Merck and Serum Institute of India announced an agreement “to work together to develop and commercialize a pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) for use in the emerging and developing world countries.” Merck and Serum said they will form a Product Advisory Committee to oversee the activities required to develop and seek approval for PCV and pursue World Health Organization (WHO) prequalification. Under the terms of the agreement, Merck, through an affiliate, will receive specific rights to market PCV in certain designated territories and Serum will receive specific rights in other territories. Both companies will contribute to the development and manufacture of PCV. Merck and Serum noted that the specific financial details of this agreement are confidential, and that the collaboration “does not impact the on-going vaccine development programs in both the organizations.”
Cyrus Poonawalla, CMD, Chairman, Serum Institute, commented, “Serum Institute is committed to improving access to and affordability of vaccines for children throughout the world. In working closely with Merck in the development of this collaboration it became clear that we share parallel public health goals and that our passion for getting vaccines to everyone who needs them is made even stronger by working together.” Julie L. Gerberding, president, Merck Vaccines, said, “Working side by side with Serum gives us the best chance of developing and bringing a product to the market that will help to protect more babies and children. Expanding vaccine access to emerging and developing markets is a top priority and we feel strongly that this collaboration will be a giant step toward impacting the devastation of pneumococcal disease.”
vaccines and global health :: ethics and policy 