It would be a gross understatement to say that investors who got in at CureVac's (CVAC, Financial) initial public offering price had a good start to their weekend. Opening at $16 a share, the stock of the German company closed near $60 Friday, buoyed by a combination of the market's enthusiasm for biotech newbies and the company's prospects for developing a Covid-19 vaccine.
CureVac is now flush with cash to support its work on a coronavirus inoculation and for other projects. The company's IPO raised $213 million, plus $118 million from a share purchase by founder Dietmar Hopp—who owns controlling interest, according to Endpoints News. In late July, CureVac closed a $640 million financing round, most of it coming from the German government and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK, Financial). Glaxo also bought 10% of the company and signed a separate agreement to develop vaccines to address future pandemics.
An RNA is injected in the body (left). This RNA encodes the information to produce the antigen, which is a protein from a pathogen, that will stimulate the immune system. Inside the cells, the RNA is used to synthesize the antigen, which is exposed to the cell surface (middle). Then, a subset of immune system cells recognizes the antigen and trigger an immune response (direct response and long-term memory) (right).
Source: Harvard University
This flurry of activity means that in just the past three weeks, CureVac has hauled in nearly $1 billion. That's not too shabby for a company whose Covid-19 vaccine prospect has yet to show any test results in humans.
But that's about to change. In an interview with Endpoints News, CEO Franz-Werner Haas said he anticipates CureVac will have phase 1 data on its vaccine in the fall, after which the company plans starting a new study in the elderly. Before the end of the year, CureVac wants to initiate a test of the vaccine in 20,000 to 30,000 people, with an eye toward getting approval under emergency use in the first quarter of 2021.
Among the companies working on Covid-19 vaccines, CureVac seems to have an important advantage—the amount of its dose. The biotech is evaluating doses below 10 micrograms. Haas thinks the potency of the company's vaccine should make it effective at extremely low amounts, a big advantage over other developers whose products require more of the treatment.
With an expansion of its manufacturing facilities, CureVac said that by the second quarter of 2021, it will be capable of making hundreds of millions of doses.
CureVac is one of a number of companies developing a vaccine using RNA technology to develop its vaccine. Others employing this method include Moderna Inc. (MRNA), a BioNTech SE- Pfizer Inc. (BNTX, Financial)(PFE, Financial) collaboration, Arcturus Therapeutics Holdings Inc. (ARCT, Financial), Daiichi Sankyo Co. (TSE: 5468) and Translate Bio Inc. (TBIO, Financial).
Pharmaceutical Technology reported that RNA vaccines have a number of advantages over conventional types, especially when it comes to a pandemic. They can be produced fast and inexpensively in the laboratory and seem to work better and are safer, as proven in clinical trials.
CureVac is also looking beyond Covid-19. The company is employing RNA technology to in its lead cancer program, which is in phase 1 for various cancers, including melanoma and head and neck cancers, and about $10 million for its rabies vaccine, which is also in phase 1.
Disclosure: The author has a position in Pfizer.
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