Merck-Backed Lab Gets $8.5 Million to Fast-Track a Vaccine For a Rapidly Spreading Ebola Outbreak - Merck

Hilleman Laboratories, a Singapore-based joint venture of Merck & Co.

Inc.

(NYSE:MRK) MSD division and Wellcome, said Thursday it will develop and manufacture clinical trial doses of an investigational Bundibugyo Ebola vaccine with up to $8.5 million in funding from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).

The vaccine candidate uses the recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus (rVSV) platform and is being advanced in response to the ongoing Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

No approved vaccine currently exists for the strain.