Overnight U.S. Round-Up: Liptruzet® Non-Safety Recall; Vorapaxar/Zontivity® Vote This Afternoon

Overnight, Merck voluntarily issued a recall on all shipments of Liptruzet^®, due to a packaging issue that might reduce the effectiveness of the combo med. There is no safety issue here.

And, as we've said, Merck will learn late today whether the non-binding Advisory Committee vote will come out to favor vorapaxar/Zontivity^®. I'll post that vote tally here -- in essentially real time, as I'll have the FDA's live feed -- from the meeting running in my office.

If time permits, I'll talk about Dr. Perlmutter's remarks -- on R&D getting its groove back at MRL, and do an update on the likelihood of MK-3475 speed-boating past nivolumab, the competing BMS Anti-PD-1 candidate, to reach the US markets first. Stay tuned after lunch. I'm bouncin' now.