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Merck facing off with Pfizer with pneumococcal vaccines 

By Brian Buntz | May 21, 2021

Merck logoPfizer’s (NSE:PFE) pneumococcal 13-valent conjugate vaccine Prevnar 13 brought in $5.85 billion last year, but Merck (NYSE:MRK) is hoping to increase its presence in the market with its investigational 15-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine.

Although Merck has a pneumococcal vaccine on the market known as Pneumovax 23, its sales were $1.1 billion last year. While technically a blockbuster, Pneumovax 23’s sales were only about one-fifth of Prevnar 13’s.

Merck announced that its V114 investigational 15-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine hit its primary immunogenicity and safety endpoints in two trials.

The company says the data potentially supports the use of the vaccine in healthy infants who have previously started immunization with the 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, who are vaccine-naïve or previously had received lower valency pediatric pneumococcal conjugate vaccines.

“At Merck, our goal is to expand coverage to new serotypes not targeted by currently available pediatric pneumococcal conjugate vaccines while maintaining a strong immune response to current vaccine serotypes so as to help sustain progress achieved to date,” said Dr. Roy Baynes, senior vice president and head of global clinical development, chief medical officer at Merck Research Laboratories, in a statement. “Results from these studies support the potential of V114 to confer immunogenicity for PCV13 serotypes in infants who have previously received one or multiple doses of PCV13, and for the 15 serotypes in V114 in children in a catch-up setting.”

Merck has submitted the V114 vaccine to the FDA for the use in adults. It plans to file paperwork to clear the way for its use in children by the end of 2021.


Filed Under: clinical trials, Drug Discovery, Immunology, Infectious Disease
Tagged With: Merck, Pfizer, Pneumovax 23, Prevnar 13, V114
 

About The Author

Brian Buntz

As the pharma and biotech editor at WTWH Media, Brian has almost two decades of experience in B2B media, with a focus on healthcare and technology. While he has long maintained a keen interest in AI, more recently Brian has made making data analysis a central focus, and is exploring tools ranging from NLP and clustering to predictive analytics.

Throughout his 18-year tenure, Brian has covered an array of life science topics, including clinical trials, medical devices, and drug discovery and development. Prior to WTWH, he held the title of content director at Informa, where he focused on topics such as connected devices, cybersecurity, AI and Industry 4.0. A dedicated decade at UBM saw Brian providing in-depth coverage of the medical device sector. Engage with Brian on LinkedIn or drop him an email at bbuntz@wtwhmedia.com.

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