[ad_1]
The German biotech company is taking a step forward on the path to approval of its corona vaccine: CureVac has entered the crucial phase of its clinical studies. Results are expected in March.
The vaccine manufacturer announced Monday that the first participant had been included in the relevant global study for approval. The study is expected to include more than 35,000 subjects at locations in Europe and Latin America. According to a spokesperson, CureVac expects the first results at the end of the first quarter of 2021.
“With the initiation of the approval-relevant phase 2b / 3 study, we have reached another important milestone in the development of our CVnCoV vaccine candidate,” said CEO Franz-Werner Haas. The Tübingen company published interim positive results of the phase 1 study with the vaccine in November.
The second phase takes place from the summer
The vaccine was administered to 250 healthy volunteers between the ages of 18 and 60 to test its tolerance and immunogenicity. In the second phase, 690 test people have been vaccinated at clinical centers in Peru and Panama since late summer. The objective of the third phase is to test the efficacy and safety of the new vaccine called mRNA against the virus.
Like the vaccine from Mainz-based pharmaceutical company Biontech and its US partner Pfizer, CureVac also works with this synthetically produced messenger molecule that stimulates the formation of a viral protein in the body. This triggers an immune response that supposedly protects people from the virus.
Unlike conventional vaccines, in which the active ingredient is grown with viruses for several months and then injected in a weakened form, the mRNA vaccine dispenses with live pathogens and cell cultures. This should reduce potential security risks. Biontech and Pfizer have already received emergency approval from the US FDA, and delivery has already started.
Cooperation with Wacker Chemie
CureVac has signed a contract with the EU Commission for the purchase of up to 405 million doses of vaccines. It is unknown how many cans should go to Germany.
The biotech group works with MDax member Wacker Chemie on production. The specialty chemicals company should begin production of the mRNA active for the CVnCoV candidate vaccine in the first half of 2021, it said in November. At the Wacker plant in Amsterdam, more than 100 million cans will be produced each year.
Share shoots
The CureVac vaccine is one of three German projects that are financially supported by the federal government with a special program of around 750 million euros. CureVac, in which the federal government owns almost 17 percent through the KfW development bank, will receive up to € 252 million from it.
On Monday, investors reacted enthusiastically on the stock market. CureVac stock soared in early Xetra trades at times by more than 8.5 percent. Since the beginning of January, the share price has risen more than 150 percent.
Those: boerse.ard.de
