A pair of PhI­II fail­ures spells last rites for Men­lo’s once-promis­ing Mer­ck drug

Four months af­ter an in­ter­con­ti­nen­tal merg­er, Men­lo Ther­a­peu­tics is count­ing yet an­oth­er pair of tri­al fail­ures — ones with sig­nif­i­cant con­se­quences for the com­pa­nies, their share­hold­ers and the drug.

In two piv­otal Phase III tri­als, Men­lo’s lead drug ser­lop­i­tant failed to treat pru­ri­tus as­so­ci­at­ed with pruri­go nodu­laris — ba­si­cal­ly itch­i­ness from a par­tic­u­lar skin dis­ease that caus­es red le­sions on a per­son’s arms or legs. Ser­lop­i­tant has long been the com­pa­ny’s on­ly drug and as re­cent­ly as 2018, it looked promis­ing enough to sup­port a stock price of $37. In April of that year, a Phase II fail­ure de­mol­ished the stock price overnight: $35 to $9. Oth­er sub­se­quent stum­bles trick­led the tick­er down to just above $2.

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