Crucell has signed a cross-licensing agreement with Merck allowing Merck to use its technology on an exclusive basis in undisclosed vaccine fields. In turn, Crucell will receive access to Merck’s large scale manufacturing technology for its AdVac-based vaccines.

“This agreement will make it possible to speed up the delivery of our malaria and TB vaccines to the people in need, and makes it realistic to do so on the mass scale required,” said Jaap Goudsmit, chief scientific officer at Crucell. “It also opens the way for Crucell to speed up the Ebola program with the VRC, which has recently entered a Phase I trial. But most importantly, it brings the reality of vaccines such as these significantly closer.”