The example of the German mRNA pioneers BioNTech and CureVac shows how closely triumph and failure are closely related in the pharmaceutical industry.
While the Mainz-based company has long since secured its place in the biotech Olympus, the Swabians have now drawn the line under the saddest chapter of their company history to date.
CureVac withdrew its first vaccine candidate from the approval process of the responsible European authority due to a lack of prospect of success.
The already battered share price went down again, since June the market capitalization of the former stock market star has fallen by two thirds.
This is bad news not only for the shareholders, who include the federal government with 16 percent.
Even public funding in the three-digit million range has to be written off with it.
While successful vaccines from other manufacturers easily fill the CureVac gap, the company not only has to dispose of already produced and now useless pharmaceutical scrap.
In order to secure his future, the former hopeful from Tübingen now has to deliver at least the announced second-generation vaccine with his partner GSK.
CureVac urgently needs success stories.