Merck KGaA announced that its experimental multiple sclerosis (MS) drug evobrutinib failed to meet the primary endpoint in Phase 3 clinical trials.
The company said that its drug did not reduce the annualized relapse rates in people with relapsing MS when compared to Sanofi’s oral teriflunomide.
The results are a major blow to the company, part of German science and technology conglomerate Merck Group, with analysts on average seeing peak sales for the drug topping $2 billion.
Until this point, Merck had been seen as ahead of competitors Sanofi, Novartis, and Roche in the race to develop more targeted MS drugs known as Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitors.
Merck KGaA said that it would complete a full evaluation of the data from its clinical trials and work with investigators on the future presentation and publication of the results.
“With evobrutinib, our aim was to address the significant unmet need of smoldering MS in addition to strong relapse control for people living with this condition,” Merck healthcare business sector chief medical officer Danny Bar-Zohar said in a statement.
“While we are very disappointed with the results, we continue to advance our strategy in healthcare with a focus on progressing our marketed portfolio and internal pipeline, complemented by external innovation, with the aim of bringing more medicines to patients, faster.”
Merck KGaA’s European-listed shares traded down 12.3% at €142.10 on Wednesday afternoon Central European Time.
Its United States-listed shares fell 7.4% to US$30.38 shortly before noon Eastern Time.
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