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 The German biotechnology company's shares were off about 8% after
earlier plunging as much as 13%, hitting their lowest since going
public in August last year.
CureVac said it would abandon its application for approval from the
European Medicines Agency for its first COVID-19 vaccine candidate,
CVnCoV, after late-stage trials delivered disappointing results
https://www.reuters.com/business/
healthcare-pharmaceuticals/curevacs-covid-19-vaccine-misses-efficacy-goal-mass-trial-2021-06-16
in June with 47% efficacy.
Abandoning the vaccine will avoid a potential overlap with approval
timelines for its most advanced second-generation candidates, it
said. The move also allows the company to focus on the race for new
variant-specific vaccines, and for combination shots that prevent
two or more infectious diseases.
That will also see it try a technology employed by more successful
rival BioNTech SE, which modified the nucleosides - the molecules
that determine the mRNA’s genetic code - to shield the vaccine
against immune system attacks. CureVac had previously banked on
non-modified mRNA.
The earliest potential approval of CVnCoV would have come in the
second quarter of 2022, when candidates from the second-generation
vaccine programme were expected to progress to late-stage clinical
development, CureVac said.
"In the ongoing transition from acute pandemic to endemic, our
decision ... reflects expected changes in public health needs that
our second generation can potentially address,” said Chief Executive
Franz-Werner Haas.
The agreement CureVac signed to sell shots to the European Union
will end, with no obligation to repay the 450 million euros ($519
million) received from the bloc, the company said.
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 The EU commission did not
immediately reply to a request for comment on
refunding clauses in the contract.
Financial commitments to contract manufacturers
would be made public over the next few weeks,
but any such burdens were minor, Haas said on
call with reporters. CureVac
cancelled deals last month with two prospective contractors to make
CVnCoV. It said it would seek to repurpose the remaining
infrastructure for future products.
Human trials for its second-generation shot could start in coming
months, with any regulatory approval seen in 2022. Animal trials so
far showed them to be superior to CureVac's original COVID-19
vaccine.
The shot is the latest casualty in the drug industry's race to
develop a vaccine against the coronavirus, which has killed more
than 5 million people and infected more than 238 million.
French drugmaker Sanofi SA also dropped plans for its own mRNA-based
COVID-19 vaccine last month because of the dominance achieved by
BioNTech with U.S. partner Pfizer Inc and Moderna Inc with shots
using the technology.
Instead, it will pursue the technology, acquired as part of its
takeover of Translate Bio, in potential vaccines against influenza
and other diseases.
($1 = 0.8670 euros)
(Reporting by Zuzanna Szymanska, Josephine Mason, Ludwig Burger and
Francesco Guarascio; Editing by Louise Heavens, Edmund Blair and
Bill Berkrot)
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