Boehringer snaps up virology partner to beef up immuno-oncology work

Boehringer Ingelheim teamed up with German biotech Labor Dr. Merk & Kollegen in 2015 on viral-based therapies. Five years on, it’s swallowing up its partner, a move it thinks will boost development of its oncolytic, or cancer-killing viruses, and cancer vaccines.

The companies did not disclose financial details.

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The Big Pharma will keep on the 130 employees from Labor Dr. Merk & Kollegen, making them a new unit in its development organization. This unit will operate out of the latter’s site in Ochsenhausen, which Boehringer Ingelheim plans to expand.

“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, a member of Boehringer Ingelheim’s board of managing directors who’s in charge of the company’s innovation team, in a statement. “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.”

Besides cancer vaccines and oncolytic viruses, Boehringer figures the deal will help it ramp up the development of programs such as T-cell engagers, stromal modulators and myeloid cell modulators. The Ochsenhausen site will bring virus development and clinical manufacturing under one roof.

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The acquisition follows Boehringer’s buyouts of ViraTherapeutics, a startup focused on vesicular stomach virus (VSV)-based oncolytic viruses, and Switzerland-based Amal Therapeutics, a cancer vaccine biotech. Candidates from these acquisitions will be developed at Boehringer’s new Ochsenhausen site, Boehringer said in the statement.