Boehringer Ingelheim to Acquire Labor Dr. Merk & Kollegen to Strengthen its Next Generation Cancer Immunology Program
9.12.2020 12:00:00 EET | Business Wire | Press release
Boehringer Ingelheim today announced the execution of the agreement on the acquisition of Labor Dr. Merk & Kollegen. The acquisition will enable Boehringer Ingelheim to further expand and accelerate its comprehensive program for the development of ATMP-based immuno-oncology therapies including the Vesicular Stomatitis Virus (VSV) with modified glycoprotein (GP) platform and cancer vaccines platforms. Labor Dr. Merk & Kollegen has outstanding experience in process development, manufacturing and analytical characterization in virology besides expertise in microbiology and cell culture. Labor Dr. Merk & Kollegen has already worked in close collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim on viral-based therapy development since 2015.
“The acquisition of Labor Dr. Merk & Kollegen is strengthening our promising pipeline with diverse potential first-in-class cancer immunology and cancer cell directed therapies for patients with hard-to-treat cancer,” said Dr. Michel Pairet, member of Boehringer Ingelheim’s Board of Managing Directors with responsibility for the company’s Innovation Unit. “The trusting and highly effective collaboration between our scientists and the Labor Dr. Merk & Kollegen team has already contributed significantly to our progress in viral-based cancer therapies. We will welcome the Labor Dr. Merk & Kollegen team and look forward to jointly advancing our program in this area.”
Boehringer Ingelheim is taking cancer on by strengthening its position in cancer immunology, with a focus on cancer vaccines, oncolytic viruses, T-cell engagers, stromal modulators and myeloid cell modulators by combining its world-class, in-house research and development with that of highly innovative external companies. The addition of Labor Dr. Merk & Kollegen’s site will enable Boehringer Ingelheim to further strengthen its oncolytic virus and cancer vaccine development capabilities and capacities by establishing an end-to-end fully integrated center of excellence for virus development and clinical manufacturing. It will add to a series of strategic acquisitions and collaborations over the past years, including the acquisition of ViraTherapeutics and AMAL Therapeutics, which are contributing assets that will be further developed at Labor Dr. Merk & Kollegen’s site.
Labor Dr. Merk & Kollegen is a privately-held company founded in 1971. It is headquartered in Ochsenhausen, Germany, close to Boehringer Ingelheim’s Biberach R&D site. As a center of excellence in virology, Labor Dr. Merk & Kollegen has a long track record in GLP and GMP certified biosafety testing. In recent years Labor Dr. Merk & Kollegen established its GMP-virus manufacturing facility. With around 130 highly qualified and specialized employees, the company has built considerable expertise in process development, manufacturing and analytical characterization of viral therapeutics and oncolytic viral therapeutics. Labor Dr. Merk & Kollegen will be integrated with all employees as a new unit into Boehringer Ingelheim’s Development organization and continue to operate at its Ochsenhausen site. A future expansion is planned.
“Following our successful strategic partnership, we are really excited to join forces with Boehringer Ingelheim,” said Dr. Ingrid Rapp, CEO at Labor Dr. Merk & Kollegen. “Boehringer Ingelheim is a truly global pharmaceutical company with excellent R&D capacities. We look forward to taking our next development step in oncology as part of this outstanding team.”
The companies did not disclose the financial terms of the deal. The transaction is subject to the approval of the competition authorities in Germany. Closing will follow thereafter.
Please click on the following link for ‘Notes to Editors’:
http://www.boehringer-ingelheim.com/press-release/agreement-acquire-labor-dr-merk
To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201209005383/en/
Contact information
Boehringer Ingelheim
Dr. Reinhard Malin
Head of Communications Innovation Unit
Boehringer Ingelheim Corporate Center GmbH
Media + PR
P: +49 6132 77-90815
press@boehringer-ingelheim.com
About Business Wire
For more than 50 years, Business Wire has been the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure.
