New Collaboration to Leverage Complementary
Expertise and Capabilities with rVSV Technology to Advance Novel
Vaccine Candidate
Merck (NYSE: MRK), known as MSD outside the United States and
Canada, and IAVI, a nonprofit scientific research organization
dedicated to addressing urgent, unmet global health challenges,
today announced a new collaboration to develop an investigational
vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 to be used for the prevention of
COVID-19. This vaccine candidate will use the recombinant vesicular
stomatitis virus (rVSV) technology that is the basis for Merck’s
Ebola Zaire virus vaccine, ERVEBO® (Ebola Zaire Vaccine, Live),
which was the first rVSV vaccine approved for use in humans. Merck
has also signed an agreement with the Biomedical Advanced Research
and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the office of the
Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response within an agency
of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, to
provide initial funding support for this effort.
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Under the agreement IAVI and Merck will work together to advance
the development and global clinical evaluation of a SARS-CoV-2
vaccine candidate designed and engineered by IAVI scientists. The
vaccine candidate is in preclinical development, and clinical
studies are planned to start later in 2020. Merck will lead
regulatory filings globally. Both organizations will work together
to develop the vaccine and make it accessible and affordable
globally, if approved.
“COVID-19 is an enormous scientific, medical, and global health
challenge. Merck is collaborating with organizations around the
globe to develop anti-infectives and vaccines that aim to alleviate
suffering caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection,” said Dr. Roger M.
Perlmutter, president, Merck Research Laboratories. “Merck and IAVI
are eager to combine our respective strengths to accelerate
development of an rVSV vaccine candidate, with the goal of blunting
the trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
“We believe an rVSV-based vaccine strategy represents a
promising approach to combating the novel coronavirus pandemic and
look forward to implementing an accelerated development program,
together with Merck, to evaluate the potential of our vaccine
candidate against SARS-CoV-2. The collaboration between Merck and
IAVI represents an innovative partnership model and approach to
utilize our joint capabilities in complementary and synergistic
ways to address this difficult global health challenge,” said Dr.
Mark Feinberg, IAVI president and CEO.
“A safe, effective vaccine will help prevent future outbreaks of
SARS-CoV-2,” said BARDA Acting Director Gary Disbrow, Ph.D. “We are
encouraged by the willingness of our private sector counterparts to
come together as force multipliers to expedite vaccine development
and to help save lives.”
Merck is a global leader in infectious diseases and vaccines,
with a decades-long history of researching, developing,
manufacturing and distributing vaccines for children, adolescents
and adults. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Merck is focused
on protecting the safety of its employees and their families,
ensuring that our supply of medicines and vaccines reaches our
patients and customers, contributing our scientific expertise to
the development of antiviral and vaccine approaches, and supporting
health care providers and our communities. To learn more, please
visit www.merck.com/COVID-19.
IAVI’s rVSV vaccine preclinical development, including work on
the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate, is being done by scientists at
IAVI’s Design and Development Laboratory (DDL) in Brooklyn, New
York. This program is part of a long-standing effort to develop
rVSV vaccines for HIV as well as other emerging infectious diseases
such as Lassa fever, Marburg, and Ebola Sudan disease, under the
leadership of Dr. Swati Gupta, head of Emerging Infectious Diseases
and Scientific Strategy, IAVI.
About the rVSV Vaccine Platform
The recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus (rVSV) vaccine
platform uses an attenuated strain of vesicular stomatitis virus, a
common animal virus that has been modified to express proteins that
stimulate an immune response. IAVI and Merck will leverage
experience gained with this platform during the development of
Merck’s rVSV-based vaccine for Ebola Zaire.
About IAVI
IAVI is a nonprofit scientific research organization dedicated
to addressing urgent, unmet global health challenges including HIV
and tuberculosis. Its mission is to translate scientific
discoveries into affordable, globally accessible public health
solutions. Read more at iavi.org.
About Merck
For more than 125 years, Merck, known as MSD outside of the
United States and Canada, has been inventing for life, bringing
forward medicines and vaccines for many of the world’s most
challenging diseases in pursuit of our mission to save and improve
lives. We demonstrate our commitment to patients and population
health by increasing access to health care through far-reaching
policies, programs and partnerships. Today, Merck continues to be
at the forefront of research to prevent and treat diseases that
threaten people and animals – including cancer, infectious diseases
such as HIV and Ebola, and emerging animal diseases – as we aspire
to be the premier research-intensive biopharmaceutical company in
the world. For more information, visit www.merck.com and connect
with us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn.
Forward-Looking Statement of Merck & Co., Inc.,
Kenilworth, N.J., USA
This news release of Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, N.J.,
USA (the “company”) includes “forward-looking statements” within
the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are
based upon the current beliefs and expectations of the company’s
management and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties.
There can be no guarantees with respect to pipeline products that
the products will receive the necessary regulatory approvals or
that they will prove to be commercially successful. If underlying
assumptions prove inaccurate or risks or uncertainties materialize,
actual results may differ materially from those set forth in the
forward-looking statements.
Risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to, general
industry conditions and competition; general economic factors,
including interest rate and currency exchange rate fluctuations;
the impact of the recent global outbreak of novel coronavirus
disease (COVID-19); the impact of pharmaceutical industry
regulation and health care legislation in the United States and
internationally; global trends toward health care cost containment;
technological advances, new products and patents attained by
competitors; challenges inherent in new product development,
including obtaining regulatory approval; the company’s ability to
accurately predict future market conditions; manufacturing
difficulties or delays; financial instability of international
economies and sovereign risk; dependence on the effectiveness of
the company’s patents and other protections for innovative
products; and the exposure to litigation, including patent
litigation, and/or regulatory actions.
The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any
forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information,
future events or otherwise. Additional factors that could cause
results to differ materially from those described in the
forward-looking statements can be found in the company’s 2019
Annual Report on Form 10-K and the company’s other filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) available at the SEC’s
Internet site (www.sec.gov).
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Merck Media: Patrick Ryan +1 (201) 452-2409
Imraan Munshi +1 (267) 884-1358
Merck Investors: Peter Dannenbaum +1 (908) 740-1037
Michael DeCarbo +1 (908) 740-1807
IAVI Media: Karie Youngdahl +1 (212) 847-1051
kyoungdahl@iavi.org
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