In July 2024, GSK and CureVac announced that they have “restructured” an existing collaboration into a new licensing agreement to allow both companies to “prioritise investment and focus their respective mRNA development activities”. The two companies have been working together on mRNA vaccines for infectious diseases since 2020. This collaboration has led to the development of vaccine candidates for seasonal influenza and COVID-19 (Phase II) and avian influenza (Phase I).
CureVac’s mRNA
The candidates are based on CureVac’s proprietary second-generation mRNA backbone. CureVac states that mRNA has “unparalleled potential as a drug”, which is driving an “exciting mission” into “unexplored territory”. The team analysed millions of naturally occurring sequences to gain insights into the endogenous RNA language, which enabled them to develop an in-house nucleotide sequence library to “optimally assemble the various pieces of the mRNA puzzle”.
The agreement
Under the terms of the new agreement, GSK will assume control of developing and manufacturing the vaccine candidates, with worldwide rights for commercialisation. This is the “latest step in GSK’s ongoing investment in vaccine platform technologies”, through which the company matches the best platform to specific pathogens to create best-in-class vaccines.
CureVac will receive upfront payment of €400 million and up to €1.05 billion more in development, regulatory and sales milestones, and tiered royalties. This agreement replaces all previous financial considerations from the prior collaboration agreement. CureVac will also retain exclusive rights to the additional undisclosed and preclinically validated infectious disease targets from this collaboration, with the opportunity to independently develop and partner mRNA vaccines in any other infectious disease or other indication.
Vaccines at pace
Dr Tony Wood, GSK’s Chief Scientific Officer, is “excited” about the flu/COVID-19 programmes and the “opportunity to develop best-in-class mRNA vaccines to change the standard of care”.
“With this new agreement, we will apply GSK’s capabilities, partnerships, and intellectual property to CureVac’s technology, to deliver these promising vaccines at pace.”
Dr Alexander Zehnder, Chief Executive Officer, CureVac, states that the new agreement “puts us in a strong financial position and enables us to focus on efforts in building a strong R&D pipeline”.
“The collaboration with GSK has been instrumental in developing promising, late clinical-stage vaccine candidates, leveraging our proprietary mRNA platform.”
For more from senior representatives of GSK at the Congress in Barcelona this October, get your tickets here. Don’t forget to subscribe for weekly vaccine updates here.
