"Not Our" Merck, The German One (KGaA) -- Suffers A Non-Surprising MS Drug Candidate Wash-Out, In Phase 3 Clinical Trials...

If you'd been a regular reader here -- you were already expecting this -- as we covered it, on preliminary results, back in April 2023.

Here is the company's press release, but it very closely echoes the preliminary readout from April 2023 we covered. . . on the Evolution clinical trials.

And here is the Bloomberg take, repeating what Morgan Stanley now has updated as its forecasts -- for the firm. Disappointing, indeed -- from a financial point of view -- but especially so, for patients suffering from MS, and their families and care-givers:

. . .[German] Merck KGaA plunged after an experimental multiple-sclerosis drug failed in late-stage trials, a blow to the company’s plans to drive growth with another blockbuster medicine.

Evobrutinib didn’t show strong enough efficacy in two final-stage studies of people with relapsing multiple sclerosis, [German] Merck said late Tuesday. On Wednesday morning its shares dropped as much as 14% in Frankfurt trading, the most since 2009, erasing more than €5 billion in market value.

The [not so!] surprise drug failure creates a third big challenge for the German conglomerate. Its life science unit has been suffering from a collapse in demand for Covid-related products while the electronics division is reeling from a prolonged slump in the semiconductor industry.

[German] Merck’s healthcare division — its third pillar — had been banking on evobrutinib to help drive growth in the coming years. Instead, revenue for the unit could stay flat through 2027 and profitability may suffer, Thibault Boutherin of Morgan Stanley said in a note. . . .

Now you know -- onward -- on the hope for some better news, tomorrow. . . overall, in the life sciences.

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