In Tuesday's trading, shares of Oncothyreon Inc., that created big pace last year following the launch of a phase III experiment of a budding cancer vaccine, Stimuvax, plunged 120% to $2.09.

Oncothyreon's partner Merck KGaA of Darmstadt, Germany and its U. S. associate, EMD Serono Inc., have provisionally suspended the global clinical development program for Stimuvax, owing to a supposed unpredicted critical adverse reaction in patient with multiple myeloma participating in a probing clinical test. The patient developed encephalitis, or inflammation of the brain.

Stimuvax is an experimental therapeutic cancer vaccine being developed by Merck KGaA under a license agreement with Oncothyreon. MUC1, a protein antigen is over stated in all cancer cells, comprising lung, breast and colorectal. Stimuvax is believed to work by invigorating the body's immune system to discover and annihilate cancer cells expressing MUC1.

The vaccine, Stimuvax is being researched under a late-stage study called STRIDE in breast cancer patients, in a late-stage study named START in lung cancer patients, and in a late-stage dubbed INSPIRE in Asian patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer.

It is evident that the suspension of the study of Stimuvax obviously had a negative effect on the Oncothyreon. The company was counting on the vaccine to become the best-seller.

According to Markus Mayer, an analyst at UniCredit Research in Munich, "Stimuvax was expected to become the next cancer blockbuster. Therefore, the bad news has certain weight for Merck's pharma growth expectations".

The delay seems to have substantially ruined Oncothyreon's plans. It will now have to wait for the suspension to be lifted so that it can resume its research on the vaccine.