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 Alzheimerās 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 āvirtually no chance of finding a positive clinical effectā. The eDMC noted that safety signals observed in the study āare 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 Alzheimerās disease, continue unchanged. Results from protocol 019 are expected in February 2019.
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