CureVac N.V., a biopharmaceutical company developing a new class of transformative medicines based on messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA), and Wacker Chemie AG have signed a contract for the manufacturing of CureVac’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate CVnCoV.
 
Under the terms of the initial agreement, Wacker will ramp up GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) production of the mRNA drug substance for CVnCoV at its biotech site in Amsterdam in the first half of 2021. Preparations for the start of production, technology transfers and test runs are already underway. It is planned to produce more than 100 million doses of the CureVac vaccine per year at Wacker’s Amsterdam site. There is also further potential for expansion at the site in order to meet rising demand in the future.
 
Wacker’s CEO Rudolf Staudigl said, “We are proud and highly motivated to make a contribution to the fight against the spread of the coronavirus pandemic together with CureVac.”
 
As a CDMO, Wacker Biotech bundles Wacker Group’s biopharmaceutical activities. Its Amsterdam site has been producing vaccines for clinical development and commercial supply for 20 years. The portfolio ranges from conventional live and killed vaccines to protein-based, polysaccharide and glycoconjugate vaccines. In recent months, Wacker has invested in the site to extend production to include mRNA-based vaccines. This new class of vaccines expands the broad vaccine portfolio Wacker Biotech offers to its customers.
 
Dr. Florian von der Mülbe, chief production officer of CureVac, added, “With Wacker, we have found a committed and highly experienced partner for the production of our vaccine candidate in the Netherlands.”
 
CureVac is building an integrated European vaccine manufacturing network with several CDMO partners. With this strategy, the company hopes to significantly increase the manufacturing capacity already existing within CureVac for CVnCoV up to several hundred million doses per year and will manage potential supply chain risks by working with several partners for each of the key manufacturing process steps.