The vaccine will be developed on the basis of Merck's Ebola Zaire virus vaccine and funding will in part be supported by the U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA). Work on the rVSV vaccine candidate is being conducted at IAVI's Vaccine Design and Development Laboratory in Brooklyn, NY.

Under the agreement, IAVI and Merck will work together to advance the development and clinical evaluation of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate engineered by IAVI scientists. Preclinical development and clinical studies are planned to begin later in 2020 led by Merck.

Merck to acquire Themis for SARS-CoV-2 vaccine
Merck announced on May 26 that it has entered an agreement to acquire privately held Themis, a company that is developing a vaccine candidate for SARS-CoV-2.

Merck, Ridgeback Bio partner on COVID-19 antiviral
Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics announced that they have entered a collaboration to develop EIDD-2801, an orally available antiviral candidate in...

NIH leadership discusses COVID-19 vaccine collaborations
Public-private partnerships could help meet the unprecedented need to manufacture and distribute safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines around the globe,...

Serimmune, Merck reach drug discovery milestone
Serimmune has used its immune mapping technology on clinical and preclinical samples provided by Merck.