Dive Brief:
- After a turbulent few years, German vaccine maker CureVac is retrenching with a plan to slim down its workforce and “streamline structures” across the company.
- CureVac said Wednesday it plans to shed 150 jobs, starting with a “voluntary leaver” program. Other moves to reduce expenses and sharpen priorities will result in cost savings designed to extend the company’s cash runway into the fourth quarter of 2025.
- With the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, CureVac and its partner GSK are also winding down a Pandemic Preparedness Agreement struck with Germany in 2022. And CureVac announced the appointment of a new chief business officer, Thaminda Ramanayake.
Dive Insight:
CureVac was part of the early scramble to invent a COVID-19 vaccine when the pandemic hit in 2020. Its mRNA technology looked promising enough to spark rumors that former President Trump was trying to lure the company away from Germany. A few months later, CureVac raised $213 million in an initial public offering.
But the company’s initial foray into COVID-19 vaccines met with failure and a rocky few years followed. In 2022, CureVac sued rival BioNTech for patent infringement, claiming some of that company’s success in COVID-19 was based on CureVac’s intellectual property. Litigation between the two companies continues.
In the meantime, CureVac has seen a huge chunk of its market value evaporate. Its stock, which topped $120 in February 2021, is currently worth just over $2 per share.
The company is now looking for a reset, pushing ahead with new vaccines with GSK. CureVac this month announced promising Phase 2 data for an experimental seasonal flu shot and on Wednesday announced the start of a Phase 1/2 study in avian flu. CureVac and GSK are also working on next-generation COVID-19 vaccines.