For a long time they were seen as a beacon of hope for a corona vaccine, but now Curevac has to restructure. With noticeable consequences for the workforce.
The biotech company Curevac plans to cut almost one in three jobs as part of a corporate restructuring. The company plans to cut 30 percent of its jobs and reduce operating costs by a total of 30 percent starting next year, it announced in Tübingen. Curevac also announced that it would sell the rights to its mRNA flu and Covid-19 vaccines to the British pharmaceutical company GSK for up to 1.45 billion euros.
Curevac has secured urgently needed financial resources after the company struggled with problems in clinical trials and patent disputes surrounding its mRNA technology. According to the agreement, the Tübingen-based company will receive an initial payment of 400 million euros, up to 1.05 billion euros in milestone payments and other variable compensation. Curevac shares have since risen by almost 28 percent.
In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, the biotech company was initially seen as one of the hopefuls in developing a vaccine against the virus. But due to comparatively low effectiveness, Curevac withdrew its first vaccine candidate from the approval process.
The vaccine manufacturer is currently working on the development of a new second-generation corona vaccine. The company is also researching vaccines for cancer therapy. However, a product is not yet on the market. After the restructuring, the focus will be on approaches with high value potential, including in oncology, according to Curevac.
Source: Stern
