The latest Market Talks covering the Health Care sector. Published exclusively on Dow Jones Newswires at 4:20 ET, 12:20 ET and 16:50 ET.
0902 GMT – Merck’s failure to reach key goals in late-stage clinical trials for its multiple sclerosis drug, evobrutinib, spells an end to its development and shifts the German pharmaceutical company’s focus to cancer drug xevinapant, Citi analysts say in a note. A potential treatment for late-stage head and neck cancer, xevinapant is in phase-3 clinical trials and might be “practice-changing” if it hits the market, say the analysts. They forecast sales of more than EUR1.4 billion, which is 25% ahead of consensus, saying that it is years ahead of competitors. “While evobrutinib’s failure is an obvious setback, we had previously argued the risk-reward was acceptable given the current share price,” Citi says. “We continue to be bullish on xevinapant.” Shares fall 14% to EUR139.70. (david.sachs@wsj.com)
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