Leading pharmaceutical developer Merck & Co., Inc. will not be seeking regulatory approval for taranabant, an investigational drug, for the treatment of obesity. The company is going to discontinue its Phase III clinical development program. The available data from Phase III of the trial indicated that both effectiveness and incidence of adverse events were related to dosage, efficacy being greater and adverse events more in the higher doses. After taking this into account, the company determined that the overall profile of taranabant did not support the case for further development of the medication.