The delay did not bode well, and it is confirmed.

The German laboratory CureVac announced on Wednesday that its main candidate-messenger RNA vaccine against Covid-19 had only shown an efficacy of 47%, according to the interim analysis of a large-scale clinical trial.

And therefore did not meet the required criteria at this stage.

Bad news for the European Union, which has signed a contract with biotech for the purchase of 405 million doses (225 million pre-orders and an option for 180 million).

Very disappointing intermediate results for a 3rd mRNA vaccine, from the German laboratory Curevac: 47% efficiency.

But out of 134 cases of Covid-19, half came from variants of concern, only 1 from the original strain of SARS-CoV-2 (the rest of other variants) https://t.co/B3vcW8pGjj

- Philippe Berry (@ptiberry) June 16, 2021

The vaccine "has reached a preliminary efficacy of 47% against Covid-19, regardless of its severity, not meeting the pre-specified statistical criteria of success," the laboratory said in a statement.

"The final efficacy could still change," warns CEO Franz-Werner Haas, quoted in the press release, which notably questions the difficulties posed by the appearance of variants of the new coronavirus.

A single case of Covid from the original strain of the virus

“We had hoped for more robust results in the interim analysis, but found that it is difficult to achieve high efficacy with this unprecedented range of variants.

We continue the study until the final analysis, ”he adds.

This is the first efficacy result published by the German laboratory which is conducting the final phase of its large-scale clinical trials, with around 40,000 volunteers in Europe and Latin America.

Among these, a total of 134 cases of patients having contracted Covid were studied, explains the press release and 124 were sequenced to identify the variants causing each infection.

However, only one case turned out to be the original strain of SARS-CoV-2, while "more than half of the cases (57%)" were caused by variants considered of concern by the WHO.

A second generation vaccine in development

The Tübingen laboratory was at the start of the pandemic considered one of the most promising for developing a vaccine.

CureVac embarked on the race to develop a vaccine in January 2020, at the same time as the BioNTech / Pfizer and Moderna laboratories which were the first to obtain the green light from various regulatory authorities to market their product, also based on innovative messenger RNA technology.

CureVac initially thought to seek its approval in Europe in late May or early June when it has already initiated a continuous review process with the European Medicines Agency (EMA), as the results are published.

The German authorities had recently anticipated a delay, relying instead on August, pending efficiency results.

The laboratory has joined forces with Swiss pharmaceutical giants Novartis and German Bayer for the production phases.

At the same time, it is developing so-called second-generation vaccines, taking into account variants, but whose development is less advanced.

Health

Coronavirus: Are there only messenger RNA vaccines to get us out of the pandemic?

Health

Vaccination: German CureVac's serum faces delays

  • Coronavirus

  • Covid 19

  • Anti-covid vaccine

  • Science

  • Health