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
ClickHouse Launches ClickHouse Labs With Andy Pavlo as VP of Database Research3.8.2026 16:30:00 EEST | Press release
ClickHouse today announced the launch of ClickHouse Labs, a new research group led by Andy Pavlo, one of the database industry’s most prominent researchers. Dr. Pavlo joins ClickHouse as Vice President of Database Research and will build a team dedicated to advancing the state of the art in database systems. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260803890510/en/ Andy Pavlo, VP of Database Research, ClickHouse Pavlo is an award-winning database researcher and professor at Carnegie Mellon University’s Computer Science Department. He is known throughout the database community for his work on autonomous databases, transaction processing, and large-scale data analytics. At ClickHouse, he will bring that expertise to some of the most ambitious and consequential challenges facing modern data systems, as AI reshapes the demands placed on all data-intensive workloads. “At ClickHouse, we are interested in finding new and inno
Lehman Brothers Treasury Considers Sale and Final Wind-Down3.8.2026 16:30:00 EEST | Press release
Lehman Brothers Treasury Co. B.V. in liquidation (“LBT”) today, through its U.S. counsel Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer (USA) LLP, announced that LBT is considering a final wind-down of its estate. In connection therewith, LBT has retained Seaport Loan Products LLC as its exclusive placement agent in connection with the potential sale of LBT’s principal remaining asset – a $19.6 billion Class 4A allowed claim against Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (the “LBHI Claim”). LBT expects the sale to occur, if at all, in August 2026. To the extent the LBHI Claim is sold, LBT expects to make a final distribution to the holders of its existing notes and thereafter facilitate the cancellation of those notes and the final wind down of its estate in September 2026. The foregoing is subject to further consents and authorizations and LBT retains sole discretion to abandon or otherwise discontinue any sale process at any time. Accordingly, there can be no assurances that the sale process will be conducte
EuroTeleSites Strengthens Operations One Year into Sitetracker Partnership3.8.2026 16:00:00 EEST | Press release
EuroTeleSites, one of Central and Eastern Europe's leading independent tower companies, today announced the results of its first year in partnership with Sitetracker, the leading global Asset Lifecycle Management platform. One year into the deployment, EuroTeleSites reports meaningful progress in its digital transformation, with measurable improvements in operational efficiency, cross-market transparency, and project coordination across its six-country footprint. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260727009809/en/ EuroTeleSites Strengthens Operations One Year into Sitetracker Partnership Driving Efficiency in a Complex, High-Investment Environment EuroTeleSites invests approximately 25% of its revenue into capital expenditures in 2026, funding the construction and upgrade of tower infrastructure across Central and Eastern European markets. Managing this level of scale and complexity demands robust digital support
Visa to Acquire BioCatch3.8.2026 15:30:00 EEST | Press release
Visa (NYSE: V) today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire BioCatch, a leading provider of behavioral-first, multi-signal fraud intelligence, from funds advised by Permira and other shareholders for $2.4 billion in cash. The acquisition of BioCatch complements Visa’s existing cyber, fraud, risk and security solutions and is expected to help clients better protect themselves and their customers from the growing threat of account takeovers, scams, money mules and application fraud. Since its inception, BioCatch has developed innovative AI and machine learning-based solutions that analyze thousands of application, behavioral, device, and network signals—such as keystrokes, touch gestures, and device handling—to detect fraud and distinguish legitimate users from fraudsters in real time. BioCatch protects 1.8 billion devices and 760 million users around the world, serving more than 350 banking clients in 21 different countries, including more than 100 of the largest bank
U.S. Bank Investment Services enhances investor and client onboarding experience for alternative investments3.8.2026 15:16:00 EEST | Press release
U.S. Bank Investment Services today announced it has gone live with a new client lifecycle management (CLM) platform, providing a comprehensive onboarding solution for alternative investment clients and the investors in their funds. The implementation is a key milestone in Investment Services’ multi-phased technology transformation strategy, aimed at modernizing processes, workflows and reporting across the private funds space. U.S. Bank leverages CLM provider Fenergo and its Fen-X platform. Fen-X automates many of the manual processes traditionally associated with underlying investors and direct client relationships and accelerates account setup while maintaining regulatory requirements. The enhanced onboarding experience provides investors and clients with more transparency throughout the process and enables integration with other solutions providers involved in the investor journey, such as screening and tax reporting. The investor experience has been further enhanced with an invest
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