Idera Pharmaceuticals Announces Selection of Toll-like Receptor Agonist Candidates for Evaluation as Vaccine Adjuvants by Merck

Published on Monday, 09 January 2012 07:11 Written by TradersHuddle Staff

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.-( Business Wire )-

Idera Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: IDRA) today announced that Merck, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, has selected several novel Toll-like Receptor (TLR) agonists targeted to TLR7, TLR8 or TLR9 for evaluation and use as vaccine adjuvant candidates under the companies' collaboration and license agreement.

“We are very pleased to have created multiple novel TLR agonists for Merck’s exclusive evaluation and use as vaccine adjuvants,” commented Sudhir Agrawal, D Phil, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Idera. “Our chemistry-based approach for creating TLR-targeted compounds has allowed us to achieve the objective of generating a broad range of TLR-targeted agonists, each with a unique immune response profile. We look forward to Merck’s continued development of these compounds.”

"We continue to make progress in our license and research agreement with Idera," said John Shiver, vice president of vaccines discovery at Merck. "Collaborations such as this are essential as we seek to evaluate new innovative approaches to vaccine discovery and development."

About the Collaboration

In December 2006, Idera entered into an exclusive license and research collaboration agreement with Merck to research, develop, and commercialize the use of Idera’s TLR7, 8, and 9 agonists as vaccine adjuvants in the fields of cancer, infectious diseases, and Alzheimer’s disease. Under the terms of the agreement, Idera granted Merck worldwide exclusive rights to a number of Idera’s TLR7, 8, and 9 agonists for use in combination with Merck’s therapeutic and prophylactic vaccines in the defined fields. During the four-year research collaboration period, multiple TLR agonists were created by Idera and evaluated by Merck against the criteria established in the agreement. There is no limit to the number of vaccines to which Merck can apply selected agonists. Under the agreement, Merck is obligated to pay milestone payments and royalties on the product sales of vaccines using Idera’s TLR agonist technology.

About Idera Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Idera Pharmaceuticals applies its proprietary Toll-like Receptor (TLR) drug discovery platform to create immunomodulatory drug candidates. The Company's TLR-targeted candidates are being developed to treat autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, cancer, and for use as vaccine adjuvants. Additionally, the Company is advancing its gene-silencing oligonucleotide (GSO) technology for the purpose of inhibiting the expression of disease-promoting genes. For more information, visit http://www.iderapharma.com.

Idera Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements concerning Idera Pharmaceuticals, Inc. that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. For this purpose, any statements contained herein that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Without limiting the foregoing, the words “looks forward,” "believes," "anticipates," "plans," "expects," "estimates," "intends," "should," "could," "will," "may," and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. There are a number of important factors that could cause Idera's actual results to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements, including whether the Company's collaborations will be successful or any products based on Idera's technology will advance into or through the clinical trial process on a timely basis or at all and receive approval from the United States Food and Drug Administration or equivalent foreign regulatory agencies; and such other important factors as are set forth under the caption "Risk Factors" in Idera's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2011 which important factors are incorporated herein by reference. Idera disclaims any intention or obligation to update any forward-looking statements.

Idera Pharmaceuticals, Inc.Lou Arcudi, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.