[Reuters]— Merck, a major US pharmaceutical company, announced on the 25th that it will discontinue the development of two new coronavirus vaccines. Early clinical trial data explained that the immune response was inferior to that of people who recovered from infection with other companies’ vaccines or the new corona.
In the future, we will focus on research on two types of new corona therapeutic agents, and expect to obtain initial data on oral administration-type therapeutic agents currently under investigation by the end of March.
Related costs (before tax) associated with the suspension of vaccine development will be recorded in the fourth quarter financial results.
Sanofi of France and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) of the United Kingdom have also indicated that the commercialization of the new corona vaccine under development will be delayed in the latter half of 2009.
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