EIB and CureVac have signed a €75m loan agreement to develop a large-scale production of vaccines, including CureVac’s vaccine candidate against SARS-CoV-2
The European Investment Bank (EIB) and CureVac have entered into a €75m loan agreement to support the company’s ongoing development of vaccines against infectious diseases, including its vaccine candidate CVnCoV aimed at preventing SARS-CoV-2 infections.
The loan will also support the CureVac’s efforts to expand its existing Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) certified production capabilities and accelerate the completion of its fourth production site in Tübingen, Germany.
The EIB financing will be provided in three €25m instalments upon completion of pre-defined milestones.
Mariya Gabriel, commissioner for innovation, research, culture, education and youth, said: “The coronavirus will be with us, as long as we do not have a vaccine against it. This is why our work on this front, together with international actors, is so crucial. Recently we have presented our vaccines strategy to accelerate the development, manufacturing and deployment of vaccines against the novel coronavirus.
“And since the beginning of the pandemic, we increased the funding for the Infectious Diseases Finance Facility by €400m to allow the EIB to process a higher volume of projects addressing this disease. With our support to CureVac we accelerate our efforts to find safe and effective solutions for everyone in Europe and globally”.
CureVac and EIB’s background
CureVac is a leading clinical stage biotechnology company in the field of messenger RNA (mRNA) technology with 20 years of expertise in developing and optimizing this versatile molecule for medical purposes. The principle of CureVac’s proprietary technology is the use of mRNA as a data carrier to instruct the human body to produce its own proteins capable of fighting a wide range of diseases.
The EIB makes long-term finance available for investments in order to contribute towards EU policy goals. The EIB also supports investments outside the EU.
The Infectious Diseases Finance Facility (IDFF) is a financial product dedicated to support the fight against infectious diseases. IDFF enables the EIB to provide between €7.5m and €75m of funding to innovative players active in developing vaccines, drugs, medical and diagnostic devices and research infrastructure for combatting infectious diseases. The IDFF has been reinforced by €400m to better tackle the outbreak of COVID-19.
Ambroise Fayolle, EIB vice-president in charge of innovation and health said: “It does not need a pandemic to prove that new vaccines can be breakthroughs for public health. But in times like ours it becomes clear just how important they are to keep societies running globally. In fact, the only way to end the dramatic situation the world is facing since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic would be a safe and effective vaccine.
“Thanks to our cooperation with the European Commission, we can finance more and more innovative biotech and medtech companies, such as CureVac, in their research and development of vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics solutions. This is an added value of Europe, and the EIB does everything it can to maximise this value for the sake of people”.
Pierre Kemula, chief financial officer of CureVac, added: “We are very pleased with the EIB financing. It allows us to further invest in our mRNA technology platform to fight life-threatening diseases. We are working intensively to develop a safe and effective low dose mRNA vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 and started a Phase 1 clinical trial of CVnCoV in June”.
