Lack of money slowed Curevac vaccine development

The Tübingen biotech company Curevac justified the long wait for EU approval of its own corona vaccine with financing problems at the start of development. The lack of financial possibilities at the beginning of the pandemic in spring 2020 was a problem for Curevac, said CEO Franz-Werner Haas of the "Stuttgarter Zeitung". "In the beginning, we did not have the option of paying suppliers in advance and reserving the necessary equipment and materials, which means making large investments." It was only after a delay that money came into the cash register - for example through financing rounds, a three-digit million grant from the Federal Ministry of Research and the IPO. Haas emphasized that "we could have been faster if we had the means earlier". As a counter-example, he cited the US biotech company Moderna, which has long been on the market with its corona vaccine. Moderna received a billion dollars early on in the USA. "The US government has given Moderna a great deal of freedom according to the motto: start developing the vaccine, we know it can also fail, but we have to start. At Curevac we first had to carry out funding rounds to get there," said Haas. "This is about high three-digit million amounts that a biotech company like us did not have so easily available." Curevac now expects to receive EU approval for its corona vaccine at the beginning of June. "But it is difficult to schedule it precisely because it depends on different criteria," said Haas. An advanced study is currently underway in Europe and Latin America with around 35,000 participants on the effectiveness of the vaccine candidate.