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
ABB Robotics and PSYONIC Use Human-Generated Data to Advance Robotic Dexterity16.6.2026 07:01:00 EEST | Press release
ABB Robotics is collaborating with California bionics company, PSYONIC, to advance robotic gripping and dexterity using a new approach that utilizes real-world manipulation data from human prosthetic use. By combining the PSYONIC Ability Hand with an ABB GoFa™ cobot, the collaboration will explore how touch and motion data generated by human prosthetic use can be used to train robots to perform delicate, variable tasks that have traditionally been difficult to automate. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260612749544/en/ “Human dexterity and the instinctive understanding of how to handle different objects is one of the most difficult things to replicate in industrial-grade robotics, but it’s a fundamental need for truly autonomous and versatile robots,” said Marc Segura, President, ABB Robotics. “As we develop the next generation physical AI, robots will learn and understand the world as we do. This collaboration
Signaloid Announces Availability of Amazon AWS Machine Image (AMI) for Accelerating Compute Workloads Ranging from Finance to Reinforcement Learning16.6.2026 07:00:00 EEST | Press release
British computing technology company Signaloid today announced the release of the Signaloid Compute Engine Amazon Machine Image (AMI) via AWS Marketplace. The release enables organizations to deploy Signaloid’s distribution-extended compute hardware (UxHw®) technology within their Amazon Virtual Private Clouds (VPCs). The AMI provides access to UxHw, which delivers orders-of-magnitude performance improvements on x86_64 and ARM (AArch64) AWS Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) instances. Without requiring software rewrites, UxHw enables existing applications to compute directly on probability distributions, automating algorithms such as Monte Carlo methods in finance and physics, importance sampling in reinforcement learning, and particle filters in physical AI and robotics. The technology works through binary translation and optimization at the LLVM intermediate representation (LLVM IR) level, with optional hardware acceleration via FPGAs and Signaloid’s C0-ASIC that was recently taped-out in
Murata Collaborates with Synopsys to Provide Simulation Models Through Ansys Electromagnetic and Thermal Analysis Tools16.6.2026 05:00:00 EEST | Press release
Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (TOKYO: 6981) (ISIN: JP3914400001) announces a new collaboration with Synopsys, Inc., enabling users of Synopsys' simulation tools to navigate directly to Murata's website to access and download the latest high-performance simulation models from Murata. The collaboration covers Synopsys' 3D electromagnetic field analysis tool Ansys HFSS™ and thermal analysis tool Ansys Icepak®, and marks a significant step toward streamlining the simulation workflow for electronic circuit designers. Murata is also the first company to offer passive component simulation models via Ansys Icepak*. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260615241645/en/ [Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd.] New collaboration with Synopsys As demand for high-speed, high-capacity communications continues to grow, electronic circuit design has become increasingly complex. Engineers must now account for a range of physical phenomena
Trimontium Launches with $1.5 billion in AUM, Redefining Flexible Capital Solutions16.6.2026 02:01:00 EEST | Press release
Trimontium (the “Firm”), an institutionally backed alternative asset manager specialising in flexible capital solutions, today announced its launch with $1.5 billion in assets under management. The Firm’s investment approach is rooted in credit and special-situations expertise, with the flexibility to originate and execute tailored financing solutions across the full capital structure for a wide range of corporate needs. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260615892895/en/ Trimontium Founder and CIO, Vlado Spasov Founded by former Blackstone executive Vlado Spasov, Trimontium is one of the largest first-time alternative asset managers based in Europe focused on flexible capital solutions to launch, according to available market data. The Firm is backed by leading institutional partners in the United States, Canada, Asia, and Australia, who collectively manage over $15 trillion in assets. Trimontium has sourced all
Newmont Announces Key Executive Appointments for the Next Phase of Delivery16.6.2026 00:20:00 EEST | Press release
Newmont Corporation (NYSE: NEM, ASX: NEM, PNGX: NEM) (“Newmont”) today announced leadership appointments that further shape its go-forward Executive Leadership Team under President and Chief Executive Officer Natascha Viljoen and reflect the depth of leadership talent within the company. Effective July 1, 2026, Brian Tabolt has been appointed Chief Financial Officer, Mark Rodgers has been appointed Chief Operating Officer, and David Thornton has been appointed Chief Technical Officer. In addition, David Fry has been promoted to Executive Vice President, Project Development, reflecting the importance of disciplined project development and execution as Newmont advances its highest-return growth opportunities. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260615487768/en/ Mark Rodgers - COO “These appointments bring together respected leaders with deep industry experience and a strong understanding of our operational, financia
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