Merck KGaA: shares fall for second day as trial discontinued

(CercleFinance.com) - Merck KGaA shares fell for the second day running on Thursday after the company said that it was discontinuing a trial for its tumour growth control drug for lung cancer.


The Phase III study is unlikely to meet its co-primary endpoint, specifically progression-free survival, the German company said on Wednesday.

After reviewing data from the ongoing trial in the first-line treatment of patients with stage IV non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the independent data monitoring committee recommended the trial be stopped.

This discontinuation of the trial removes a high profile asset, analysts warned on Thursday.

"The company continues to aim for two billion euros in pipeline revenues by 2022 mostly driven by Mavenclad and Bavencio but this is an ambitious target and with the highest profile pipeline asset hitting a pothole we suspect a premium multiple for the pharma division is now harder to justify," UBS said.

The drug is being evaluated in other hard-to-treat cancers, such as cervival cancer, Merck said in its statement.

After falling over 4% yesterday, the shares were down a further 0.2% on Thursday morning on Germany's DAX index.

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