GSK and the biopharmaceutical firm Curevac have agreed to restructure their existing partnership in a €1.45bn (£1.2bn) deal that will see the former acquire rights to manufacture and commercialise vaccines mRNA vaccines globally.
Under the new agreement, which covers mRNA vaccines used in the treatment of influenze and Covid-19, German-based Curevac will receive a €400m (£338m) upfront payment and an additional €1.05bn (£900m) in development, regulatory and sales milestone fees.
GSK will assume full control of developing and manufacturing the candidate vaccines and will have worldwide rights to commercialise them.
“The agreement represents the latest step in GSK’s ongoing investment in vaccine platform technologies, matching the best platform to each pathogen to develop best-in-class vaccines,” the company said in a statement on the London Stock Exchange.
GSK and Curevac have worked together to develop mRNA vaccines for infectious diseases since 2020. The partnership has so far worked on candidates for seasonal influenze, Covid-19 and avian influenza.
Tony Wood, Chief Scientific Officer at GSK, said: “We are excited about our flu/COVID-19 programmes and the opportunity to develop best-in-class mRNA vaccines to change the standard of care.
“With this new agreement, we will apply GSK’s capabilities, partnerships and intellectual property to CureVac’s technology, to deliver these promising vaccines at pace.”
Headquartered in Tübingen in the South West of Germany, Curevac was the world’s first company to successfully harness mRNA for medical opportunities.
Alexander Zehnder, Chief Executive Officer at CureVac, said: “The collaboration with GSK has been instrumental in developing promising, late clinical-stage vaccine candidates, leveraging our proprietary mRNA platform.
“This new licensing agreement puts us in a strong financial position and enables us to focus on efforts in building a strong R&D pipeline.”