NEW YORK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th May, 2020) The US pharmaceuticals company Merck said it was acquiring Austria's Themis Bioscience and working with two organizations in the United States - IAVI and Ridgeback Bio - to develop vaccines and other drug initiatives to fight the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
"[The acquisition] is expected to accelerate the development of Themis' COVID-19 vaccine candidate," Merck said in a statement. "The vaccine candidate is in pre-clinical development, and clinical studies are planned to start later in 2020."
Merck said it was collaborating with the New York-based IAVI to develop another COVID-19 vaccine based on the technology deployed on Merck's Ebola vaccine ERVEBO.
The US Advanced Research and Development Authority is backing the joint-initiative with IAVI, Merck noted.
Merck also said it was developing with the Florida-based Ridgeback Bio a pill called EIDD-2801 that was designed to block the virus from reproducing and has shown promise in animal studies of multiple strains of coronaviruses.