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
Vultr and AMD Support the University of Cambridge's TESSERA AI Project to Accelerate Global Environmental Monitoring22.7.2026 16:00:00 EEST | Press release
Vultr, the world’s largest privately-held cloud infrastructure company, and AMD, a leader in high-performance and AI computing, have announced their support for the University of Cambridge's Energy & Environment Group in developing TESSERA, a groundbreaking AI foundation model designed to monitor environmental change internationally at unprecedented scale. Vultr is providing the computational infrastructure, based on AMD Instinct MI325X accelerators, necessary to generate global embeddings covering Earth's land surface from 2017 to 2025, enabling applications in agriculture, biodiversity conservation, and renewable energy infrastructure monitoring. The collaboration represents a significant advancement in applying artificial intelligence to planetary conservation challenges. TESSERA processes data from European Space Agency Sentinel satellites to create detailed embeddings - compressed AI representations - of every 10-meter square of Earth's surface. TESSERA represents the most accurat
Omilia Appoints Ryan Kam as Chief Marketing Officer to Lead Global Brand and Growth Strategy22.7.2026 15:00:00 EEST | Press release
Omilia, a global leader in Self-Learning Agentic CX, today announced the appointment of Ryan Kam as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). Ryan will be responsible for Omilia's global brand, demand generation, and marketing strategy as the company scales its go-to-market presence across enterprise markets. In his new role, Kam will own Omilia's global marketing function, spanning brand strategy, demand generation, product marketing, analyst relations and communications. He joins at a moment of significant commercial momentum: Omilia has seen accelerating enterprise demand across all industries and is investing in a marketing engine built to match the pace of its growth. Ryan Kam brings more than 20 years of marketing leadership across some of the most recognized names in enterprise technology. Most recently, he served as CMO at Egnyte, a leader in cloud content security and governance. Prior to that, Kam held the CMO role at LogicMonitor, where he drove growth for one of the leading infrastruc
Echodyne Announces ATAK Integration for MESA® Radar Platform22.7.2026 15:00:00 EEST | Press release
Echodyne, the radar platform company, today announced the availability of an Android Team Awareness Kit (ATAK) plugin for its MESA® radar platform. The integration enables users to configure, control, and visualize data from Echodyne radars within the ATAK environment, supporting military, public safety, and security operations that rely on TAK for shared situational awareness. The plugin extends radar management and visualization capabilities to ATAK users, allowing high-fidelity radar data and system controls to be accessed through a familiar operational interface. By integrating radar data into existing TAK workflows, organizations can streamline deployment, reduce operator workload, and improve access to real-time situational awareness. TAK is a government-developed geospatial platform used across U.S. military, federal, state, and local government organizations, as well as by U.S. partner nations. According to the U.S. Army TAK Product Center, the TAK ecosystem supports 15 Departm
OneSpan Introduces DigipassONE, Bringing a Unified Platform Approach to Authentication Modernization22.7.2026 15:00:00 EEST | Press release
Organizations are under increasing pressure to modernize authentication while supporting existing infrastructure, meeting evolving regulatory requirements, deploying emerging technologies, and reducing operational complexity. For financial institutions in particular, authentication modernization must balance security, compliance, and operational efficiency while meeting the evolving expectations and preferences of their customers. Yet the journey to modern authentication is rarely a single technology transition. Organizations must continue supporting multiple authentication methods while gradually adopting new technologies, making it essential to modernize without disrupting existing environments, user experiences, or business operations. To help organizations navigate this transition, OneSpan Inc. (NASDAQ: OSPN) today announced DigipassONE™, its unified platform for authentication, transaction security, in-app protection, analytics and digital credential innovation. DigipassONE introd
StructureCraft Scales Data-Driven Design on NetApp22.7.2026 15:00:00 EEST | Press release
NetApp® (NASDAQ: NTAP), the Intelligent Data Infrastructure company, today announced that StructureCraft, an award-winning global structural engineering and construction firm known for complex timber and hybrid builds, is now using NetApp to modernize and create an AI-ready data infrastructure. The new infrastructure enables the company’s employees to collaborate globally, store and manage large-scale design workloads, and take advantage of AI-driven tools on a scalable, centralized platform. StructureCraft specializes in innovative timber engineering, structural design, and sustainable building solutions for large-scale architectural projects worldwide. Its globally distributed team delivers complex projects across North America, Europe, and Asia, guided by a core purpose to engineer and build beautiful, efficient structures. The StructureCraft team regularly takes on complex projects such as designing and constructing of the Barbados National Performing Arts Pavilion, a ground-breaki
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom