mRNA vaccine pioneer CureVac N.V. has announced that it will sell US$200m of its common shares in an underwritten public offering.
In addition to these ordinary shares, Tübingen-based CureVac is enticing investors to give up another 15% of the number of ordinary shares under the same conditions as part of a 30-day option. The company stressed that it would sell all the shares itself. The company’s largest shareholder is Dietmar Hopp’s investment vehicle devieni Hopp, followed by the state-owned development bank KfW and development partner GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).
With the British partner, the company, which has relied exclusively on almost unmodified mRNA vaccines since 2000, is making a major turnaround. In a first-in-human clinical trial of the influenza and COVID-19 vaccine candidates developed jointly with GSK, Curevac is publicly comparing for the first time whether modified mRNA (CV0501) actually shows advantages in safety and efficacy over unmodified mRNA (CV2CoV). It is true that other developers have been able to achieve great results with modified mRNA vaccines. But full data transparency does not yet exist. The scientific journal Nature speaks of a historic head-to-head study.
In early January, the first interim results of a study with CV0501, Curevac’s 2nd generation COVID-19 vaccine, were published; these indicate an improved immunogenicity profile of the modified vaccine candidate. On the stock market, the share price, which had slumped since the end of 2021, rallied 20%. According to Handelsblatt, however, in mid-January it was still 70% below 2021, a year after Curevac’s IPO. In mid-February, the companies started the second phase I trial, this time with ascending doses of the multivalent flu vaccineFluSV mRNA/CVSQIV. .
What will be started with the new capital was not reported. However, it seems likely that the proceeds will be invested in a pipeline of 2nd generation mRNA drugs. All mRNA developers started with mRNA vaccines against cancer before the Corona pandemic. Biontech, based in Mainz, recently announced its intention to prioritise studies in the UK because of the good framework conditions.
