Merck shuts down vaccine trial after ‘disappointing’ results
The failure of its more traditional strategy to produce results will leave the drug giant locked out of a race likely to be dominated by its US rivals
25 January 2021 - 16:11
New York — Merck & Co is discontinuing development of its two experimental Covid-19 vaccines after early trial data showed they failed to generate immune responses comparable to a natural infection or existing vaccines.
The US drug giant, which has a long history of successfully developing vaccines, had adopted a different strategy from rivals Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, using a more traditional approach of focusing on shots based on weakened viruses. One, called V590, borrowed technology from Merck’s Ebola inoculation, while the other, V591, is based on a measles vaccine used in Europe...
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