Partnering with Australian Researchers & Innovators

Australia’s growing reputation as a biotechnology leader encouraged our company to implement its external licensing system here many years ago. An extensive ‘scouting’ and review process is now well established in Australia, a reflection of the high priority the organisation places on research collaboration.

MSD actively looks for innovation in Australia and partners with Australian researchers to bring their innovative research from the laboratory to the international market. MSD, together with our parent company, has embarked on various partnerships, which include:

• CSL Limited
• Benitec

MSD and CSL

One of MSD's greatest partnership success stories is a vaccine for the human papillomavirus (HPV). The vaccine - GARDASIL^® (Quadrivalent HPV (Types 6, 11, 16, 18) recombinant vaccine) was developed in collaboration with the University of Queensland’s Centre for Immunology and Cancer Research and Australian biopharmaceutical company CSL Limited. HPV is believed to be responsible for more than 70% of cases of cervical cancer, which is believed to cause over 240,000 deaths worldwide every year.

GARDASIL was discovered by Queensland University’s Professor Ian Frazer who was named the ’2006 Australian of the Year’ for his ground-breaking work. The vaccine was initially developed with commercial assistance from CSL. However, the enormous challenge of bringing a new therapy to the global market requires significant technical, manufacturing and commercial expertise. With a strong track record of successfully developing and commercialising new discoveries, MSD was an ideal partner and the three organisations combined forces in 1995. GARDASIL was launched in the US and Australia in 2006. For more information visit the CSL website.

MSD and Benitec

In addition to finding new therapies, MSD is involved in developing new technologies to advance the research process itself. One such example comes from a partnership with Australian biotechnology research company Benitec Limited. Benitec is a pioneer of RNA interference (RNAi) technology, which can be used to destroy RNA viruses and silence the expression of defective genes. RNAi is an exciting new technology that combines target validation and lead drug identification into one step, significantly shortening the drug development cycle when compared to the development of small molecule drugs. RNAi technology has the potential to reduce the time between the first basic biology findings and the release of a new medicine. The collaboration provides MSD with a non-exclusive global licence to use its RNAi technology. In the future we hope to use this technology in our global research program to accelerate the pace of discovery.

For more information, visit the Benitec website.