Curevac NV vaccine disappoints with results in late-stage trial

June
21, 2021

3 min read

During the development of a trial in the last phase of the CvnCoV vaccine , belonging to the German biotechnology company CureVac NV, it was discovered that the injection has an efficacy of 47 percent, according to Aristegui Noticias . While the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United States Medical Agency (FDA) consider that only vaccines with a minimum efficacy of 50% should be authorized.

This result was born from a preliminary analysis of a study among some 40,000 volunteers in Europe and Latin America, where 134 patients with COVID were taken, of which only 124 of them were sequenced. The analysis found that only one case corresponded to the original strain of SARS-CoV-2 and 21% to the lambda variant, the remaining 80 cases continue to be analyzed.

Based on the result, CureVac has reported that 47% effectiveness in preventing disease of any degree depends on age and case variants. Franz-Werner Haas, CEO of CureVac, explained that the results suggest efficacy in younger participants, but have not allowed any conclusions to be drawn about the age group over 60.

The company had an agreement signed with the European Union to deliver at least 405 million doses, 180 million being optional. However, the contract determined that if the results confirmed a low efficacy vaccine, it would be automatically canceled. In the same way, but by failing to meet the statistical criteria of success, its shares fell by as much as 52% on Thursday, erasing more than 6 million euros from its market value.

The data from the clinical trial will be examined by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) when the final analysis has finished and the database does not need anything, this in order to determine the future of the vaccine. The head of Vaccine Strategy, Marco Cavaleri, said it is still too early to draw conclusions about the CureVac announcement.