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 Under terms of the deal, CureVac will receive $50 million up front
and Lilly will take an equity stake in CureVac worth about $53
million (45 million euros).
Once the deal clears regulatory scrutiny, Lilly said it will take a
charge to earnings of about 3 cents per share.
The collaboration calls for Lilly to be responsible for identifying
cancer targets, clinical development and commercialization, while
CureVac will handle mRNA design, formulation and manufacture of
vaccine for clinical supply, the companies said.
CureVac retains an option to co-promote any approved vaccine
products in Germany. It will also be eligible to receive more than
$1.7 billion in development and commercialization milestones should
all five vaccines prove successful, and royalty payments on sales if
any are approved.
Therapeutic cancer vaccines have had a very disappointing track
record with numerous clinical failures. But treatments that help a
patient's own immune system fight cancer are all the rage, with a
handful on the market targeting several cancer types and scores more
in development.
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Messenger RNA carries the recipe to produce desired therapeutic
proteins inside a patient's body. The CureVac mRNA technology will
employ specific tumor neonantigens designed to help mount a
selective immune system assault against cancer cells.
"We now have the opportunity to combine forces to further expand the
exciting space of immuno-oncology with the next generation of cancer
therapies," CureVac Chief Executive Ingmar Hoerr said in a
statement.
(Reporting by Bill Berkrot; Editing by Tom Brown)
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