Moderna Licenses New Vaccine Candidates Against A New Viral Target To Merck & Co.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Moderna Therapeutics, a pioneer in the development of messenger RNA (mRNA) Therapeutics™, today announced that Merck, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, has licensed a vaccine program against an undisclosed viral target, including mRNA 1566 and a set of related novel vaccine candidates, as part of the ongoing collaboration between the companies to discover and develop vaccines and passive immunity treatments against viral diseases using modified messenger RNA (mRNA). The inclusion of this new program, which was not part of the original collaboration agreement, follows the rapid progress made in the first year of the collaboration. Moderna’s contribution is led by Valera, its infectious disease-focused venture.