Merck & Co. is choosing to license one of Evaxion’s AI platform-based vaccine candidates, offering the Danish biotech up to $592 million for rights to the preclinical asset.
Merck’s licensing is part of a broader deal between the two that was inked back in 2024. That $1 billion biobucks deal granted the Big Pharma the option to pick up rights to two early-stage candidates.
Now, Merck is paying $7.5 million upfront to exercise its option for Evaxion’s candidate dubbed EVX-B3. The upfront payment will stretch Evaxion’s cash runway into the first half of 2027, according to a Sept. 25 release.
Moving forward, Merck will have full responsibility for EVX-B3 development. In exchange, Evaxion is eligible to earn up to $592 million in biobucks as well as royalties.
Merck and Evaxion’s partnership on EVX-B3 dates back even before 2024. The pair actually jointly discovered and developed the program in September 2023. Later that year, Merck’s venture capital arm led a private placement financing for Evaxion.
EVX-B3 is in preclinical development and designed to address “a serious global medical issue,” according to the release. The asset targets a pathogen tied to repeated infections, rising incidence and potentially serious complications. Currently, no vaccines are available to treat the undisclosed condition, according to the companies.
The vaccine program was identified with Evaxion’s AI-Immunology platform, technology that is designed to detect new vaccine targets for cancer and infectious diseases.
“With its AI-Immunology platform, Evaxion has identified novel protective vaccine targets for a pathogen long considered difficult to address,” Tarit Mukhopadhyay, Merck Research Laboratories vice president and head of infectious diseases and vaccine discovery, said in the release. “We look forward to further evaluating EVX-B3 as part of our early vaccine pipeline.”
Per the terms of the 2024 deal, Merck still has the chance to grab licensing rights to another preclinical vaccine, this one dubbed EVX-B2 and taking aim at gonorrhea. The pair also announced this week an extension to the evaluation period for the second vaccine candidate, with a decision on potential licensing now expected in the first half of next year.
The deal amendment comes on the heels of an expansion to the initial evaluation plan that included additional experiments, according to the release.
If Merck does opt in on EVX-B2, Evaxion will receive a $2.5 million cash payment and could be on the line for up to $592 million in milestone payments.
New Jersey-based Merck’s investment comes as federal health administrators question the science behind several approved and novel vaccine sciences.
Just recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices met for a tense panel vote that ultimately refused to endorse a policy that could have significantly impeded access to COVID-19 vaccines for many Americans.
The vote followed restricted FDA approvals granted to Pfizer and Moderna’s updated COVID-19 vaccines last month.