eTheRNA immunotherapies announces the start of a strategic partnership with Merck with the signing of a Research Agreement. The partnership will investigate the application of eTheRNA’s proprietary mRNA design expertise and LNP-delivery platforms to disease areas selected by Merck.
The ongoing pandemic has underlined the capability for mRNA vaccines as a new therapeutic modality. eTheRNA and Merck both recognise the potential for using targeted mRNA therapeutics in an expanded range of diseases. With this collaboration, eTheRNA and Merck will assess the feasibility of using eTheRNA’s mRNA and LNP technologies to develop therapeutic vaccination approaches in models of disease. If successful, mRNAs encoding antigens nominated by Merck and directly relevant for human diseases will then be designed and evaluated preclinically.