Af­ter PhII re­sults dis­ap­point, Mer­ck ex­cis­es eye drugs from long­time pact with NGM

Mer­ck is drop­ping a slate of ex­per­i­men­tal eye drugs from its part­ner­ship with NGM Bio, mark­ing an­oth­er dead end for their sev­en-year al­liance.

The de­ci­sion to pass over an op­tion to pick up an an­ti-C3 an­ti­body dubbed NGM621 comes two months af­ter NGM re­port­ed that it flunked a Phase II tri­al in ge­o­graph­ic at­ro­phy. At the time, CEO David Wood­house told End­points News that Mer­ck had pro­vid­ed fund­ing for NGM621 since the project’s start and that the phar­ma part­ner need­ed time to take a clos­er look at the da­ta.

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