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news.The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) of the United States Department of Defense has awarded a subsidiary of NewLink Genetics a $2.8m base contract with potential future options totaling $6.3m to support the development of vaccines against filovirus species including Marburg and Ebola Sudan viruses, which could be combined with Ebola Zaire virus in a multivalent vaccine formulation or vaccination schedule.
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The majority of the work in this contract will take place under an agreement with Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp., a subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc. ("Merck") (known as MSD outside the United States and Canada).
NewLink Genetics has licensed research, development and manufacturing of its Ebola vaccine program, including these filovirus vaccine candidates, to Merck.
NewLink Genetics and Merck are continuing efforts for development of a recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus-Ebola Zaire (rVSV-ZEBOV) vaccine (V920). The rVSV-filovirus vaccine platform was originally developed by the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) and was subsequently licensed to a subsidiary of NewLink Genetics.
"Preclinical and clinical studies with the rVSV-ZEBOV candidate suggest that the inclusion of other filoviruses in this vaccine platform can be used to develop multiple vaccines or a single multivalent formula which is our ultimate goal," said Dr. Charles Link, CEO and Chief Scientific Officer of NewLink Genetics.
"These funds will support studies to further advance these candidates."