Merck/Pfizer Diabetes Drug Ertugliflozin Positive in Phase III

Zacks Equity Research Published on September 16, 2016

Merck & Co., Inc. (MRK - Free Report) , in partnership with Pfizer Inc. (PFE - Free Report) , announced that their diabetes pipeline candidate, ertugliflozin (MK-8835), has met the primary endpoint in a phase III study.

The double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study, VERTIS SITA2, showed that ertugliflozin (both 5 mg and 15 mg daily doses), when added to sitagliptin and metformin, led to A1C reduction in patients with type 2 diabetes. While the 5-mg dose reduced A1C by 0.69%, the 15 mg dose led to a 0.76% decline in A1C.

Ertugliflozin is an investigational oral sodium glucose cotransporter (SGLT2) inhibitor.

The drug met the key secondary end-points of the trial as well.

Overall adverse event (AE) rates were also low in both the dosage arms of ertugliflozin compared to placebo.

These results were presented at the 52nd Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) in Munich, Germany.

Pfizer and Merck plan to submit an NDA in the U.S. for ertugliflozin and the two fixed-dose combination tablets, ertugliflozin/Januvia and ertugliflozin/metformin, by 2016 end.

Merck has several late-stage candidates in its pipeline targeting multiple disease areas such as atherosclerosis, cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. The company has more than 10 candidates in phase III development. Some of the important candidates include MK-0859 (anacetrapib – cholesterol management – phase III), verubecestat (Alzheimer’s disease – phase III) and Zinplava (bezlotoxumab).

Zacks Rank & Key Picks

Both Merck and Pfizer currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). A couple of better-ranked stocks in health care sector are ANI Pharmaceuticals (ANIP - Free Report) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ - Free Report) . While ANI Pharmaceuticals sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Johnson & Johnson carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

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