Merck, Endocyte Stop Trial Of Ovarian Cancer Drug
Biotech firm Endocyte (ECYT) and its big-pharma partner Merck (MRK) pulled the plug on their ovarian-cancer treatment Vynfinit Friday, sending both stocks tumbling on the stock market today. The companies said that the Data Safety Monitoring Board’s interim analysis of the phase-three trial of Vynfinit, known generically as vintafolide, was not showing any improvement in patients’ progression-free survival, so it said the trial should be stopped.