Covid-19: European Commission offers financing to innovative vaccines company CureVac
The European Commission said on March 17 that it had offered up to 80 million euro of financial support to CureVac, a highly innovative vaccine developer from Tübingen, Germany, to scale up development and production of a vaccine against the coronavirus, or Covid-19, in Europe.
EC President Ursula von der Leyen and Commissioner Mariya Gabriel discussed with the CureVac management yesterday, the statement said.
The support would come in the form of an EU guarantee of a currently assessed EIB loan in the framework of the InnovFin Infectious Disease Finance Facility under Horizon 2020.
Von der Leyen said: “In this public health crisis it is of utmost importance that we support our leading researchers and tech companies. We are determined to provide CureVac with the financing it needs to quickly scale up development and production of a vaccine against the Coronavirus. I am proud that we have leading companies like CureVac in the EU. Their home is here. But their vaccines will benefit everyone, in Europe and beyond.”
CureVac is a German biopharmaceutical company that has developed a novel technology to overcome the need to keep the vaccines stable without refrigeration, the statement said.
“Preliminary studies have shown that the technology holds a promise for rapid response to Covid-19. If proven, millions of vaccine doses could be produced at low costs.”
CureVac has already started its Covid-19 vaccine development program and estimates to launch clinical testing by June 2020.
The EC said that the support to CureVac is part of coordinated EU response to the public health threat of Covid-19. Working closely with the industry, the Commission has already mobilised up to 140 million euro in public and private funding to support urgently needed research aimed at preventing the spread of Coronavirus.
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