DUBLIN – In what continues to be a year like no other, European biotechnology firms engaged in drug development raised $4.783 billion in equity financing during the third quarter. It is an unprecedented level of funding for the sector.
As his firm unveiled early data with its spike protein-targeting COVID-19 therapy, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s chief scientific officer, George Yancopoulos, said that, even if researchers come up with a drug that works, coming up with efficient point-of-care diagnostics remains “a major societal imperative.”
The idea of being able to produce vaccines at the point of care with the push of a button may sound futuristic, but Codex DNA Inc. claims it will have the first fully automated, tabletop vaccine printer ready for the market in 18-24 months. Will this be a game-changer in rolling out a COVID-19 vaccine? Probably not. But the technology could better position health officials to respond to the next pandemic, or eventually to produce a better, faster influenza vaccine each year.
Advanced talks between the European Commission and Curevac AG have positioned the company to potentially supply up to 405 million doses of its investigational mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine to the bloc. News of the progress, following similar EU-level talks with an alliance of Sanofi SA and Glaxosmithkline plc, Johnson & Johnson and Astrazeneca plc, sent Curevac's recently-listed U.S. shares (NASDAQ:CVAC) climbing 16% to $66 on Aug. 20.
Fresh off raising $640 million in private financing earlier this summer, Germany's Curevac BV burst onto the public market Friday with a $213.3 million Nasdaq IPO. Priced at a top-of-range $16 per share (NADAQ:CVAC), the company's stock rose more than 249% to close at $55.90 Aug. 14, buoyed by enthusiasm for its mRNA vaccine program against SARS-CoV-2. Majority shareholder and longtime Curevac backer Dievini Hopp Biotech Holding GmbH & Co. KG invested €100 million (US$118.3 million) in the company through a concurrent private placement.
LONDON – Glaxosmithkline plc (GSK) is putting £130 million (US$164.3 million) into one of the leading COVID-19 vaccines developers, Curevac AG, acquiring a 10% stake, and will also invest £104 million cash up front to fund research and development of the company’s mRNA vaccines.
DUBLIN – Even by any normal measure of European biotechnology investment, the first two quarters of 2020 were memorable. If it maintains the present momentum, Europe’s drug development sector is on course for a record-breaking year, having already raised $5.034 billion in publicly disclosed equity investments. That puts it well ahead of any other year – the sector edged to a new high in 2019 when it raised $7.739 billion over the full 12 months – but, of course, comparisons with any other year seem irrelevant. This year is like no other. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed everything.
LONDON – The European Commission is laying plans for joint procurement of COVID-19 vaccines on behalf of all 27 EU member states, and is in discussions to agree on a harmonized approach to access and who gets vaccinated first.
LONDON – The European Commission offered up to €80 million (US$89.4 million) of funding to Curevac AG, to scale up development and production of a vaccine against the coronavirus in Europe, following reports that the U.S. administration had made an offer for the German biotech, in order to get exclusive control of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate.
