CureVac Announces Groundbreaking of Industrial-Scale GMP Production Facility for RNA Therapeutics

TÜBINGEN, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- CureVac GmbH, a fully-integrated biopharmaceutical company pioneering the field of RNA-based drugs, today announced the groundbreaking of its industrial-scale, GMP-compliant production facility at its headquarters in Tübingen, Germany. The novel production facility – called GMP IV – will be able to produce approximately 30 million doses of RNA-based therapeutics per year, and is expected to be fully commissioned in 2019.

“It fills me with pride and pleasure to see what was initially a visionary idea of RNA-based therapeutics now being manifested in such a huge production facility,” said Dietmar Hopp, founder of SAP AG and investor in CureVac. “Together, we will continue doing everything so that this great vision becomes medical reality.”

Ingmar Hoerr, Ph.D., co-founder and CEO of CureVac, stated, “I am thrilled to celebrate the construction of our new building together with our partners and long-standing investor, Dietmar Hopp. With this new manufacturing facility, we will meet the future demands of our growing clinical programs and initial requirements for product commercialization. We will also be well prepared for the needs of our partners’ programs, including our newly established collaboration with Lilly.”

GMP IV has a usable floor space of 8,800 square meters which is designed to give CureVac flexibility in producing a wide variety of RNA-based products. CureVac also has the ability to expand the building to fulfill future market needs for its RNA products.

Recently, CureVac completed the development of its third in-house suite, GMP III. This suite is designed to operate under a newly developed and patent-protected process optimized for large-scale production. Manufacturing of RNA products in this facility will begin in 2018.

Since 2006, CureVac has operated the first worldwide GMP-compliant RNA production plant with two multi-product suites – GMP I and GMP II – for large RNA molecules for use in medical applications against cancer, infectious diseases and other illnesses.

About CureVac AG

CureVac is a leading company in the field of messenger RNA (mRNA) technology with more than 17 years’ expertise in handling and optimizing this versatile molecule for medical purposes. The principle of CureVac’s proprietary technology is the use of mRNA as a data carrier to instruct the human body to produce its own proteins capable of fighting a wide range of diseases. The company applies its technologies for the development of cancer therapies, prophylactic vaccines and molecular therapies.

To date, CureVac has received approximately $420 million (€400 million) in equity investments including significant investments from SAP founder Dietmar Hopp’s dievini and an investment of $52 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. CureVac has also entered into collaborations with multinational corporations and organizations, including Boehringer Ingelheim, Lilly, Sanofi Pasteur and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

For more information, please visit www.curevac.com.

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