IAVI and Merck collaborate to develop vaccine against COVID-19

Scientific research organisations- IAVI and Merck collaborate in order to develop a vaccine against COVID-19. Their main aim is to make the vaccine accessible and affordable globally, if approved.

Hyderabad: IAVI, a non-profit scientific research organisation along with Merck (NYSE: MRK), popularly known as MSD have announced to develop an investigational vaccine to curb the deadly virus allegedly originated from Wuhan province of China.

Both the organisation will work together to advance the development and global clinical evaluation of a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. Their main aim is to make the vaccine accessible and affordable globally, if approved.

This vaccine candidate will use the recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus (rVSV) 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.

The President of Merck Research Laboratories Dr Roger M. Perlmutter said, "COVID-19 is an enormous scientific, medical, and global health challenge. Merck is collaborating with organizations around the globe to develop anti-infectives and vaccines that aim to alleviate the suffering caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection. Merck and IAVI are eager to combine our respective strengths to accelerate the development of an rVSV vaccine candidate, with the goal of blunting the trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic."

Dr Mark Feinberg, IAVI President and CEO said, "We believe an rVSV-based vaccine strategy represents a promising approach to combating the novel coronavirus pandemic and look forward to implementing an accelerated development program, together with Merck, to evaluate the potential of our vaccine candidate against SARS-CoV-2. The collaboration between Merck and IAVI represents an innovative partnership model and approach to utilize our joint capabilities in complementary and synergistic ways to address this difficult global health challenge."

The organisation also claimed that their program 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 the leadership of Dr. Swati Gupta, head of Emerging Infectious Diseases and Scientific Strategy, IAVI.