Vaccine company Merck (NYSE:MRK) revealed on Friday the completion of the acquisition of Themis upon early termination of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 and merger control clearance from the Austrian Federal Competition Authority
Themis is a privately-held company focused on vaccines and immune-modulation therapies for infectious diseases and cancer. It has developed a broad pipeline of vaccine candidates and immune-modulatory therapies using its innovative measles virus vector platform based on a vector originally developed by scientists at the Institut Pasteur and licensed exclusively to Themis for select viral indications.
In March 2020, Themis joined Institut Pasteur and The Center for Vaccine Research at the University of Pittsburgh to develop a vaccine candidate targeting SARS-CoV-2 for the prevention of COVID-19 under funding from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.
Upon closing, Themis is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Merck. The partnership will accelerate the development of a measles vector-based SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate that is currently in pre-clinical development and clinical studies are planned to start later in 2020.
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