Merck To Discontinue Development Of COVID-19 Drug 'MK-7110'

(RTTNews) - Merck (MRK) said Thursday that it has decided to discontinue development of MK-7110, formerly known as CD24Fc, for the treatment of hospitalized patients with COVID-19, after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration asked the company to provide additional data to support a potential Emergency Use Authorization application.

Merck acquired MK-7110 in December 2020 through its acquisition of OncoImmune, a privately-held clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company.

Based on the additional research that would be required - new clinical trials as well as research related to manufacturing at scale - MK-7110 would not be expected to become available until the first half of 2022, Merck said in a statement.

Due to regulatory uncertainties and the time and resources needed to provide the additional data, Merck said it has decided to discontinue the development of MK-7110 for COVID-19. But, it will focus its pandemic efforts on advancing molnupiravir and on producing Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine.

In January 2021, Merck said it had decided to discontinue development of the company's COVID-19 vaccine candidates, V590 and V591. In phase 1 clinical studies, both V590 and V591 were generally well tolerated, but the immune responses were inferior to those seen following natural infection and those reported for other SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 vaccines.