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Safety Concerns Halt Merck & Co’s Once-Weekly HIV Combination

Blow For Company’s HIV Strategy

 
• By Andrew McConaghie

Merck & Co. is looking to compete in the burgeoning long-acting HIV market, but a safety halt to a Phase II trial could disrupt those plans.

Merck
Merck's goal of competing in a new generation of longer-acting HIV therapies could be hit by the safety setback. • Source: Alamy

Merck & Co., Inc. has paused development of its HIV candidate, MK-8507, and halted a trial combining it with another of its key candidates, islatravir, after some patients experience a worrying decline in their CD4 immune cells.

These white blood cells play a key defensive role in the immune system, and are the same lymphocytes attacked by HIV, which leaves

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