With several companies already entering the fight against Covid-19, one of the largest drugmakers in the U.S. said Tuesday it is making a major push of its own, through an acquisition and partnerships to develop an antiviral and a vaccine.
In Kenilworth, New Jersey-based Merck made multiple announcements Tuesday morning related to efforts against Covid-19. First, it said, it would acquire Themis, an Austrian private company that develops vaccines. It then announced a partnership with New York-based global health nonprofit IAVI to develop a vaccine against the virus that causes the disease, SARS-CoV-2, and with Miami-based Ridgeback Bio, to develop an oral antiviral drug.
“With our singular legacy and expertise in vaccines and anti-infective medicines, we know Merck has a responsibility to engage in the scientific community’s efforts to find new medicines and vaccines to bring this pandemic to an end,” Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier said in a statement. “Merck has been fully committed to developing an effective response to the Covid-19 pandemic since it was first recognized, and we know that success will require global collaboration among countries and companies and more.”
Shares of Merck were up 1.8% on the New York Stock Exchange late Tuesday morning. Shares were up generally after markets reopened after being closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Themis, based in Vienna, has several vaccines in clinical and preclinical development. In March, it became part of a consortium with the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Vaccine Research and France’s Institut Pasteur to develop a Covid-19 vaccine, with funding from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations. Themis will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Merck, though financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Under the deal with Ridgeback, the two companies will develop EIDD-2801, an oral antiviral product candidate already in early clinical development. ClinicalTrials.gov lists a Phase I study that opened last week, comparing the drug against placebo in 122 healthy volunteers. The study is expected to complete in the middle of June. Under the agreement with Ridgeback, Merck will acquire exclusive worldwide rights to develop and commercialize the drug and molecules related to it, taking on responsibility for clinical development, regulatory filings and manufacturing. Gilead Sciences won an emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration earlier this month for its antiviral against SARS-CoV-2, remdesivir, though that drug is intravenous and can be administered only to hospitalized patients.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
The vaccine that Merck is developing with IAVI is based on the recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus technology that is the basis of Ervebo, the company’s vaccine against Ebola Zaire virus. Initial funding support will be provided by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority. Clinical trials are expected to start this year. Currently, Moderna and CanSino Biologics are in the lead to develop vaccines against Covid-19, while Pfizer and BioNTech also have a candidate in clinical development.
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