Merck & Co., Inc. (MRK), AVEO Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (AVEO): This Week in Biotech

Following a first-quarter report that saw the company drastically miss the Street’s revenue and profit estimates as it continues to wait for the final labeling of its chronic weight management drug, Belviq, from the Drug Enforcement Agency, Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARNA) also announced it was pulling its EU marketing application for Belviq. The move isn’t a complete shock given that

Finally, Allergan, Inc. (NYSE:AGN) shareholders drew the short end of the straw after the company announced an update to its mid-stage vision loss trial of DARPin. According to the results, the drug demonstrated some differentiation when compared to Lucentis, but it failed to deliver statistically significant reasons to advance it to late-stage trials. As a prospective competitor to Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:REGN)‘ Eylea, the delay in development gives Eylea a continued free and clear path to grow unabated. Allergan, Inc. (NYSE:AGN) shareholders were given some relief later in the week with the FDA panel unanimously recommending Juvederm Voluma for cheek augmentation to correct age-related volume deficit in the mid-face, but that hardly made up for the sales potential that DARPin possessed in wet age-related macular degeneration.

The article This Week in Biotech originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Sean Williams.

Fool contributor Sean Williams has no material interest in any companies mentioned in this article. You can follow him on CAPS under the screen name TMFUltraLong, track every pick he makes under the screen name TrackUltraLong, and check him out on Twitter, where he goes by the handle @TMFUltraLong.

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