NewLink Genetic and Merck Ebola collaboration gets $30 million government award

23 December 2014

US biotech firm NewLink Genetics (Nasdaq: NLNK) saw its shares gain 4.1% to $40.11 in morning trading on Monday, following news of a government award for its Ebola vaccine program.

NewLink Genetics and partner US pharma giant Merck & Co (NYSE: MRK) announced yesterday that the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has awarded NewLink Genetics' wholly-owned subsidiary, BioProtection Systems, as the prime contractor in a $30 million contract to support the manufacturing and development activities of its investigational rVSV-EBOV (Ebola) vaccine candidate, including clinical development through a new 330-person Phase Ib study.

The vaccine candidate was initially developed by the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), and is now being developed under an exclusive licensing and collaboration agreement between NewLink Genetics and Merck. The rVSV-EBOV (Ebola) vaccine candidate is currently being evaluated in Phase I clinical studies in humans.

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