Merck known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, announced that company researchers will participate in two new collaborative efforts led by the prominent academic institutions of the University of North Carolina (UNC) Chapel Hill and the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) to develop new approaches towards eradicating HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

As announced today by UNC, researchers from nine US universities as well as Merck scientists will begin to study HIV latency and identify ways to purge persistent infection of the virus from the body. Separately, researchers at UCSF announced an international team of academic, governmental and Merck scientists will begin work on a five-year research effort to define HIV's reservoirs, better understand the reservoirs, and test potential treatments. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the NIH, is the primary funding organization for both of these research efforts. Merck will not receive any funding for its participation in either effort.

“Collaboration has been the hallmark of much of the progress made against HIV since the virus was first identified 30 years ago. Continued collaboration is absolutely essential to better understand HIV reservoirs and identify potential approaches to the daunting challenge of eradicating HIV,” said Daria Hazuda, PhD, vice president, Merck Research Laboratories. “Merck is honoured and excited to participate in these important new undertakings.”

The UNC research team led by the North Carolina Translational and Clinical Sciences (NC TraCS) Institute at UNC includes nineteen investigators from Case Western Reserve University; Johns Hopkins University; University of California, Davis; University of California, Los Angeles; University of California, San Diego; University of California, San Francisco; The Gladstone Institute; University of Minnesota, and the University of Utah. Merck is the team's sole pharmaceutical industry partner.

The UCSF research team includes collaborators from Johns Hopkins University, the Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU), the Oregon National Primate Research Centre at OHSU, the University of Minnesota, Monash University, the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR), the Blood Systems Research Institute, the Karolinska Institute, the University of Miami, and the University of California, Davis. Merck is the team's sole pharmaceutical industry partner.

Merck has been engaged in the fight against HIV/AIDS for more than two decades. In 1988, Merck researchers were the first to demonstrate that inhibiting the protease enzyme would prevent replication of HIV; the following year, Merck scientists published the first crystal structure for HIV protease. Years later, Merck scientists were the first to demonstrate inhibition of HIV integrase in vitro and in vivo. Currently Merck scientists are actively pursuing HIV research against at least five distinct targets and have several HIV compounds in development. Since our first HIV medicines became available, Merck has worked to expand access to these medicines, including through partnerships with others.

Merck is a global healthcare leader working to help the world be well. Through our prescription medicines, vaccines, biologic therapies, and consumer care and animal health products, we work with customers and operate in more than 140 countries to deliver innovative health solutions.