{"id":17765,"date":"2020-08-10T16:30:07","date_gmt":"2020-08-10T14:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hollandbio.nl\/?p=17765"},"modified":"2020-08-11T14:17:27","modified_gmt":"2020-08-11T12:17:27","slug":"merck-nears-clinical-tests-for-coronavirus-vaccine-candidates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hollandbio.nl\/en\/nieuws\/merck-nears-clinical-tests-for-coronavirus-vaccine-candidates\/","title":{"rendered":"Merck nears clinical tests for coronavirus vaccine candidates"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Merck &amp; Co. (in Europe: MSD) plans to soon begin clinical testing of two coronavirus vaccine candidates recently acquired through deals with Austrian biotech Themis and the nonprofit group IAVI, the company said Friday.\u00a0<\/li><li>A study of the Themis vaccine is expected to start first, likely sometime in August, while the shot developed by IAVI\u00a0will enter the clinic sometime later this year. Merck has made a point of advancing its research carefully, even as other groups raced ahead to start trials in the spring and early summer.<\/li><li>Ken Frazier, the drugmaker&#8217;s longtime CEO, has previously said\u00a0promises that a vaccine will be ready by the end of this year are a &#8220;grave disservice to the public.&#8221; Even so, Merck&#8217;s R&amp;D chief told investors Friday that the early study results released to date for other vaccine candidates, like Moderna&#8217;s, give grounds for &#8220;reasonable optimism.&#8221;\u00a0<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Merck was the last of the major vaccine companies to disclose its plans for a coronavirus vaccine, announcing in late May the acquisition of Themis and a new partnership with IAVI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Two months on, those projects are nearing clinical testing and Merck executives are making the case for why they waited.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;There&#8217;s reason to believe that multiple different vaccines will be required in order to manage this extraordinary pandemic,&#8221; said Roger Perlmutter, president of Merck Research Laboratories, on a company earnings call Friday.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Perlmutter&nbsp;described Merck&#8217;s hope that both the Themis and IAVI shots, which are based on already established vaccine technologies, would be potent enough to be given via a single shot \u2014 a goal shared by Johnson &amp; Johnson, but one that&#8217;s proved challenging to meet.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">IAVI&#8217;s&nbsp;vaccine is constructed using a vesicular stomatitis virus that delivers the genetic code for the coronavirus&#8217; spike protein, while the Themis candidate uses a modified measles virus to accomplish the same task. In both cases, the delivery viruses are engineered so they reproduce, but don&#8217;t infect the body.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Preclinical studies have shown the candidates can spur production of antibodies capable of neutralizing the SARS-CoV-2 virus, Perlmutter said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Notably, Perlmutter suggested the IAVI candidate could have the potential to be given orally, rather than injected, which could make vaccination easier.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While early-stage studies have yet to begin, plans for the large efficacy studies needed to win regulatory clearance are nearly complete, Perlmutter said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In addition to vaccines, Merck also licensed an oral antiviral drug from Ridgeback Bio, with which it&#8217;s collaborating on development. Per the agreement, Merck has exclusive global rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biopharmadive.com\/news\/merck-coronavirus-vaccine-clinical-study\/582699\/\">Biopharmadive<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Merck &amp; Co. (in Europe: MSD) plans to soon begin clinical testing of two coronavirus vaccine candidates recently acquired through deals with Austrian biotech Themis and the nonprofit group IAVI, the company said Friday.\u00a0 A study of the Themis vaccine is expected to start first, likely sometime in August, while the shot developed by IAVI\u00a0will [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gezondheid"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Merck nears clinical tests for coronavirus vaccine candidates - hollandbio<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hollandbio.nl\/en\/nieuws\/merck-nears-clinical-tests-for-coronavirus-vaccine-candidates\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Merck nears clinical tests for coronavirus vaccine candidates - hollandbio\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Merck &amp; Co. (in Europe: MSD) plans to soon begin clinical testing of two coronavirus vaccine candidates recently acquired through deals with Austrian biotech Themis and the nonprofit group IAVI, the company said Friday.\u00a0 A study of the Themis vaccine is expected to start first, likely sometime in August, while the shot developed by IAVI\u00a0will [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.hollandbio.nl\/en\/nieuws\/merck-nears-clinical-tests-for-coronavirus-vaccine-candidates\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"hollandbio\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-08-10T14:30:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-08-11T12:17:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.hollandbio.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/hb-opengraph_illu.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"HollandBIO\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@hollandbio\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@hollandbio\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"HollandBIO\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hollandbio.nl\\\/en\\\/nieuws\\\/merck-nears-clinical-tests-for-coronavirus-vaccine-candidates\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hollandbio.nl\\\/en\\\/nieuws\\\/merck-nears-clinical-tests-for-coronavirus-vaccine-candidates\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"HollandBIO\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hollandbio.nl\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/48824449f08e494bb7ea02e1ff5dd6ea\"},\"headline\":\"Merck nears clinical tests for coronavirus vaccine candidates\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-08-10T14:30:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-08-11T12:17:27+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hollandbio.nl\\\/en\\\/nieuws\\\/merck-nears-clinical-tests-for-coronavirus-vaccine-candidates\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":442,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hollandbio.nl\\\/en\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Gezondheid\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hollandbio.nl\\\/en\\\/nieuws\\\/merck-nears-clinical-tests-for-coronavirus-vaccine-candidates\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hollandbio.nl\\\/en\\\/nieuws\\\/merck-nears-clinical-tests-for-coronavirus-vaccine-candidates\\\/\",\"name\":\"Merck nears clinical tests for coronavirus vaccine candidates - 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