CureVac – Where the Pioneering Spirit Meets Expert Knowledge
Like many biopharmaceutical companies, the roots of CureVac lie in academic research. In the late 1990s, Dr. Ingmar Hoerr, Co-founder and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of CureVac, made an unexpected discovery during his doctoral research in biology, which was contrary to the established scientific belief at the time: RNA, which was generally thought to be a very unstable biomolecule, could be administered directly into tissue as a therapeutic vaccine or agent once the biological properties of the molecule were appropriately modified. Furthermore, complicated formulations or molecular packaging were not required to achieve these results.
This discovery led to a new fundamental understanding of the potential of RNA to treat diseases and to generate prophylactic immunity. These fascinating possibilities prompted the company’s three founders, Ingmar Hoerr, Steve Pascolo and Florian von der Mülbe, to found CureVac without investors during the difficult market environment of 2000.
Read here the nature biotechnology article "A successful founder off the beaten path" describing CureVac's way from this first discovery until today.
