Merck KGaA-Pfizer to end late-stage ovarian cancer treatment study

Merck KGaA and Pfizer Inc said on Friday they were ending a late-stage study for their drug to treat a form of ovarian cancer in previously untreated patients.The results showed the drug, Bavencio, in combination with, or as a follow-on treatment to, platinum-based chemotherapy could not achieve the primary goal of progression-fee survival in patients.Last year, Bavencio, or avelumab, failed to prolong lives in a separate trial to evaluate the immunotherapy in gastric cancer patients.