Wellcome Trust and Merck & Co invest $130 million to launch first-of-its-kind JV to develop affordable vaccines

The UK's Wellcome Trust and US drug major Merck & Co have announced the creation of the MSD Wellcome Trust Hilleman Laboratories ( www.hillemanlaboratories.in), the first-of-its-kind R&D joint venture with a not-for-profit mission to focus on developing affordable vaccines to prevent diseases that commonly affect low-income countries.

The JV marks the first time a research charity and a pharmaceutical company have partnered to form a separate entity with equally shared funding and decision-making rights, they claim. Pairing two of the world's preeminent health care institutions provides an opportunity to integrate the best of both to drive the investment and expertise needed to develop and deliver vaccines to low-income countries.

Will turn innovative science into practical solutions for those in greatest need

The heart of this concept is the creation of a sustainable R&D organization that operates like a business, but with a not-for-profit operating model, to address the vaccine needs of low-income countries. As well as developing new vaccines in areas of unmet need, the Hilleman Laboratories will also work on optimizing existing vaccines, an important and powerful way of increasing the impact of vaccination in resource-limited settings. By working in partnership, the Wellcome Trust and Merck seek to achieve what neither can do alone.

'Linking the ingenuity of academic research with the know-how of industry is vital if we are to produce a new generation of vaccines to reduce the burden of infectious diseases in low- income countries,' said Sir Mark Walport, Director and chief executive, the Wellcome Trust. 'The Hilleman Laboratories partnership brings together the requisite skills in a powerful way and Merck is the ideal partner because of its impressive history of innovation and contributions to global health which provide a perfect complement to the Wellcome Trust mission to improve health in the developing world," he added.

'There is a critical need to develop new ways for scientific innovation to be translated effectively into new vaccines that can save lives and protect the health of people living in low-income countries," said Richard Clark, CEO of Merck. "We believe that success in bringing forward these new vaccines can be best achieved through productive partnerships. The Wellcome Trust's strong track record in global public health and biomedical research combined with Merck's expertise in the development and delivery of vaccines positions the Hilleman Laboratories to make a real and sustained difference."

Merck and the Wellcome Trust will invest equally in the R&D joint venture, which will be primed with a combined cash contribution of £90 million ($130 million) over the next seven years and will support a staff of around 60 researchers and developers. The venture will be based in India to facilitate engagement and partnership with a broad range of experts in vaccine research, policy and manufacturing to develop and mature its R&D pipeline, the partners note.