GSK and CureVac in New Alliance for Multi-Valent mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Germany-based CureVac announced that they will co-develop a messenger-RNA-based COVID-19 vaccine to protect against multiple emerging variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

The companies expect to introduce a new COVID-19 vaccine in 2022 that can be shipped and held at standard refrigeration temperatures of 35.6 to 46.4 Fahrenheit (2 to 8 degrees Celsius), which would present fewer logistical hurdles than the mRNA-based vaccine from Pfizer/BioNTech that must be held at ultra-cold temperatures.

GSK said it will also support the manufacture of up to 100 million doses of CureVac’s current mRNA-based vaccine candidate for COVID-19, CVnCoV, this year. CureVac enrolled the first participant in the pivotal phase 2b/3 study of CVnCoV in mid-December (DID, Dec. 15, 2020) and plans to enroll 35,000 participants.

GSK is making an upfront payment of $90 million and will make a further payment in the same amount if CureVac achieves specific milestones. The new deal builds upon a July 2020 pact — also valued at around $180 million — in which GSK took a 10 percent stake in CureVac and made an upfront payment for research and commercialization of five messenger-RNA-based vaccines and monoclonal antibodies for infectious diseases.

Under the terms of the new agreement, GSK will be the marketing authorization holder for the next-generation vaccine, except in Switzerland, and will have exclusive rights to develop, manufacture and commercialize the vaccine everywhere except Germany, Austria and Switzerland. — Martin Berman-Gorvine