Merck links up with Brazilian non-profit for Dengue vaccines development

US pharma giant Merck & Co (NYSE: MRK) and Instituto Butantan, Sao Paulo, Brazil, a non-profit producer of immunobiologic products for Brazil have entered into a collaboration agreement to develop vaccines to protect against dengue virus disease, the mosquito-borne infection.

Instituto Butantan and Merck, known as MSD outside of the USA and Canada, have licensed certain rights from National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the United States National Institutes of Health (NIH), for the development of live attenuated tetravalent vaccines (LATV). Instituto Butantan’s dengue vaccine candidate, TV003, is currently being evaluated in a large Phase III study in Brazil.

“By sharing data from our ongoing vaccine development programs, Instituto Butantan and Merck are better positioned to achieve our goal of reducing the significant human and economic toll of dengue virus in Brazil and around the world,” said Dr Dimas Covas, director, Instituto Butantan. “We look forward to collaborating with Merck, an established global leader in vaccine development.”