Merck researchers to participate in two new collaborative efforts to study HIV latency

Merck (NYSE: MRK), known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, today 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 U.S. 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, Ph.D., vice president, Merck Research Laboratories. "Merck is honored and excited to participate in these important new undertakings."