- Recently developed manufacturing platform allows large-scale manufacturing

- Joint team reduced process development time to two months from a year – a 
critical step to manufacturing Covid-19 vaccine at scale

- "We have brought the future of vaccine manufacturing to the present," says 
Udit Batra, member of the Merck Executive Board and CEO, Life Science

Merck, a leading science and technology company, and The Jenner Institute ( 
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=2774606-1&h=401284016&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ndm.ox.ac.uk%2Fthe-jenner-institute&a=The+Jenner+Institute 
) today announced that the Jenner Institute has laid the foundation for 
large-scale production of its Covid-19 vaccine candidate, ChAdOx1 nCoV-19.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1153996/Vaccine_collaboration.jpg

With patients enrolled for clinical trials for this vaccine, rapid development 
of the large-scale manufacturing process is a critical step in quickly and 
safely delivering it from the lab to patients.

"We have brought the future of vaccine manufacturing to the present," said Udit 
Batra, member of the Merck Executive Board and CEO, Life Science. "This is an 
important step in treating Covid-19 and other diseases that impact global 
public health. This work marks a milestone in the vaccine manufacturing 
development journey, as clinical testing continues to advance."

Tapping into Merck's previous work provided a solid head start for plans to 
scale-up the manufacture of Jenner's Covid-19 vaccine candidate. Developing the 
manufacturing process itself would normally take at least six months to a year, 
but in just two months' time, Merck supported the Jenner team and their 
collaborators to evaluate the existing manufacturing platform for use with the 
new vaccine candidate, and improved critical process steps. 

Over the last two years, Merck's collaboration with The Jenner Institute has 
led to the development of a rapid, scalable platform following good 
manufacturing practices and using disposable technologies for the Institute's 
adenovirus platform. While the initial work was developed with a rabies vaccine 
candidate, the platform was then validated with different adenovirus constructs 
aiming at accelerating future vaccine development and manufacturing. Speed is a 
major challenge when facing a new outbreak such as this unprecedented Covid-19 
pandemic. The organizations first announced their partnership to develop more 
robust and scalable vaccine manufacturing processes in April 2018.

"In an unprecedented time period, The Jenner Institute's team was able to 
develop the 10-liter manufacturing scale process based on the previously 
generated platform with Merck, preparing us for the next round of scale-up 
efforts," said Dr. Sandy Douglas, vaccine manufacturing scale-up project lead 
at The Jenner Institute. "Industry collaborations, such as ours with Merck, 
showcase the value that these efforts have in accelerating our response to 
outbreaks and pandemics and quickly delivering lifesaving vaccines to benefit 
the global population."

About the Jenner Institute

The Jenner Institute was founded in November 2005 to develop innovative 
vaccines against major global diseases. Uniquely it focuses both on diseases of 
humans and livestock and tests new vaccine approaches in parallel in different 
species. A major theme is translational research involving the rapid 
early-stage development and assessment of new vaccines in clinical trials.

The Institute comprises the research activities of more than 30 Jenner 
Investigators ( 
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=2774606-1&h=3474672013&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jenner.ac.uk%2Fjenner-investigators&a=Jenner+Investigators 
) who head leading research groups spanning human and veterinary vaccine 
research and development. Together the Institute Investigators comprise one of 
the largest non-profit sector research and development activities in 
vaccinology.

Jenner Institute Investigators, through the support of many funders, are 
developing new vaccine candidates against major global infectious diseases. New 
vaccines against malaria, tuberculosis and HIV are currently in field trials in 
the developing world. Research is also underway on livestock vaccines against 
foot and mouth disease, avian influenza, bovine tuberculosis and other major 
causes of economic loss.

The Institute is a partnership between the University of Oxford ( 
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=2774606-1&h=2070606310&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ox.ac.uk%2F&a=University+of+Oxford 
) and The Pirbright Institute ( 
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=2774606-1&h=2379339640&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pirbright.ac.uk%2F&a=The+Pirbright+Institute 
) and is the successor to the former Edward Jenner Institute for Vaccine 
Research. The Institute is supported by the Jenner Vaccine Foundation ( 
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=2774606-1&h=4282942417&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jenner.ac.uk%2Fjenner-vaccine-foundation&a=Jenner+Vaccine+Foundation 
), a UK registered charity and advised by the Jenner Institute Scientific 
Advisory Board ( 
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=2774606-1&h=3621879529&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jenner.ac.uk%2Fscientific-advisory-board&a=Jenner+Institute+Scientific+Advisory+Board 
).

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About Merck

Merck, a leading science and technology company, operates across healthcare, 
life science and performance materials. Around 57,000 employees work to make a 
positive difference to millions of people's lives every day by creating more 
joyful and sustainable ways to live. From advancing gene editing technologies 
and discovering unique ways to treat the most challenging diseases to enabling 
the intelligence of devices – the company is everywhere. In 2019, Merck 
generated sales of €16.2 billion in 66 countries.

Scientific exploration and responsible entrepreneurship have been key to 
Merck's technological and scientific advances. This is how Merck has thrived 
since its founding in 1668. The founding family remains the majority owner of 
the publicly listed company. Merck holds the global rights to the Merck name 
and brand. The only exceptions are the United States and Canada, where the 
business sectors of Merck operate as EMD Serono in healthcare, MilliporeSigma 
in life science and EMD Performance Materials.

SOURCE Merck

CONTACT: Andreas.cezanne@merckgoup.com, Phone: +49 151 1454 2702