Dow's Merck Stumbles After FDA Puts Keytruda Trial
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Dow component Merck (MRK) stock toppled late Wednesday after the Food and Drug Administration put three clinical trials on hold involving the drugmaker's immuno-oncology med, Keytruda, in a blood cancer known as multiple myeloma.
Trials of Keytruda and low-dose Dexamethasone combined with either Pomalyst or Revlimid, from Celgene (CELG), were placed on full clinical holds. Another similar combination study was placed on a partial clinical hold.
Last month, Merck paused enrollment in two of those trials after more patients receiving Keytruda died. On Wednesday, the FDA said the risks of those combinations outweighed the potential benefits.
In after-hours trading on the stock market today, Merck stock was off an additional 1%, near 63.50. It ended the regular trading session down a fraction, to 64.16. Shares have been forming a flat base since early March. Merck is one of three biopharmaceutical companies on the Dow Jones industrial average.
http://www.investors.com/news/technology/dows...s-on-hold/