Germany-based CureVac raised $213 million in an initial public offering to accelerate the development of its COVID-19 vaccine — this comes in advance of producing any human data on its potential candidate.
According to Reuters sources, the biotech firm sold 13.33 million shares at $16 apiece, the top end of its indicated price range. CureVac is developing an mRNA vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, but is still awaiting date from an early-phase trial.
In July GlaxoSmithKline said it will spend $163.67 million to buy a 10% stake in CureVac, in a collaboration focused on the use of mRNA vaccines to prevent and treat infectious diseases. Back in March, it was reported that CureVac rejected a proposal by the Trump administration to purchase the exclusive rights to a coronavirus vaccine. To safeguard Germany's ownership of the country's two coronavirus vaccine developers — CureVac and BioNTech — the federal government gave itself new powers in May to veto foreign takeover bids for health care companies.
Then, in June, the Berlin government announced it will pay $337.4 million to acquire a 23% stake in CureVac.
