CureVac: Corona vaccine for the EU? German company shortly before signing a contract

The Tübingen-based biotech company CureVac has reached another important milestone in the development of a corona vaccine.

Munich - The Tübingen-based biotech company

is about to approve a framework contract for the delivery of its

to the EU.

The

company announced on Monday evening that a corresponding agreement

would be concluded with the

on Tuesday (November 17)

for the delivery of a total of 225 million vaccine doses.

The order also includes the option to deliver an additional 180 million cans, it said.

The vaccine will be delivered as soon as the effectiveness and safety of the Covid-19 vaccine has been proven.

According to the planned agreement,

a down payment to finance further development of the vaccine, production and market launch.

The company

initially did not provide any information

about the price on Monday evening at the request of

*.

The agreement is the EU’s fifth framework agreement with a vaccine manufacturer.

Similar to the Mainz biotech company

 , the vaccine candidate from

is also based

on the

method.

Components of the coronavirus genetic material are injected into the body.

In the cells they should then stimulate the body's own immune defense.

CureVac CEO Haas: "Working with governments around the world"

CureVac

“draws on 20 years of experience to develop a vaccine against COVID-19 that can help end the COVID-19 pandemic and enable us all to return to an unrestricted life,” said

, Chief Executive Officer of

according to press release on Monday.

They are “proud that we are making an important contribution to this and that our COVID-19 vaccine can possibly be made available to the citizens of the European Union.” In addition, they are working with “governments and multilateral organizations around the world to create one To ensure the broadest and fairest possible access to our COVID-19 vaccine candidate, ”said Haas.

CureVac has been

researching a corona vaccine at

speed since January.

Only at the beginning of November, after evaluating the data from 250 test subjects, the company declared that the interim results were "very promising".

The results from the first clinical phase in the four test centers in 

,

, 

 and 

 had shown “very good tolerability”.

In addition, the test subjects showed "very good formation of binding and neutralizing antibodies as well as signs of activation of T cells".

The results achieved were very similar to the immune response of patients who were infected with the Covid-19 virus, it said. 

CureVac expands production capacities

In view of the positive results, the company intends to start the large-scale phase IIb / III this year.

The vaccine will be tested on over 30,000 subjects in Europe and Latin America.

According to the plans, 

 then submit an application for so-called rolling approval to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in the first quarter of 2021.

If all goes well, the vaccine could be available in mid-2021, it said. 

In order to meet the expected demand, the company is working flat out to expand its production capacities.

is

 a new plant

in Tübingen 

.

It is scheduled to start operating in 2022.

The building for it is already in place.

Now the necessary systems are to be installed.

wants to

 75 million euros

in the production facilities 

alone.

In July, the biotech specialist secured a loan from the European Investment Bank to finance it.

In addition, the existing systems are currently "cloned multiple times".

Now the company is increasing its financial strength.

Similar to the corona vaccines from

or

, the preparation from

should also be able to be

stored at refrigerator temperatures.

This would simplify the logistics considerably.

The vaccine candidate from competitor

 , on the other hand,

requires arctic temperatures of minus 70 degrees for transport and logistics to ensure its effectiveness.