CureVac

CureVac N.V. is a German biopharmaceutical company that develops therapies based on messenger RNA (mRNA). Legally domiciled in the Netherlands and headquartered in Tübingen, Germany, the company was founded in 2000 by Ingmar Hoerr (CEO), Steve Pascolo (CSO), Florian von der Mulbe (COO), Günther Jung and Hans-Georg Rammensee. CureVac had approximately 240 employees in November 2015 and 375 in May 2018.
The company's focus is on developing vaccines for infectious diseases and drugs to treat cancer and rare diseases. CureVac has entered into various collaborations with organizations, including agreements with Boehringer Ingelheim, Sanofi Pasteur, Johnson & Johnson, Genmab, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Eli Lilly and Company, GlaxoSmithKline, Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, and the government of Germany.
In January 2021, CureVac announced a clinical development collaboration for its COVID-19 vaccine, named "CVnCoV" (active ingredient zorecimeran), with the multinational pharmaceutical company, Bayer. As of December 2020, CVnCoV was in a Phase III clinical trial of 36,500.
History.
Research collaborations.
In October 2013 CureVac launched a collaboration with Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc., a Johnson & Johnson company, for the development of novel flu vaccines. Also in 2013, CureVac announced the fourth in a series of partnerships with the Cancer Research Institute and Ludwig Cancer Research to enable clinical testing of novel cancer immunotherapy treatment options.
In March 2014, CureVac won a prize awarded by the European Commission to stimulate new vaccine technologies. Later, in July 2014, CureVac signed an exclusive license agreement with Sanofi Pasteur to develop and commercialize an mRNA-based prophylactic vaccine. By September 2014, the company licensed the global rights for its Phase I candidate – CV9202 – to Boehringer Ingelheim. Boehringer was to conduct trials using the mRNA vaccine in combination with afatinib in advanced and/or metastatic epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) as well as inoperable stage III NSCLC.
In March 2015, a CureVac investor, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, agreed to provide separate funding for several projects to develop prophylactic vaccines based on CureVac's proprietary mRNA platform. By September 2015, CureVac entered into a collaboration with the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) to accelerate the development of AIDS vaccines, utilizing immunogens developed by IAVI and partners, delivered via CureVac's mRNA technology. That same month, CureVac announced it would open a United States hub in Boston, Massachusetts.
In accordance with its deal with Lilly, the company began construction on a production facility in 2016.
Investment.
By 2017, CureVac had received approximately () in equity investments and was valued at (). In June 2020, the federal government announced that the state-owned development bank KfW would immediately invest 300 million euros in Curevac, which will mean that it will hold a 23 percent stake in CureVac.
On 14 August 2020, CureVac began public trading on the NASDAQ exchange under the ticker symbol, CVAC, raising in its initial public offering.
Reports of Trump administration overtures.
On 11 March 2020, it was reported that CureVac AG's CEO Daniel Menichella was no longer the company's CEO, having been replaced by company founder Ingmar Hoerr. Menichella was reported to have met U.S. President Donald Trump on 2 March. According to "Welt am Sonntag", quoting an anonymous German government source, Trump had attempted to persuade CureVac to relocate to the United States, a proposal vigorously rejected by German officials. On 16 March, CureVac issued a statement on Twitter, stating "To make it clear again on coronavirus: CureVac has not received from the US government or related entities an offer before, during and since the Task Force meeting in the White House on March 2. CureVac rejects all allegations from press."
COVID-19 vaccine candidate.
CVnCoV is an mRNA vaccine that encodes a minimal piece of the coronavirus spike protein, and activates the immune system against it. CVnCoV technology does not interact with the human genome.
In December 2020, CureVac began a Phase III clinical trial of CVnCoV with 36,500 participants. Bayer will provide clinical trial support and international logistics for the Phase III trial, and may be involved in eventual manufacturing should the vaccine prove to be safe and effective. On February 12, 2021, CureVac announced the initiation of a rolling submission with the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for their vaccine candidate, a time-optimized process for the review of all data necessary for potential market authorization.