07:00 AM EDT, 09/02/2025 (MT Newswires) -- Merck ( MRK ) said Saturday that its phase 3 Victor trial evaluating Verquvo, or vericiguat, in adult patients with stable chronic heart failure and reduced ejection fraction did not reach statistical significance for its primary endpoint of combined time to first cardiovascular death or heart failure hospitalization.

The trial compared Verquvo against placebo in patients with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction without a recent worsening heart failure event who were receiving guideline-directed therapy.

In a pre-specified pooled analysis of patient-level data from more than 11,000 patients from the complementary Victor and Victoria phase 3 trials, Verquvo showed a statistically significant reduction in the composite endpoint of cardiovascular death or heart failure hospitalization across a broad range of disease severity, Merck ( MRK ) said.

In the Victor trial, 18% of patients treated with Verquvo saw a reduction in the risk of the primary composite outcome of the first cardiovascular death or heart failure hospitalization, compared with 19.1% in the placebo group.

Secondary endpoints showed 9.6% cardiovascular deaths in patients with Verquvo compared with 11.3% in the placebo group, while heart failure hospitalization occurred in 11.4% of patients receiving Verquvo and 11.9% of patients receiving placebo. The safety profile was consistent with prior studies.