Merck & Co (MSD) has taken the first of two possible plunges in its ongoing collaboration with Evaxion, gaining the rights to a mystery infectious disease vaccine candidate.
The US big pharma decided to option a licensing deal for AI-discovered vaccine EVX-B3, which will see Evaxion in line for nearly $600m. The deal is part of a previous agreement between the two companies from September 2024 that gave MSD the option to exclusively license EVX-B3, as well as potential gonorrhoea vaccine EVX-B2.
Now that MSD wishes to incorporate EVX-B3 into its own pipeline, Denmark-based Evaxion will receive a cash payment of $7.5m, extending its cash runway to 2027. The biotech is also set for future development, regulatory and sales milestone payments of up to $592m, as well as royalties on net sales. MSD will take on full responsibility and carry all costs for the further development of EVX-B3, though an exact data of transfer was not disclosed.
“We look forward to further evaluating EVX-B3 as part of our early vaccine pipeline,” said Tarit Mukhopadhyay, head of infectious diseases and vaccine discovery at MSD Research Laboratories.
Both MSD and Evaxion have kept EVX-B3 under tight wraps, with little information known about the preclinical candidate.
In a statement, Evaxion said that EVX-B3 addresses a “serious global medical issue, targeting a pathogen associated with repeated infections, increasing incidence and often serious medical complications”. Currently, there are no vaccines available to treat the undisclosed condition.
MSD has been involved with EVX-B3 for a while. The drugmaker aided in discovering and developing the vaccine programme in September 2023, with Evaxion’s AI-Immunology platform identifying the target. In that same year, MSD Global Health Innovation Fund, the company’s venture capital arm, led a private placement financing for the Danish biotech.
Evaxion interim CEO Birgitte Rønø said: “We are delighted that MSD has exercised its option on EVX-B3 following a very successful collaboration. This has significant financial value for us, but equally important is the massive validation of our AI-Immunology platform by MSD.”
Evaxion and MSD have also agreed to extend the evaluation period for EVX-B2 as an amendment to the option and licensing agreement, due to further investigation being conducted with the candidate. Evaxion expects that MSD will decide on whether to license EVX-B2 by the first half of 2025.
The deal comes at a time of uncertainty in the US vaccine landscape. Several policy shifts and leadership changes overseen by Robert F Kennedy, Jr (RFK) have drawn criticism from scientists and public health experts. Analysts predict a volatile sector moving forward under the Trump administration.
