Bayer Teams with CureVac

Pharmaceuticals colossus Bayer has partnered with German biotech company CureVac in the latter’s development of a vaccine to combat the coronavirus. Bayer’s role will be to help with carrying out the necessary studies and applying for state approval. It may also assist in the production process.

“With its expertise and infrastructure, Bayer can help make our vaccine candidate CVnCoV more quickly available to large numbers of people,” said CureVac head Franz-Werner Haas in a statement on January 7.

CureVac’s vaccine candidate entered Phase 3 testing for its candidate shortly before Christmas 2020, roughly four months behind rivals BioNTec and Moderna, whose vaccines are both approved for use in the EU. CureVac says it expects to conclude testing and apply for approval by the end of Q1 2021 in hopes that its vaccine will be cleared for general use by the middle of this year.