Why did Merck & Company fall on 5 October?
Written after the close on
Merck & Company −3.30%
Merck fell sharply as Vaxcyte's vaccine win stung. Merck & Co., Inc. fell sharply over the last five trading days, moving against a rising market and underperforming a clearly weaker healthcare sector. The likely driver was Vaxcyte's pivotal trial win for its 31-strain pneumococcal vaccine, which matched or beat Merck's Capvaxive on most shared strains — a competitive threat to one of Merck's newer growth products — while a modest trim of a fund's stake added minor pressure. A "biosimilar" is a cheaper near-copy of a biologic drug, and Merck's Keytruda, roughly half of sales, faces these from December 2028, a worry the market keeps revisiting. Watch the late-October earnings report for pipeline and Keytruda-lifecycle updates.
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