Mer­ck ad­vances along a broad PhI­II front, aimed at carv­ing up Pfiz­er’s top-sell­ing vac­cine fran­chise. Could an am­bush lay in wait?

Mer­ck has come out of its cor­ner with a 1-2 late-stage punch aimed at one of Pfiz­er’s biggest fran­chis­es. And they’re rolling the late-stage da­ta out around the world to reg­u­la­tors.

Look­ing to prove that it’s more than just a Keytru­da com­pa­ny in R&D, Mer­ck to­day laid out up­beat top-line re­sults for 2 Phase III stud­ies of V114, their 15-va­lent ri­val to Pre­vnar 13, which has be­gun to stag­nate a lit­tle with its $5.8 bil­lion mar­ket. That is still Pfiz­er’s top-sell­ing drug, with a trou­bled Ibrance com­ing up in sec­ond place.

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