Bayer and CureVac Announce Collaboration to Accelerate Development and Production of mRNA-Based COVID-19 Vaccine CVnCoV

On the 7th, multinational pharmaceutical giant Bayer and German vaccine developer CureVac jointly announced a collaboration to accelerate the research, development, and production of COVID-19 vaccines. German media analysts suggested that this move aims to emulate the successful model established by Germany’s BioNTech and the U.S.-based Pfizer, whose joint development of a COVID-19 vaccine completed Phase III trials in less than a year and secured regulatory approval for market launch in multiple countries.

Headquartered in Leverkusen, Germany, Bayer is one of the largest companies globally in the pharmaceuticals and agriculture sectors. CureVac is based in the university city of Tübingen, Germany. The COVID-19 vaccine under development by CureVac uses the same messenger RNA (mRNA) technology as the vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. In December 2020, CureVac announced that its mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine had entered Phase III clinical trials.

The two companies announced on the same day that Bayer would provide CureVac with its expertise in clinical trials, regulatory affairs, drug safety, and supply chain management, along with support in multiple countries.

According to the agreement announced on that day, CureVac will become the Marketing Authorization Holder (MAH) for the COVID-19 vaccine product that is ultimately successfully developed, while Bayer will provide support in market operations for this vaccine in the European Union and other national markets, and retain the right to become the Marketing Authorization Holder in countries and regions outside the European Union.

Both parties hope to rapidly supply hundreds of millions of doses of the vaccine, codenamed “CVnCoV,” to countries worldwide upon its approval. (End)