Merck ends trial of potential Alzheimer’s drug verubecestat

The drug giant Merck has pulled the plug on a trial of an Alzheimer’s drug, verubecestat, after early data showed “virtually no chance” that it would work. But a second trial of the same drug continues in patients at an earlier stage of the disease. Verubecestat was seen as a promising candidate in a field littered with failures, after data published last November showed that the drug reduced the levels of amyloid protein in the spinal fluid of patients and healthy controls who took it for …