Merck to Buy Themis
Summary
Merck (NYSE: MRK), through a subsidiary, is to acquire Themis, a Vienna, Austria-based company focused on vaccines and immune-modulation therapies for infectious diseases and cancer. Led by Dr. Erich Tauber, CEO, Themis has a broad pipeline of vaccine candidates and immune-modulatory therapies developed using its innovative measles virus vector platform based on a vector originally developed by scientists at the Institut Pasteur, a European vaccine research institute, and licensed exclusively to it for select viral indications. The measles vector platform is being evaluated across a wide range of infectious disease and immunology indications. The measles vector is designed to provide a vehicle to deliver antigens to the immune system capable of triggering a protective memory response. It has been incorporated into vaccine development programs against infectious diseases including SARS, Chikungunya, MERS, and Lassa fever.