EU reaches deal with CureVac for up to 405 million COVID-19 vaccine doses

By Rachel Arthur

- Last updated on GMT

This is the fifth COVID-19 vaccine deal the EU has made; with a sixth with Moderna expected to follow shortly. Pic:getty/stormwatch153
This is the fifth COVID-19 vaccine deal the EU has made; with a sixth with Moderna expected to follow shortly. Pic:getty/stormwatch153

Related tags COVID-19 vaccine European union CureVac

The European Commission has reached an agreement with CureVac for up to 405 million doses of its mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine candidate: representing the biggest COVID-19 vaccine deal the Commission has inked so far.

The Commission also says a deal with Moderna’s mRNA vaccine – which reported 94.5% efficacy in its interim analysis​ yesterday - is expected soon.  

The deal with CureVac is for 225 million doses with the option for an additional purchase of 180 million doses.

CureVac's mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine candidate is an optimized, non-chemically modified mRNA, encoding the prefusion stabilized full-length spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The two-dose vaccine is currently in a Phase 2a clinicla trial in Peru and Panama. CureVac plans to initiate the pivotal Phase 2b/3 clinical study before end of 2020. 

Phase 1 interim data reported in November showed that CVnCoV was generally well tolerated across all tested doses and induced strong antibody responses in addition to first indication of T cell activation. 

Headquartered in Tübingen, Germany, CureVac received funding from the European Union and the European Investment bank earlier this year for the development of the vaccine candidate.

CureVac is currently expanding manufacturing capacities for large-scale manufacturing of the vaccine. Doses will be produced at the company's in-house GMP-certified manufacturing site in Germany, and across a European manufacturing network.

The European Commission's deal with CureVac represents the fifth vaccine deal it has made to date. It has also conculded 'successful exploratory talks' with Moderna and is working on a deal with the US giant, and saying it hopes to finalise a deal soon. 

The EU's COVID-19 vaccine deals to date

Vaccine manufacturer

Initial number of doses

Option for further doses

Total number of doses possible

Sanofi/GSK

300 million

-

300 million

AstraZeneca

300 million

100 million

400 million

Janssen / J&J

200 million

200 million

400 million

Pfizer / BioNTech

200 million

100 million

300 million

CureVac

225 million

180 million

405 million

Related topics Markets & Regulations COVID-19

Related news

Show more

Follow us

Webinars