26 May 2020 - - US-based pharmaceutical company Merck (NYSE: MRK) and nonprofit scientific research organisation IAVI, a nonprofit scientific research organization dedicated to addressing urgent, unmet global health challenges, TODAY announced a new collaboration to develop an investigational vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 to be used for the prevention of COVID-19.

This vaccine candidate will use the recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus technology that is the basis for Merck's Ebola Zaire virus vaccine, ERVEBO (Ebola Zaire Vaccine, Live), which was the first rVSV vaccine approved for use in humans.

Merck has also signed an agreement with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the office of the Assistant secretary for Preparedness and Response within an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, to provide initial funding support for this effort.

Under the agreement IAVI and Merck will work together to advance the development and global clinical evaluation of a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate designed and engineered by IAVI scientists.

The vaccine candidate is in preclinical development, and clinical studies are planned to start later in 2020. Merck will lead regulatory filings globally.

Both organisations said they will work together to develop the vaccine and make it accessible and affordable globally, if approved.

IAVI's rVSV vaccine preclinical development, including work on the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate, is being done by scientists at IAVI's Design and Development Laboratory in Brooklyn, New York.

This programme is part of a long-standing effort to develop rVSV vaccines for HIV as well as other emerging infectious diseases such as Lassa fever, Marburg, and Ebola Sudan disease, under a leadership of Dr. Swati Gupta, head of Emerging Infectious Diseases and Scientific Strategy, IAVI.

The recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus vaccine platform uses an attenuated strain of vesicular stomatitis virus, a common animal virus that has been modified to express proteins that stimulate an immune response.

IAVI and Merck will leverage experience gained with this platform during the development of Merck's rVSV-based vaccine for Ebola Zaire.

IAVI is a nonprofit scientific research organization dedicated to addressing urgent, unmet global health challenges including HIV and tuberculosis. Its mission is to translate scientific discoveries into affordable, globally accessible public health solutions.