CureVac, Novartis Ink COVID Vax Mfg. Pact

CureVac N.V. and Novartis AG have signed an initial agreement for the manufacturing of CureVac’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate, CVnCoV. Preparations for production, technology transfers and test runs are underway. Following final agreement, Novartis plans to manufacture the mRNA and bulk drug product of the CVnCoV vaccine for up to 50 million doses by the end of 2021 and up to a further 200 million doses in 2022. Delivery from the manufacturing site in Kundl, Austria, is expected to begin summer 2021.

Dr. Florian von der Mülbe, Chief Production Officer of CureVac, said, “I am very pleased that with Novartis we have found another highly experienced partner to support the production of our vaccine candidate. Together with Novartis we expect to increase significantly our manufacturing capacity and place our production network on an even broader base.”

Steffen Lang, Global Head of Novartis Technical Operations and member of Executive Committee Novartis, said, “We feel it is our responsibility to do everything in our power to help and we are pleased to announce our collaboration with CureVac. At the Kundl site, Novartis is a pioneer and has decades of experience in pharmaceutical production of proteins and in more recent years of nucleic acids. We are currently expanding our site with additional capacities for the production of mRNA in order to best serve the increasing demand.”

CureVac started building a European vaccine manufacturing network with several CDMO partners in the fall of 2020 and includes: Bayer, Fareva, Wacker and Rentschler, among others.