Barclays reiterates its 'buy' recommendation on Merck KGaA, but lowers its target price from €205 to €195, following the decision to halt a Phase III clinical trial evaluating an experimental treatment for head and neck cancer.

Although xevinapant represented only 2% of Merck's group NPV, we expect the stock to fall much further today, given that this is (another) surprising setback for the healthcare pipeline', the broker judges.

While Barclays says it continues to like Merck, it concedes that the German healthcare group 'will need to rebuild credibility on its pipeline prowess'.

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