WHITEHOUSE STATION, N.J. & CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE: MRK) and Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (Nasdaq: VRTX) today announced results of a Phase I clinical trial for MK-0457 (also known as VX-680), an investigational small molecule inhibitor of Aurora, FLT-3, JAK-2 and BCR-ABL kinases. The study, conducted at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center and Duke University Medical Center, showed that MK-0457 demonstrated clinical activity in select patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) and Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute lymphocytic leukemia (Ph+ ALL) with the T315I BCR-ABL mutation and also in patients with refractory JAK-2 positive myeloproliferative diseases (MPD). The results were presented in an oral presentation at the 48th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) in Orlando, FL.
