Merck to refocus efforts on developing Covid-19 therapies

Merck&Co. will close its Covid-19 vaccine development programme after clinical trial results came up short.

Merck had been developing two vaccine candidates, one of them based on technology from France's Institut Pasteur and in conjunction with the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative , but both generated an immune responses weaker than those seen in people who had naturally recovered from the virus.

Instead, the firm said that it would refocus its resources on treatments for the novel coronavirus.

One of those was MK-7110, an intravenous therapy that has been shown to boost the odds and speed of recovery for severe and critical cases of Covid-19 by more than half.

Full clinical trial results were expected to be available in the first quarter and according to Bloomberg, Merck executives expected that the treatment would be available towards the middle of 2021.

The other treatment under development was molnupiravir, an anti-viral pill discovered by scientists at Emory University.

Study results to ascertain its effectiveness were also anticipated for the first quarter of 2021.

Merck anticipated that the slow rollout in Covid-19 vaccines would support demand for therapies and believed that they might work against future viruses as well.