Now that the ovarian cancer drug vintafolide has crumbled in Phase III, Merck ($MRK) and its partner Endocyte ($ECYT) have pulled their conditional marketing application in Europe and are moving to close down the study. Enrollment was halted a couple of weeks ago after the monitoring group concluded that it was futile to proceed after missing its mark on progression-free survival. European regulators had supported a conditional approval back in March, but that's all ancient history now. The companies plan on waiting for Phase IIb results for non-small cell lung cancer before they make a final determination on the drug's fate. Release