Collaborations

The collaboration creates strong synergies between CureVac’s unique end-to-end capabilities for cancer antigen discovery, mRNA design, and manufacturing and MD Anderson’s expertise in cancer antigen discovery and validation, translational drug development, and clinical research. The collaboration will focus on the development of differentiated cancer vaccine candidates in selected hematological and solid tumor indications with high unmet medical need.

The common goal of the partnership between CureVac and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is to develop mRNA-based vaccines against various infectious diseases which have an enormous impact on global health.

CureVac has teamed up with CEPI to further develop The RNA PrinterTM prototype, a transportable, down-scaled, automated mRNA printing facility that can rapidly provide mRNA-based vaccine candidates for known pathogens. Under the partnership, CureVac will undertake the preclinical (and eventual phase 1 clinical) development of such candidate vaccines — prioritizing Lassa fever, rabies, yellow fever and especially COVID-19.

CureVac collaborates with CRISPR Therapeutics, a genome editing company focused on creating transformative gene-based medicines for serious diseases, for developing CRISPR-based therapeutics in select disease areas. Under the terms of the agreement, CureVac will develop novel Cas9 mRNA constructs with improved properties for gene editing applications, such as increased potency, decreased duration of expression, and reduced potential for immunogenicity.

In December 2019 Genmab and CureVac AG entered into a research collaboration and license agreement for the development of mRNA-based antibody therapeutics. The companies will collaborate on research to identify an initial product candidate, followed potentially by three additional programs, combining CureVac’s mRNA technology and know-how with Genmab’s proprietary antibody technologies and expertise.

The strategic mRNA technology collaboration between GSK and CureVac includes the research, development, manufacturing and commercialisation of up to five mRNA-based vaccines and monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) targeting infectious disease pathogens.

CureVac has partnered with the Schepens Eye Research Institute of Massachusetts Eye and Ear, a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School, to discover and develop novel mRNA-based candidates for undisclosed eye indications.

CureVac Partners with myNEO Therapeutics to Identify Novel Antigen Targets for mRNA-Based Cancer Vaccine Development. To achieve this goal, myNEO Therapeutics will leverage its biological datasets, its integrated machine learning and bioinformatics platform to identify and validate specific antigen targets predicted to elicit a strong immune response.

CureVac cooperates with Acuitas Therapeutics Ltd, a company specializing in the development of lipid nanoparticle (LNP) delivery systems for molecular therapeutics. This collaboration will allow CureVac to access the full patent portfolio and know-how of Acuitas and its lipid technology. The objective of the collaboration is the development of LNP-formulated mRNA product candidates.

CureVac has entered into a collaboration with Arcturus Therapeutics Ltd. (NASDAQ:ARCT), an RNA medicines company, to access the full suite of Arcturus’ lipid-mediated delivery intellectual property to enable the development of mRNA product candidates.