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GSK Buys CureVac's mRNA Vaccine Business Providing Welcome Cash Injection
British multinational biopharma company GSK have restructured their existing arrangement with the German vaccine developer CureVac, which includes licencing of CureVac's vaccine development and production.
GSK will now control the development and manufacture of CureVac's vaccine candidates for COVID-19, seasonal flu, and avian flu. Under the terms of the agreement, GSK will hold the right to commercialise those candidates worldwide.
The deal gives CureVac a much-needed cash boost worth up to €1.4 billion: €400 million as an upfront payment and up to €1.05 billion in milestone dependant payments relating to sales and regulation.
CureVac has manufacturing capabilities at its headquarters in Tübingen and a variety of mRNA infectious disease vaccines in the pipeline which have been developed in collaboration with GSK since 2020. These include a seasonal flu and COVID-19 vaccine in Phase II, and an avian flu vaccine in Phase I. These candidates are based on CureVac's mRNA platform and have demonstrated promising data which makes them valuable assets.
GSK's Chief Scientific Officer, Tony Wood, said: “We are excited about our flu/COVID-19 programs and the opportunity to develop best-in-class mRNA vaccines to change the standard of care. With this new agreement, we will apply GSK’s capabilities, partnerships and intellectual property to CureVac’s technology, to deliver these promising vaccines at pace.”
The news comes after the German vaccine developer reported financial losses in 2023/2024 and had announced its plan to 'rightsize' the company including saving €25 million in voluntary staff cuts, amounting to almost a third of its workforce.
Alexander Zehnder, Chief Executive Officer at CureVac said that their collaboration with GSK, "has been instrumental in developing promising, late clinical-stage vaccine candidates, leveraging our proprietary mRNA platform. This new licensing agreement puts us in a strong financial position and enables us to focus on efforts in building a strong R&D pipeline.”
GSK and CureVac's new restructured partnership will replace their existing collaboration. Under the new terms, CureVac will retain the exclusive rights to develop further prophylactic vaccines for other infectious diseases using their mRNA platform. Furthermore, CureVac says that it will hold onto the rights to "additional undisclosed and preclinically validated infectious disease targets from the prior collaboration together."Related Resources
