Merck (NYSE: MRK), known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, today announced that it will be stopping protocol 017, also known as the EPOCH study, a Phase 2/3 study evaluating verubecestat, an investigational small molecule inhibitor of the beta-site amyloid precursor protein cleaving enzyme 1 (BACE1), in people with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Merck is stopping the study following the recommendation of the external Data Monitoring Committee (eDMC), which assessed overall benefit/risk during a recent interim safety analysis, and determined that there was ā€œvirtually no chance of finding a positive clinical effectā€. The eDMC noted that safety signals observed in the study ā€œare not sufficient to warrant stopping study 017,ā€ and recommended that protocol 019, also known as APECS, which is evaluating verubecestat in people with prodromal Alzheimer’s disease, continue unchanged. Results from protocol 019 are expected in February 2019.

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