Merck was purposely cautious during the start of the pandemic when it came to vaccine development but is now slowly but surely ramping up its efforts into the clinic.
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Merck & Co Inc, which has largely kept to the sidelines of the race for COVID-19 treatments, said it was buying Austrian vaccine maker Themis Bioscience and would collaborate with research nonprofit IAVI to develop two separate vaccines.
Themis, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on immunomodulation therapies for infectious diseases and cancer, and ABL Europe (ABL), a global Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) and Contract Research Organization (CRO) a subsidiary of the French bioindustrial group Institut Mérieux, announced today that they have signed an agreement under which ABL will manufacture Themis' vaccine candidate in preparation for clinical trials. The vaccine is being developed using a proprietary measles virus vaccine platform technology, which is licensed exclusively to Themis by the world-renowned Institut Pasteur in Paris.