Moderna regains RSV vaccine program; gets $56 million award

9 October 2020

US biotech Moderna (Nasdaq: MRNA) and pharma giant Merck & Co (NYSE: MRK) were both up 1% pre-market yesterday after they revealed the latter was returning rights to a vaccine program.

As a result, Moderna regains all rights to the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine (mRNA-1172) from Merck, including rights to develop RSV vaccines for adult populations. mRNA-1172, which uses a Merck lipid nanoparticle for delivery, entered Phase I development in 2019.

Under the terms of the agreement, Merck will complete the Phase I study and transition the program to Moderna. Moderna has now consolidated all global commercial rights to all development candidates in its core prophylactic vaccines modality. Among its RSV candidates, Merck decided to focus its efforts on RSV infections through its antibody program that is currently in Phase II development.

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