Merck Stock Drops 058% in 1084 Billion Volume Trade Ranking 54th in Market Activity

On March 27, 2025, Merck & Co., Inc. (MRK) experienced a 0.58% decline in its stock price, closing at $10.84 billion in trading volume, ranking 54th in the day's stock market activity.

Merck's subcutaneous pembrolizumab, administered every six weeks with a median injection time of two minutes, has shown consistent efficacy and safety results compared to intravenous KEYTRUDA when combined with chemotherapy. This new formulation reduces patient chair time and treatment room time by nearly 50%, and total active healthcare professional time by 45.7%. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted for review a Biologics License Application (BLA) seeking approval of subcutaneous pembrolizumab across all previously approved solid tumor indications for KEYTRUDA, with a target action date set for September 23, 2025. Additionally, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has validated an extension application for a new pharmaceutical form and route of administration for KEYTRUDA.

The 3475A-D77 Phase 3 trial, which evaluated subcutaneous pembrolizumab with chemotherapy, met its primary endpoints, demonstrating noninferior pharmacokinetics for subcutaneous pembrolizumab compared to intravenous KEYTRUDA. The secondary endpoints, including objective response rate, progression-free survival, duration of response, and safety, were consistent for subcutaneous pembrolizumab with chemotherapy compared to intravenous KEYTRUDA with chemotherapy. The median overall survival was not reached in either arm. The study also showed that subcutaneous pembrolizumab reduced time for patients spent in-chair and in the treatment room by 49.7% and 47.4%, respectively, and reduced the total active time spent by healthcare professionals on treatment preparation, administration process, and patient monitoring by 45.7%.

Merck's subcutaneous pembrolizumab clinical development program includes additional trials evaluating subcutaneous pembrolizumab alone compared to intravenous KEYTRUDA alone for the first-line treatment of patients with metastatic NSCLC whose tumors have high PD-L1 expression, as well as trials evaluating subcutaneous pembrolizumab in relapsed or refractory classical Hodgkin lymphoma and relapsed or refractory primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma. Merck is also conducting a patient preference Phase 2 study evaluating participant-reported preference for subcutaneous pembrolizumab compared to intravenous KEYTRUDA.