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CureVac

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CureVac
Company typeN.V.
Nasdaq: CVAC
IndustryBiotechnology
Founded2000
FoundersIngmar Hoerr,[1] Steve Pascolo, Florian von der Muelbe, Gunther Jung and Hans-Georg Rammensee
HeadquartersTübingen, Germany
Key people
Dr. Franz-Werner Haas (CEO)
Total equity
  • €1.40 billion (October 2017)
    (US$1.65 billion)
Number of employees
> 450[2]
Websitewww.curevac.com
Headquarters of CureVac in Tübingen

CureVac is a biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Tübingen, Germany, that develops therapies based on messenger RNA (mRNA). The company's focus is on developing vaccines for infectious diseases and drugs to treat for cancer and rare diseases. Founded in 2000, CureVac had approximately 240 employees in November 2015[3] and 375 in May 2018.[2]

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,[4][5] Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative.[6]

History

In October 2013 CureVac launched a collaboration with Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc., a Johnson & Johnson company, for the development of novel flu vaccines.[7] 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.[8]

In March 2014, CureVac won a €2 million prize awarded by the European Commission to stimulate new vaccine technologies that might help the developing world, because the company's research could lead to a new generation of vaccines that don't need refrigeration.[9] Later, in July 2014, CureVac signed an exclusive license agreement with Sanofi Pasteur to develop and commercialize an mRNA-based prophylactic vaccine.[10] 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.[11]

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.[12] 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.[13] That same month, CureVac announced it would open a United States hub in Boston, Massachusetts.[14]

In accordance with its deal with Lilly, the company began construction on a production facility in 2016.[15] By 2017, CureVac had received approximately US$359 million (€305 million) in equity investments and was valued at US$1.65 billion (€1.40 billion).[16]

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.[17]

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 March 2.[18][19][20] In what the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung qualified as "fake news,"[21] according to the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, Trump had attempted to persuade CureVac to relocate to the United States.[22] Reuters, CNBC, and the South China Morning Post reported that the German Health Ministry had confirmed Welt am Sonntag's claims.[22][23][24] Christof Hettich, the CEO of major CureVac investor dievini Hopp Biotech Holding stated that "We want to develop a vaccine for the whole world and not for individual countries".[25]

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."[26] On the same day, it was reported the European Union was investing millions of dollars into the company.[27]

References

  1. ^ "CureVac Announces New Management Structure" (Press release). Curevac.
  2. ^ a b "Company Information". Curevac.
  3. ^ "Gates, Hopp back $110M megaround for CureVac's mRNA work".
  4. ^ Carroll, John (18 October 2017). "Eli Lilly is making a $1.8B leap into the mRNA field, targeting next-gen cancer vaccines". endpts.com.
  5. ^ Aripaka, Pushkala; Schuetze, Arno (2020-07-19). "GSK buys 10% of CureVac in vaccine tech deal". Reuters. Retrieved 2020-07-21.
  6. ^ "CureVac Opens up an mRNA Hub in Moderna's Cambridge Backyard". 2015-09-10.
  7. ^ "J&J's Janssen Companies Launch a Trio of Collaborations".
  8. ^ "CRI, Ludwig to Test Cancer Immunotherapy Combinations with CureVac". 2013-11-04.
  9. ^ "German RNA Vaccines Company Bags €2 Million E.U. Vaccine Prize". 2014-03-12.
  10. ^ "CureVac, Sanofi Paster in 150m-euro-plus vaccines deal". 2014-07-02.
  11. ^ "Boehringer pairs its lung cancer drug with a vaccine in $600M tie-up with CureVac".
  12. ^ "Bill And Melinda Gates Foundation Makes Its Largest Ever Equity Investment In A Biotech Company".
  13. ^ "IAVI and CureVac partner to further AIDS vaccine candidates". Archived from the original on 2015-10-08. Retrieved 2015-12-03.
  14. ^ "CureVac Opens up an mRNA Hub in Moderna's Cambridge Backyard Xconomy". Xconomy. 2015-09-10. Retrieved 2017-06-09.
  15. ^ "Curevac starts work on RNA-based drug plant with capacity for Lilly deal". in-pharmatechnologist.com. 30 October 2017.
  16. ^ "The 8 Biggest Startups in Europe by Funding - Nanalyze". Nanalyze. 3 October 2017.
  17. ^ SPIEGEL, DER. "Corona-Impfstoff: Bundesregierung beteiligt sich an Impfstoffhersteller CureVac - DER SPIEGEL - Wirtschaft". www.spiegel.de (in German). Retrieved 2020-06-15.
  18. ^ "Was it something he said? Biotech CEO who met Trump this month exits without a word". FierceBiotech. Retrieved 2020-03-15.
  19. ^ "Company Founder Ingmar Hoerr Succeeds Daniel Menichella as CEO of CureVac AG". CureVac. Retrieved 2020-03-15.
  20. ^ "Germany and US wrestle over coronavirus vaccine: report". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 2020-03-15.
  21. ^ SUSANNE PREUS (17 March 2020). "Disavowal by the company: "Curevac has not received an offer from the U.S. government"". Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 19 March 2020. Jetzt sorgt das betroffene Unternehmen dafür, dass man sich fragt, was an dieser Sache „Fake News" sein könnte. „Um es noch einmal klar zu stellen: Curevac hat vor, während und seit dem Treffen der Task Force im Weißen Haus am 2. März kein Angebot von der US-Regierung oder verwandten Stellen erhalten", erklärte Curevac
  22. ^ a b "Germany tries to stop US from luring away firm seeking coronavirus vaccine". CNBC. 2020-03-15. Retrieved 2020-03-15.
  23. ^ "Trump trying to poach scientists working on virus vaccine, report claims". South China Morning Post. 2020-03-15. Retrieved 2020-03-15.
  24. ^ "Germany tries to stop US from luring away firm seeking coronavirus vaccine". Reuters. 2020-03-15. Retrieved 2020-03-15.
  25. ^ "Deutscher Corona-Impfstoff nicht nur für die USA". DW.COM (in German). 2020-03-15. Retrieved 2020-03-15. Wir wollen einen Impfstoff für die ganze Welt entwickeln und nicht für einzelne Staaten{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  26. ^ CureVac (2020-03-16). "(Untitled)". Twitter. Retrieved 2020-03-16.
  27. ^ https://www.snopes.com/news/2020/03/17/trump-poach-coronavirus-vaccine

Media related to Curevac at Wikimedia Commons

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