France’s Pasteur Institute said on Jan. 25 that it has terminated its collaboration with Merck & Co. to develop a vaccine against Newcastle due to poor clinical trial results.
The Pasteur Institute and Merck & Co. announced in May last year that they were collaborating on the development of an injectable based on the existing measles vaccine, and started the first phase of clinical trials in August last year.
A statement from the Pasteur Institute noted, “In initial human trials, this promising vaccine was well tolerated, but produced less immunity than patients who recovered naturally and the approved vaccine.”
The announcement dealt another blow to hopes of a French-led vaccine, with reports only recently suggesting that French pharmaceutical major Sanofi was also having difficulty getting its vaccine candidate into the market.
But the Pasteur Institute said the abandonment of the measles vaccine-based injection “does not affect Pasteur’s ability to continue working on two other vaccine candidates developed in different ways.”
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