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 It also announced a partnership with privately-held Ridgeback
Biotherapeutics to develop an experimental oral antiviral drug
against COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel
coronavirus.
It did not disclose the terms of acquisition of Themis, a privately
held company.
Most big pharmaceutical companies have already placed their bets on
COVID-19 treatments, but Merck has been waiting for opportunities
with proven track records, Chief Executive Ken Frazier said.
"We wanted to be in a position where we could choose things that
have the right kind of characteristics to make a contribution for a
virus that's likely to be with us for some time," he told Reuters in
an interview.
Both vaccines are designed to be delivered in a single dose.
The Themis vaccine, developed in collaboration with the Institut
Pasteur in Paris, is based on a modified measles virus that delivers
bits of the SARS-CoV-2 virus into the body to prevent COVID-19.
It was developed in part through funding from the Coalition for
Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).
Merck said it moving very fast with this candidate and expects to
start vaccinating volunteers "within weeks."
The IAVI vaccine uses the same technology as Merck’s Ebola vaccine
ERVEBO, recently approved by the European Commission and the U.S.
Food & Drug Administration.
That candidate, which Merck is developing jointly with IAVI, is
expected to start human trials sometime this year, Frazier said.
The U.S. Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) is
backing the effort.
Both vaccines are made using technologies that have resulted in
licensed products, unlike some frontrunners, such as the rapidly
developed vaccine from Moderna Inc <MRNA.O>, which is expected to
start large, late-stage clinical trials in July.
Last week, Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes
of Health, said Merck's vaccine, and those from Johnson & Johnson <JNJ.N>
and Sanofi <SASY.PA>, are a month or two behind Moderna's, but may
get added to large efficacy trials this summer as they wrap up
early-stage studies.
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"I think we'll be in a position to participate," Frazier said.
Merck intends to shoulder the cost of scaling up production of the vaccines
before either has been proven to work, although it has not yet determined where
they will be manufactured commercially, he said.
Doses of the Themis vaccine are already being made in France for clinical
trials. Merck also plans to begin early production of the vaccine it is
developing with IAVI at its plant in Pennsylvania.
Frazier said Merck had not signed any pacts with the U.S. government to deliver
doses of either vaccine to Americans first, adding that it was committed to make
its vaccines accessible globally and affordably.
Ridgeback's pill, EIDD-2801, is designed to block virus reproduction, and has
shown promise in animal studies of multiple coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2.
It has also been shown to be safe and well tolerated in early stage trials.
Frazier compared it to Gilead Sciences' <GILD.O> remdesivir, but it would be a
pill, rather than an intravenous infusion. Efficacy trials will start later this
year.
"If the drug works, we would be able to produce billions of doses," Frazier
added.
The United States has recorded more than 1.6 million virus infections and over
97,000 deaths, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on
Monday.
(Interactive graphic tracking global spread of coronavirus: open https://tmsnrt.rs/3aIRuz7
in an external browser.)
(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago and Michael Erman in New York;
Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
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