CureVac

CureVac is a biopharmaceutical company based in Tübingen, Germany that develops therapies based on messenger RNA (mRNA). With approximately 375 employees in 2018, it was founded in 2000 by Ingmar Hoerr, Steve Pascolo, Florian von der Mulbe, Günther Jung, and Hans-Georg Rammensee. At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, CureVac was an early starter in the race to develop a German vaccine for protection against COVID-19, a disease caused by infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Clinical trials for the CureVac COVID-19 Vaccine (CVnCoV) began in June 2020, and in the same month, the German Federal Government invested €300 million in CureVac, with one of the terms of the agreement being that KfW will hold a stake of approximately 23% in the company. In June 2021, it announced that CVnCoV displayed inadequate results in Phase III clinical trials with only 47% efficacy. In October, the company announced it would abandon further research and development into CVnCoV and would instead focus its efforts on collaborating with GSK to develop improved mRNA vaccine technology. Focused on developing vaccines for infectious diseases and drugs to treat cancer and rare diseases, the firm has entered into various collaborations with organizations; among them are Eli Lilly and Company, Johnson & Johnson, GlaxoSmithKline, CEPI, IAVI, and the government of Germany.