The failed vaccine project leaves a loss of more than 400 million euros. Curevac relies on a new generation of mRNA vaccines – which still require a lot of patience and capital.

After the failure of a first Covid vaccine candidate last year, Tübingen-based Curevac is now working to advance new, improved vaccine candidates. The biotech company, in which the federal government holds a stake of around 16 percent via KfW, is only in the initial phase of clinical tests with these products. Curevac should not have a chance to play a role in the Covid vaccine business for the time being.

Company boss Franz-Werner Haas demonstrated confidence in the medium-term prospects on Thursday when the business figures for 2021 were presented. He wants to strengthen Curevac as a player in the business with the novel mRNA technology and sees three core competencies: a broad technology platform, a solid development pipeline and high-quality production capacities.

But the Tübingen-based company is a long way from the kind of success that its competitor Biontech is achieving. Thanks to high sales of Covid vaccines, Biontech posted sales of almost 19 billion euros and profit before taxes of 15 billion euros last year. Curevac, on the other hand, was unable to generate any commercial revenue due to the failure of the vaccine project.