Merck joins the race to develop coronavirus vaccines and therapies
Merck, a global leader in vaccine development, is joining the frenzied rush to vanquish the coronavirus, announcing Tuesday that it is working on two vaccine candidates and a potential drug therapy.
Merck, which is headquartered in New Jersey and has several facilities in Pennsylvania, is backing two vaccines that involve genetically engineering an inactivated virus as a vehicle to deliver proteins that provoke an immune response to the coronavirus.
Merck has acquired Vienna-based Themis, which is using a weakened strain of the measles virus as the delivery vehicle. Merck is also partnering with IAVI, a nonprofit research organization, on a coronavirus vaccine that uses VSV (vesicular stomatitis virus) as the delivery vehicle. VSV is the same technology on which Merck’s Ebola vaccine is built.
Both experimental immunizations are completing testing in animals, and should begin human testing later this year, Merck said in news releases.
Read more: https://www.inquirer.com/health/coronavirus/coronavirus-vaccine-therapies-race-now-includes-merck-20200526.html
