Curevac: layoffs and restructuring according to vaccine fiasco!

The Tübingen Biotech company Curevac has realigned after the development of its Corona vaccine has failed. CEO Alexander Zehnder emphasizes the strengths of the company in research, innovation and clinical development. In future, Curevac will focus on research in oncology as well as bacterial diseases and recurring urinary tract diseases. In this context, the company has discussions with potential partners from the pharmaceutical industry.

An important step in the realignment was the sale of the license rights for mRNA-gripping and covid-19 vaccines on the British pharmaceutical company GSK. Curevac is to be financially relieved of this decision after the KfW invested around 300 million euros in the company in 2020. The federal government currently holds about 13 percent of Curevac. Thanks to the license agreement with GSK, which corresponds to a value of up to 1.45 billion euros, Curevac recorded profits in the third quarter, for the first time since the beginning of Corona pandemic. The advance payment of 400 million euros from this agreement has given the company urgently needed financial resources.

job cuts and legal disputes

To optimize the corporate structure, Curevac has decided to abolish two of seven hierarchy levels and to combine departments. In 2024, around 300 releases were affected by layoffs, with volunteer programs being offered. The job cuts amount to around 14 million euros, which is to save around 30 percent of operating costs from 2025. In addition, Curevac faces several legal disputes with Biontech with regard to a Corona vaccine patent in Germany, the USA and Great Britain. A controversial curevac patent was declared void by the Federal Patent Court; Curevac appealed against this judgment in May 2024. A decision by the Federal Court of Justice is still pending.

As part of the partnership between Curevac and GSK, this was expanded to the area of ​​mRNA-based vaccines for respiratory diseases. GSK will make an advance payment of 400 million euros for global rights of influenza and Covid 19 vaccines and provide a further 1.05 billion euros in the form of development, regulatory and sales milestone payments. While the original partnership was announced in 2020 during the Covid 19 pandemic, it was intensified a year later to develop a Covid 19 vaccine, which, however, failed in clinical studies.

Both companies are currently working on new vaccines, whereby GSK reports that the current data indicate that they could be "best-in-class" vaccines. Curevac plans to reduce the number of employees by almost a third to save 25 million euros from the annual wage costs. In the future, Curevac will be increasingly focusing on MRNA immune therapies for cancer and other selected diseases. The company expects to deliver two or more clinical candidates by the end of next year and to start at least two new phase 1 studies by the end of 2026.