Covid, Rappuoli (Gsk): “With CureVac working on better vaccines”

“We welcome CureVac’s decision to focus on the promising technology for a second-generation mRna vaccine we are developing together, as it has shown a strong improvement in preclinical testing over CureVac’s first-generation vaccine candidate (CVnCoV).” This was underlined by the Italian scientist Rino Rappuoli, Head of Vaccines R&D of Gsk, in the note in which the German CureVac announces the decision to withdraw CVnCoV from the current approval process underway at the European Medicines Agency Ema, to focus on the development of candidates second generation mRna vaccines which he is working on in collaboration with the British Gsk. The CureVac-Gsk alliance against Covid-19 is based on a strategic partnership related to messenger RNA technology, which the two companies started in July 2020 with different objectives in the field of infectious diseases. A cooperation that has recently been extended – it is recalled in the note – with the deployment of additional resources by the two companies. The joint development activities involve optimized second generation mRna vaccines, which offer the potential to target several variants of the Sars-CoV-2 coronavirus, as well as to prevent several diseases with a single injection and to offer improved forms of administration.