3 ms·

I wonder if CureVac can come back from this, or are they toast?

rurban 5y ago
My bet is on toast, technically. Gov. money (i.e. taxpayers money) will still keep them afloat though, because they love to keep a 2nd local option.
throwaway4good 5y ago
I think they raised a lot of money an IPO last year.
- kleiba 5y ago
  They received ~252.000.000 Euros from the German government alone in September 2020 [1], and previously another ~560.000.000 Euros from "private" investors in July 2020 (which somehow included another ~300.000.000 Euros from the German government as well)[2]. I'm sure the German tax payers are delighted. -- [1] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-germany-vaccine/germany-grants-biontech-curevac-745-million-to-speed-up-covid-19-vaccine-work-idUSKBN2661JB https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-german... [2] https://www.curevac.com/en/2020/07/21/curevac-raises-a-total-of-usd-640-million-in-private-financing-round/ https://www.curevac.com/en/2020/07/21/curevac-raises-a-total...
  - pedrocr 5y ago
    If we didn't have the other vaccines, getting 47% efficiency for a billion euros would have been an awesome result. We could have also stopped the pandemic with a 47% effective vaccine. We're just spoiled because the vaccine development efforts did so well in general that 90%+ is now our standard.
  - throwaway4good 5y ago
    They were the most promising vaccine company at one point. So promising that Trump tried to buy them.
  - Darvokis 5y ago
    Unless there were any known reasons at the time as to why CureVac wouldn't be able to create a functioning vaccine, I'm not sure how it's any use to anybody to take this position. There are no sure bets. There are going to be failures. That shouldn't be reason to stop funding companies like this if they otherwise show they're capable. I'd say Germany has more issues around being too conservative and playing it too safe than taking too many risky bets.
    - throwaway4good 5y ago
      Maybe someone is forgetting that the COVID19-vaccine Pfizer produces is on license from German BioNTech. (Pfizer did conduct the trial afaik, so maybe that is where the expertise is lacking.)
  - rsynnott 5y ago
    Eh, BioNTech got about half a billion from the Germany govt. You win some, you lose some. Like, should the German government have had its on-staff wizards look into the future to decide which on the face of it very similar mRNA vaccine to fund? They funded two, one worked well and hundreds of millions of doses have been administered. That seems like reasonable value for money, to be honest.
  - Scharkenberg 5y ago
    > I'm sure the German tax payers are delighted. We really are, thanks for assuming.
thehappypm 5y ago
Perhaps they can shift gears and start manufacturing or helping to manufacture the more successful mRNA vaccines, their supply chain might be the saving grace.

My bet is on toast, technically. Gov. money (i.e. taxpayers money) will still keep them afloat though, because they love to keep a 2nd local option.

throwaway4good 5y ago

I think they raised a lot of money an IPO last year.

kleiba 5y ago
They received ~252.000.000 Euros from the German government alone in September 2020 [1], and previously another ~560.000.000 Euros from "private" investors in July 2020 (which somehow included another ~300.000.000 Euros from the German government as well)[2]. I'm sure the German tax payers are delighted. -- [1] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-germany-vaccine/germany-grants-biontech-curevac-745-million-to-speed-up-covid-19-vaccine-work-idUSKBN2661JB https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-german... [2] https://www.curevac.com/en/2020/07/21/curevac-raises-a-total-of-usd-640-million-in-private-financing-round/ https://www.curevac.com/en/2020/07/21/curevac-raises-a-total...
- pedrocr 5y ago
  If we didn't have the other vaccines, getting 47% efficiency for a billion euros would have been an awesome result. We could have also stopped the pandemic with a 47% effective vaccine. We're just spoiled because the vaccine development efforts did so well in general that 90%+ is now our standard.
- throwaway4good 5y ago
  They were the most promising vaccine company at one point. So promising that Trump tried to buy them.
- Darvokis 5y ago
  Unless there were any known reasons at the time as to why CureVac wouldn't be able to create a functioning vaccine, I'm not sure how it's any use to anybody to take this position. There are no sure bets. There are going to be failures. That shouldn't be reason to stop funding companies like this if they otherwise show they're capable. I'd say Germany has more issues around being too conservative and playing it too safe than taking too many risky bets.
  - throwaway4good 5y ago
    Maybe someone is forgetting that the COVID19-vaccine Pfizer produces is on license from German BioNTech. (Pfizer did conduct the trial afaik, so maybe that is where the expertise is lacking.)
- rsynnott 5y ago
  Eh, BioNTech got about half a billion from the Germany govt. You win some, you lose some. Like, should the German government have had its on-staff wizards look into the future to decide which on the face of it very similar mRNA vaccine to fund? They funded two, one worked well and hundreds of millions of doses have been administered. That seems like reasonable value for money, to be honest.
- Scharkenberg 5y ago
  > I'm sure the German tax payers are delighted. We really are, thanks for assuming.

thehappypm 5y ago

Perhaps they can shift gears and start manufacturing or helping to manufacture the more successful mRNA vaccines, their supply chain might be the saving grace.