NewLink, Merck Collaboration On Ebola Vaccine Candidate Gets $30 Mln Govt Aid

(RTTNews) - NewLink Genetics Corp. (NLNK) and Merck (MRK) said the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority of the United States Department of Health and Human Services 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. This includes clinical development through a new 330-person Phase Ib study.

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

Pending the results of Phase I trials underway, the US National Institutes of Health has announced plans to initiate early next year, a large randomized, controlled Phase II/III study to evaluate the safety and efficacy of this and another investigational Ebola vaccine candidate.