Merck Partners with Calla Lily on intravaginal drug tech
Germany’s Merck has entered a partnership with medtech company Calla Lily Clinical Care to advance the development of Callavid – an intravaginal drug delivery platform.
The collaboration structure will leverage Merck’s scientific resources and regulatory experience while allowing Calla Lily to advance its technology through clinical development. In April 2025, the medtech company secured £1 million in funding from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), which will be used to move toward late-stage clinical trials.
The Callavid platform seeks to overcome challenges that patients face when self-administering vaginal medications. This includes concerns with positioning, dosing accuracy, and medication leakage. It incorporates a tampon-shaped device integrated with an absorbent liner. The system is said to allow for straightforward insertion, maintain position during drug absorption, and facilitate smooth removal.
Currently, the device is being developed for several therapeutic areas.
“Our initial target indications are in fertility and pregnancy, where we seek to offer the world’s first drug–device combination product to help prevent threatened miscarriages, and for IVF luteal phase support,” Thang Vo-Ta, co-founder and CEO of Calla Lily Clinical Care, told BioXconomy. “Callavid can also support menopausal therapies, targeted cancer treatments, and live biotherapeutics (LBPs) to reduce antibiotic use and antimicrobial resistance (AMR).”
Lara Zibners, co-founder and chairman of Calla Lily Clinical Care, was the inspiration behind the Callavid platform.
“The Callavid intravaginal drug delivery platform was inspired by co-founder Lara Zibner’s own personal experience from multiple failed IVF cycles, which involved hundreds of painful intramuscular injections as well as leaky pessaries and suppositories,” Vo-Ta explained. “We designed Callavid to eliminate this burden.”
The partnership evolved from Calla Lily’s participation in the Merck Innovation Challenge in October 2024. BioXconomy previously reported on the importance of collaboration to support innovation in women’s health.
“This collaboration with Merck marks an important milestone in the development of Callavid, our novel vaginal drug delivery platform,” Vo-Ta said in a statement. “Merck’s scientific heritage and forward-looking approach to innovation make them an ideal partner as we work to address long-standing unmet needs in women’s health.”
A spokesperson for Merck spoke about how this partnership fits in with its broader strategy.
“Merck has been at the forefront of fertility treatment for decades, supporting fertility experts to deliver their best care to patients,” they told BioXconomy. “We will continue to explore and innovate across women’s health with one clear goal in mind, to improve the patient experience and outcomes for those undergoing fertility treatment.”
Vo-Ta provided an insight into the next steps for clinical development and regulatory approval of the Callavid platform.
“Given the supportive environment of the UK NICE’s updated medical guideline on threatened miscarriage and the source of public funding for our first trial, we are pursuing initial regulatory approval for our first product,” he told us.
“We are conducting two clinical trials to obtain marketing authorization for the use of 400mg progesterone Callavid for 2 indications – IVF/ART luteal phase support and prevention of threatened miscarriage.”
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