Mer­ck touts new da­ta for break­through pneu­mo­coc­cal vac­cine as it heads to PhI­II tri­als

Two months af­ter Mer­ck’s pneu­mo­coc­cal vac­cine can­di­date V116 won break­through ther­a­py des­ig­na­tion based on Phase I/II tri­al da­ta, Mer­ck is now start­ing to share da­ta from that study — tout­ing topline re­sults as the Big Phar­ma push­es to Phase III clin­i­cal tri­als.

Mer­ck re­port­ed Tues­day that V116 showed non-in­fe­ri­or and su­pe­ri­or im­mune re­spons­es, de­pend­ing on the serotype, in hun­dreds of adult pa­tients in the Phase II por­tion of the study. For shared serotypes with Mer­ck’s old­er vac­cine, Pneu­movax 23, the re­spons­es were non-in­fe­ri­or. But for those not in the old­er shot, re­spons­es were su­pe­ri­or, Mer­ck said.

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