Merck & Co., Inc.'s Anti-Clotting Drug Flops in Key Trial

An experimental heart medicine being developed by Merck & Co. /quotes/zigman/574389/quotes/nls/mrk MRK -1.45% failed to meet a study goal, according to data released Sunday at the American Heart Association's annual meeting. In January, Merck had announced that it was stopping one study of the drug, called vorapaxar, and ending a portion of another vorapaxar study among patients who had suffered a stroke before entering or during the study on the recommendation of an independent data safety monitoring board. The results of the stopped trial, called Tracer, were presented for the first time. They were also published online in the New England Journal of Medicine.