Collaboration to Develop Cancer Vaccine

A collaboration and license agreement to develop a cancer vaccine targeting telomerase has been announced by Geron Corp. (Menlo Park, CA, USA) and Merck & Co. (Whitehouse Station, NJ, USA).

The vaccine's development will utilize Merck's expertise in vaccine technologies. Under the terms of the agreement, Geron will receive an upfront payment, milestone payments, and royalties. Merck has also agreed to acquire equity in Geron at a future date as part of Geron's next round of financing.

Merck has acquired an exclusive option to negotiate a separate agreement for Geron's dendritic cell-based telomerase vaccine currently in phase I/II clinical trials at Duke University Medical Center (Durham, NC, USA). Geron will receive an option payment from Merck in consideration for the option.

Geron and Merck have jointly developed a research and development plan to optimize and expedite the demonstration of efficacy and tolerability of a potential vaccine against telomerase, using Merck's platform. Meanwhile, Geron will continue the development of its dendritic cell-based vaccine product.

Telomerase is an enzyme, active in most cancer cells, that maintains telomere length at the ends of chromosomes. This activity confers replicative immortality to the cells in the tumor, allowing the cancer to grow and metastasize over long periods of time. Because telomerase is inactive or only transiently expressed in normal human tissues and is critical to the growth and progression of most cancer types, it is regarded as a universal and specific cancer target.

"We at Merck are excited about what Geron has demonstrated with telomerase in cancer,” noted Stephen Friend, M.D., Ph.D., executive vice president, advanced technology and oncology at Merck Research Laboratories. "This is a project of high interest and commitment at Merck, and is indicative of Merck's strategic direction in developing new anti-cancer therapies.”





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