CureVac

CureVac is a biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Tübingen, Germany, that develops therapies based on messenger RNA (mRNA).[1] The main research primarily focuses on cancer immunotherapies and prophylactic vaccines against infectious diseases.[2] Founded in 2000, CureVac currently has about 240 employees.[3]

Since inception, CureVac had received approximately $330 million (€300 million) in equity investments.[4] CureVac has entered into various collaborations with multinational corporations and organizations, including agreements with Boehringer Ingelheim, Sanofi Pasteur, Johnson & Johnson, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative.
Technology

CureVac’s technology platform was developed in the late 1990s from the research conducted by Ingmar Hoerr and colleagues in the laboratories of Professor Hans-Georg Rammensee and Professor Günther Jung at University of Tübingen in Germany.[6] CureVac’s technology platform utilizes natural, chemically unmodified mRNA, which studies have shown elicits great therapeutic responses.[7]

The basic principle of the company’s proprietary technology is the use of mRNA as a data carrier to instruct the human body to produce its own proteins capable of fighting a wide range of diseases.[8] Since 2008, CureVac has applied its mRNA technology in more than 350 humans in seven clinical trials in eleven countries, including an ongoing Phase IIb trial in prostate cancer.[9] CureVac’s mRNA programs include novel mRNA-based cancer immunotherapies and prophylactic vaccines against infectious diseases (RNActive®), molecular therapies designed to trigger the body’s own production of therapeutic proteins (RNArt®), and RNA encoded antibodies (RNAntibody®).[10]

CureVac’s development pipeline also includes clinical programs in non-small cell lung cancer (partnered with Boehringer Ingelheim) and rabies, as well as numerous development programs, including HIV, Rotavirus, RSV, Tuberculosis and further indications that are mostly part of strategic partnerships with pharma companies and NGOs.[11]

In 2006, CureVac successfully established the first GMP facility worldwide for the manufacturing of mRNA for medical purposes.[12] In 2016 CureVac will start the construction of an industrial scale production facility with a capacity of 30 million doses per year.

Ingmar Hoerr, PhD, MBA, Chairman and CEO of CureVac AG, Germany, founded the biopharmaceutical company in 2000 together with Florian von der Mülbe and other colleagues. His entrepreneurship was motivated by a surprising discovery during his doctoral research. Experiments conducted for this research showed that mRNA is capable of generating a strong specific immune response, contrary to what had previously been believed. From this key discovery, Ingmar Hoerr and Florian von der Mülbe built up a company that is now a global leader in the research and development of mRNA-based drugs. Ingmar Hoerr received his PhD from the University of Tübingen and his MBA from Danube University, Krems, Austria.