The corona pandemic has shown that the topic of infection research has lost none of its relevance in Germany either. Niedersachsen has been a hot spot for infection research since many years. In this way, Niedersachsen´s research institutes and companies were able to make a substantial contribution to fighting the corona pandemic. In addition to vaccines, it is also essential to develop drugs for therapy in order to relieve hospitals and intensive care units.

The newly founded company CORAT Therapeutics designed and developed a new antibody COR-101 for the treatment of hospitalized COVID-19 patients with a moderate to severe disease. Most COVID-19 drugs are designed for the early treatment of the disease and are not appropriate nor approved for the later stages of the disease. The next and overall goal of CORAT is to finish the clinical studies to submit a conditional approval for COR-101.

For the early funding, CORAT received money from private investors and from the state owned NBank. In June 2021 Dermapharm Holding joined and CORAT got approved for two COVID-19 programs from the German government. In sum CORAT is financially covered with 100 Mio. EUR.

Andreas Herrmann, CEO of CORAT Therapeutics, stated:”Lower Saxony is a great center of science and research including several universities and research institutes. The collaboration with several of these institutions in Braunschweig and Hannover allowed us, to develop our drug in a little bit more than one year from the identification of the final molecule to the start of the tests in patients. This speed was totally unbelievable before 2020 and was only possible within this great and supporting network.”