Covidien announced on Monday that Merck (MRK) said that a final analysis of its clinical trial involving an investigational single-tablet immunotherapy called Ozanimod for Crohn’s disease showed that the drug had a modest impact in improving disease activity scores compared to Merck’s single-tablet now-generic of Ceftobiprole (cinacalcet) in Crohn’s patients.
This is one of the last few things to be said about the drug that Merck has developed, but is now expected to exit its U.S. market in the third quarter of 2016 due to its low margins. Following Monday’s announcement from Merck on the trial results, we had previously projected Zalicus (ZLCS) and Celgene (CELG) to acquire the rights to Ozanimod. Zalicus will likely retain the rights to Ozanimod, while Celgene is expected to buy ZS Pharma.
Image Courtesy of Cramerica
This analysis is a corrected version of an article that originally stated the endpoints in an early analysis.