Merck Announces Emerging Biotech Grant Program Winners

The Award is designed to support biotech startups with resources to enable emerging companies to discover, develop, optimize, and commercialize therapeutics faster and more efficiently.

"Merck is committed to supporting exceptional biotech companies to both kickstart and streamline their journey from discovery to manufacturing with our grant program," said Chua Keng Hock, Senior Vice President, Process Solutions Asia Pacific, Life Science business of Merck. "We recognize the complexities involved in delivering next-generation therapies to the market. Merck's EB Grant is designed to expedite the development of treatments that address critical unmet medical needs."

The award recipients are:

Country	Grand Prize Winner	Finalist Prize Winners	Special Mention
Australia & New Zealand	Southern RNA for enabling the manufacturing of mRNA for personalized medicines	Institute for Drug Technology for enabling the manufacturing of antibody-drug conjugates. Psaio for developing bispecific antibodies targeting prostate-specific antigen to treat prostate cancer.	Kimer Med for developing a family of broad-spectrum antiviral biologics to treat infectious diseases, and for pandemic protection.
Taiwan	HanchorBio for developing clinical-stage and next-generation immuno-oncology therapies through innovation in cutting-edge designer biologics with novel, multi-functional modalities.	Pell Biomed Technology for developing more efficient and cost-effective gene-modified cell therapies. Glyconex for glycan-directed cancer therapies including antibody-drug conjugates to treat a range of solid tumors such as gastrointestinal cancers.	Shine-On BioMedical for developing targeted exosomes as a platform for drug delivery as well as tri-specific antibody for cancer treatment.

Merck experts selected the winning submissions based on the scientific and societal merit of the therapy in development and process challenges and expertise gaps that may impact ongoing development. In-kind technologies and services from Merck will be awarded to the winners in Australia & New Zealand and Taiwan to help solve these challenges.

Merck first started the EB grant program in 2014 in the United States and has expanded its reach to include Europe, China, South Korea and Taiwan in recent years. In 2024, the EB Grant was extended to Australia & New Zealand and is open to Taiwan and South Korea (the winners for South Korea were announced in July 2024). To-date, Merck's EB Grant program has awarded technologies and consultation to over 40 biotechnology companies around the world, supporting their efforts to improve patient outcomes for various diseases such as cancer, brain tumors, osteoarthritis, and cardiovascular disorders.

https://www.sigmaaldrich.com/SG/en/applications/pharmaceutical-and-biopharmaceutical-manufacturing/biotech-resource-hub/startup-programs#our-grant-programs

Other Merck grants at group level:
https://www.merckgroup.com/en/research/open-innovation.html

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About Merck

Merck, a leading science and technology company, operates across life science, healthcare and electronics. Around 63,000 employees work to make a positive difference to millions of people's lives every day by creating more joyful and sustainable ways to live. From providing products and services that accelerate drug development and manufacturing as well as discovering unique ways to treat the most challenging diseases to enabling the intelligence of devices – the company is everywhere. In 2023, Merck generated sales of € 21 billion in 65 countries.

Scientific exploration and responsible entrepreneurship have been key to Merck's technological and scientific advances. This is how Merck has thrived since its founding in 1668. The founding family remains the majority owner of the publicly listed company. Merck holds the global rights to the Merck name and brand. The only exceptions are the United States and Canada, where the business sectors of Merck operate as MilliporeSigma in life science, EMD Serono in healthcare, and EMD Electronics in electronics.

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