EC Has Announced ˆ80 Million of Support to CureVac for COVID-19 Vaccine Development

The European Commission (EC) has offered €80 million of financial support to CureVac, a German biopharmaceutical company and vaccine developer, to aid in the scale-up of R&D and production of a vaccine against the novel COVID-19 coronavirus. The funding is provided as a European Investment Bank (EIB) loan.

The financing is part of the EU’s response to COVID-19. The EC has mobilised €140 million in public and private funding to support research and therapeutic/vaccine development. Earlier in March, 17 projects, encompassing 136 research teams, were selected to receive around €47.5 million from the research and innovation programme, Horizon 2020. The teams will work on developing vaccines, new treatments, diagnostic tests and medical systems aimed at preventing the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus.

CureVac developed a novel technology, based on messenger RNA molecules, which allows vaccines to remain stable without refrigeration. Preliminary studies have shown that the technology holds promise for a rapid response to COVID-19. If proven, millions of vaccine doses could potentially be produced at low costs in existing CureVac production facilities.

CureVac has already started its COVID-19 vaccine development programme and estimates to launch clinical testing by June 2020.