $366 million for 60,000 to 100,000 doses to secure the Merck treatment.
Merck’s stock price fell 0.8% in the free market on this day. Over the past 12 months, Merck’s stock has fallen by about 9.7%. This is in contrast to the sharp rise in share prices of other pharmaceutical companies due to the COVID-19 vaccine issue. Earlier, Reuters reported that Buckshire Hathaway, led by Warren Buffett, the sage of Omaha, invested at least $1.8 billion (about 1.84 trillion won) in Merck in the third quarter of last year.
Merck is a famous vaccine company. It mainly develops new drugs for infectious diseases, neuroscience, ophthalmology, women’s health and endocrine system diseases. It has developed cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil and immune anticancer kitruda.
Reporter Sun Han-gyeol [email protected]
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