Merck’s pneumonia vaccine posts two more hits

Two more of Merck & Co’s phase III trials of its 15-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, V114, have reported positively, allowing the company to to creep closer to challenging the dominant group in this space, Pfizer. In the pivotal Pneu-Age study V114 was noninferior to the currently available 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine – Pfizer’s Prevnar 13 – for the 13 serotypes targeted by both vaccines.