Ludwig Burger
Reuters
06/23/2010
FRANKFURT, June 17 (Reuters) – Germany’s Merck KGaA (MRCG.DE) and its U.S. partner Oncothyreon (ONTY.O) have resumed testing their experimental cancer vaccine Stimuvax on lung-cancer patients, reviving hopes for a key pipeline drug.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) lifted the hold it had placed on a Phase III trial called START in non-small cell lung cancer, Merck said on Thursday.
Merck and Oncothyreon also continued their INSPIRE study, which targets Asian lung-cancer patients, but the Phase III STRIDE trial in breast cancer remained suspended, it added.
Merck on March 23 stopped all tests of the vaccine on humans after a patient contracted encephalitis in another setback at the drugs unit from which Merck is trying to diversify. [ID:nLDE62M07T]
Oncothyreon shares plummeted 27 percent that day and have not recovered since.
Before Wall Street opened on Thursday, the biotech firm’s shares were up 6.9 percent in Frankfurt at 1002 GMT. Merck KGaA shares edged 0.1 percent lower.
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