Status: October 12, 2021 4:44 p.m.
The Tübingen biotech company CureVac is withdrawing its first corona vaccine candidate. In tests, this had not produced the desired effectiveness. CureVac now wants to develop a new vaccine.
The biotech company CureVac stops its first corona vaccine candidate. As the company announced in Tübingen, the approval procedure at the European Medicines Agency (EMA) is being withdrawn.
“We are too late for the pandemic product, the time window has closed,” said CureVac boss Franz-Werner Haas, explaining the move. CureVac will now focus on a second-generation vaccine that is being developed together with the British company GlaxoSmithKline.
EMA ends test
There was no formal application for approval for the vaccine candidate CVnCoV, CVnCoV was still in the so-called rolling procedure for approval. The EMA announced that it has now terminated this process of reviewing continuously submitted data on the vaccine following notification from CureVac.
In late June, CureVac announced that its first-generation CVnCoV vaccine was less effective than some other vaccines. At the beginning of July, the biotech company assumed that the EMA would approve the vaccine despite its low effectiveness.
Only 48 percent effectiveness
According to a final analysis, the CureVac preparation had shown an effectiveness of 48 percent against Covid 19 disease across all age groups. This makes it significantly less effective overall than some other vaccines. According to Haas, the pre-produced cans will be destroyed. He didn’t want to say how many there are.
On the stock exchange, investors reacted to the announcement with sales. The CureVac shares fell more than 14 percent on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Since the beginning of the year, they have lost around half of their value.
Contract with EU is terminated
The company will comment on the financial impact of the exit from the vaccine in the coming weeks, added Haas. The contract with the European Union will be terminated, he added.
The EU had secured a total of 405 million doses of the corona vaccine. At the same time, Haas was confident that an EU grant with a volume of 450 million euros would not have to be repaid. This money was supposed to guarantee the development of the vaccine.
We are in talks with the federal government, which has shares in CureVac. Last year, the federal government invested 300 million euros in CureVac through the KfW development bank, and thus holds a 16 percent share, according to KfW.