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
Mirum Pharmaceuticals and Incyte Announce U.S. FDA Approval of Atebrioz™ (zilurgisertib) for Adult and Pediatric Patients with Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva26.9.2026 02:00:00 EEST | Press release
Mirum Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq:MIRM) and Incyte (Nasdaq:INCY) today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Atebrioz™ (zilurgisertib) tablets to reduce the volume of total new heterotopic ossification (HO) in adult and pediatric patients aged 12 years and older with fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP). The recommended dose of Atebrioz is 100 mg administered orally, once daily. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260925436454/en/ “Today marks an important milestone for people living with FOP, bringing a new treatment option to adult and pediatric patients living with this devastating disease,” said Chris Peetz, Chief Executive Officer at Mirum. “At Mirum, we are driven to serve rare disease communities where the unmet need is significant and the opportunity to make a difference is profound. The approval of Atebrioz reflects what can be achieved when industry, researchers
Digital Reef Signs Offtake Agreement with Oreasoc Agriculture to Mitigate the Environmental Footprint of Data Centre Growth Through Rainforest Protection, Appointing Xange.com as Digital MRV Partner25.9.2026 22:19:00 EEST | Press release
At Climate Week NYC, Digital Reef and Oreasoc Agriculture Inc. sign an offtake agreement connecting Digital Reef’s 3.3 GW data centre pipeline with environmental assets exceeding 30 million hectares of South American Amazon rainforest, mitigating the environmental footprint of data centre growth through rainforest protection and restoration where Oreasoc works alongside local communities to protect biodiversity, develop sustainable economies and safeguard their territories. Xange.com are appointed as digital MRV technology partner to monitor the data centres and rainforest where Digital Reef will purchase verified environmental assets generated by Oreasoc, supporting the development of low-carbon data centres mitigating their environmental footprint through the protection of high-integrity natural ecosystems across the South American Amazon, whilst advancing sustainable economic development. AI and data centre demand is driving rapid growth, with the International Energy Agency project
NetApp Announces Intent to Acquire PEAK:AIO to Advance Scalable AI Infrastructure Architecture25.9.2026 16:00:00 EEST | Press release
NetApp® (NASDAQ: NTAP), the intelligent data infrastructure company, today announced its intent to acquire PEAK:AIO, a pioneer in next-generation metadata architecture and high-performance parallel file systems. The planned acquisition is expected to accelerate NetApp's AI infrastructure roadmap by augmenting metadata services and parallel namespace innovation designed to help AI clouds scale shared storage alongside growing GPU clusters. As AI becomes embedded in every enterprise workload, organizations are confronting a new challenge: traditional storage architectures were not designed for the unprecedented scale, concurrency, and performance requirements of AI factories, AI clouds, and next-generation data-intensive applications. NetApp is building an architecture that disaggregates metadata from data and enables metadata services to scale independently, creating a foundation for AI infrastructure capable of supporting trillions of files, exabyte-scale environments, and massively pa
MultiBank Group Secures Two Awards at Forex Expo Dubai 202625.9.2026 15:57:00 EEST | Press release
MultiBank Group, one of the world’s largest financial derivatives institutions, received two awards during its participation at Forex Expo Dubai 2026, held on 22 and 23 September at Dubai World Trade Centre. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260925539591/en/ MultiBank Group was named “Best Global Institutional Financial Ecosystem of the Year” and received the award for “Excellence in Global Financial Markets Innovation and Community Impact.” The Group was named “Best Global Institutional Financial Ecosystem of the Year” and received the award for “Excellence in Global Financial Markets Innovation and Community Impact.” The first award recognised the strength and breadth of MultiBank Group’s global institutional offering, which brings together trading, liquidity, technology, infrastructure, execution, market access and tailored client solutions within an integrated financial ecosystem. The second award acknowledg
Croma-Pharma Introduces saypha ® volume prime Lidocaine25.9.2026 15:04:00 EEST | Press release
Croma-Pharma introduces saypha® volume prime Lidocaine, a cross-linked hyaluronic acid dermal filler that replaces saypha® volume Lidocaine within the company's saypha® portfolio. The new product offers physicians a more versatile solution with expanded indications for both midface volumization and nasolabial folds, backed by strong clinical data. 1,2 saypha® volume prime Lidocaine demonstrated non-inferiority to comparatora in a randomized, subject- and evaluator-blinded, controlled, non-inferiority multicenter, parallel group comparison study with almost 500 patients.2 In the clinical evaluation, a high patient satisfaction highlights improved midface fullness, smoothness and contour, consistent with a rheologic profile designed to provide volumization in the mobile midface.b,2 With saypha® volume prime Lidocaine, Croma-Pharma further strengthens its product range, reflecting the company's long-standing commitment to scientific excellence and continuous product innovation, and provid
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