Merck and International Vaccine Institute to advance vaccine production

Merck has announced a new collaboration with the International Vaccine Institute (IVI) in Seoul with the aim of developing next-generation purification processes.

The company will provide funding and expertise in the areas of clarification and purification in order to support the project, designed to help create more robust and scalable vaccine manufacturing techniques.

It will enable manufacturers to deliver greater yields, allowing higher recovery and purer vaccines, while also addressing the high manufacturing costs faced by many companies in the US and Western Europe.

Initially, the project will focus on a vaccine for typhoid, before applying these findings to the processes for pneumococcal, meningococcal, haemophilus, staphylococcus, streptococcus B and other conjugated polysaccharide vaccines.

Udit Batra, member of the Merck executive board and chief executive officer for life science, said: "Through our partnership with IVI, we will help create a more modern, scalable and robust manufacturing process, which in turn will help increase access to lifesaving vaccines in developing countries."

This comes after the firm expanded its Emprove risk assessment programme to include a selection of products for filtration and single-use processing.