The Tübingen biotech company Curevac is getting a new CEO. Sanofi manager Alexander Zehnder will replace Franz-Werner Haas on April 1 after three years at the helm of the company. Haas, who was a board member at the company for more than ten years, took over the post in April 2020 at the beginning of the corona pandemic, since company founder Ingmar Hoerr had to resign for health reasons. Zehnder is currently global head of the oncology business at Sanofi and previously held various management positions at the French pharmaceutical company and the Swiss Roche group.
Curevac was considered one of the great hopes in the development of a Covid-19 vaccine, but suffered a serious setback when its own vaccine did not work as well as hoped and the project was stopped. The Tübingen-based company is now working with the British pharmaceutical company GSK on an improved vaccine that is in the early stages of clinical development.