Germany-based CureVac (NSDQ:CVAC) announced that its mRNA vaccine was 47% effective against COVID-19 in a second interim analysis of a pivotal study involving approximately 40,000 participants in 10 countries.
The rise of COVID-19 variants played a role in the disappointing results. At least 13 COVID-19 variants were present in the study population who contracted the novel coronavirus. Some 57% of cases involved variants of concern.
FDA generally requires that a vaccine be at least 50% effective in a placebo-controlled trial to win emergency use authorization.
CureVac’s stock dropped 3.47% to $94.79 per share after the company announced the news.
The company anticipates that a final analysis will be ready in a matter of weeks. Based on available data, the vaccine appears to have a favorable safety profile.
CureVac is partnering with GSK (NYSE:GSK) to develop a next-gen COVID-19 vaccine. That vaccine could potentially protect against multiple COVID-19 variants or infectious diseases. Data from that vaccine candidate, known as CV2CoV, will be published in Nature Communications. Clinical testing for that vaccine will commence in the third quarter of 2021, according to the company’s projections. CureVac and GSK aim to commercialize CV2CoV in 2022.