CureVac: Layoffs and restructuring after vaccine fiasco!

The Tübingen biotech company Curevac has realigned itself after the development of its corona vaccine failed. CEO Alexander Zehnder highlights the company's strengths in research, innovation and clinical development. In the future, Curevac will focus on research in oncology as well as bacterial diseases and recurrent urinary tract diseases. In this context, the company is holding discussions with potential partners from the pharmaceutical industry.

An important step in the realignment was the sale of the licensing rights for mRNA flu and Covid-19 vaccines to the British pharmaceutical company GSK. This decision is intended to relieve Curevac's financial burden after KfW invested around 300 million euros in the company in 2020. The federal government currently holds around 13 percent of Curevac. Thanks to the license agreement with GSK, which is worth up to 1.45 billion euros, Curevac was able to record profits in the third quarter, for the first time since the start of the corona pandemic. The €400 million upfront payment from this agreement has provided the company with much-needed financial resources.

Job cuts and legal disputes

In order to optimize the company structure, Curevac has decided to abolish two of seven hierarchy levels and merge departments. About 300 employees have already been affected by layoffs in 2024, with volunteer programs offered. The job cuts will cost around 14 million euros, which should save around 30 percent of operating costs from 2025. In addition, Curevac is facing several legal disputes with Biontech regarding a corona vaccine patent in Germany, the USA and Great Britain. A controversial Curevac patent was declared invalid by the Federal Patent Court; Curevac filed an appeal against this ruling in May 2024. A decision from the Federal Court of Justice is still pending.

As part of the partnership between Curevac and GSK, this has been expanded to include mRNA-based vaccines for respiratory diseases. GSK will make an upfront payment of €400 million for global rights to influenza and COVID-19 vaccines and will provide a further €1.05 billion in 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, but it failed in clinical trials.

Both companies are currently working on new vaccines, with GSK reporting that current data suggests these vaccines could be “best-in-class.” Curevac plans to reduce the number of employees by almost a third in order to save 25 million euros in annual wage costs. In the future, Curevac will increasingly focus on mRNA immunotherapies for cancer and other selected diseases. The company expects to deliver two or more clinical candidates by the end of next year and to initiate at least two new Phase 1 trials by the end of 2026.