CureVac (CVAC) is developing a better vaccine than Pfizer (PFE) & Moderna (MRNA) vaccine, with New York City giving out it’s first vaccine shots, CureVac’s vaccine is expected to get FDA approval in early 2021.
Clinical trials has already begun
CureVac’s clinical trial has already started. It’s in Phase 3 and the company continues to collect data on this trial.
“The clinical safety and immunogenicity data achieved to date look promising and we are hopeful that this trial will continue to demonstrate the impact of mRNA technology and our vaccine,” said CureVac Chief Executive Franz-Werner Haas.
CureVac uses the same mRNA technology as Moderna and Pfizer, however, they are taking a different approach. With this different approach to mRNA vaccines, CureVac is choosing to use the potency of untranslated regions to optimize the RNA rather than make chemical modifications.
This approach has allowed CureVac to create a candidate that triggers immune responses at a 12-µg dose, compared to the 100 µg used by Moderna. That will enable CureVac to make more doses of the vaccine. CureVac is also aiming to trigger balanced immune responses.
Unlike BioNTech and Pfizer’s vaccine, which needs to be stored at -70° C (-94°F), CureVac’s experimental shot remains stable for at least three months at standard refrigerator temperatures, and up to 24 hours as a ready-to-use vaccine when stored at room temperature.
The vaccine candidate being developed by drug company AstraZeneca (AZN) and the University of Oxford can also be stored in normal refrigerator-like temperatures, making it easier to store and transport.
The start of CureVac’s Phase 3 trial comes after the company in November disclosed additional clinical data about how its vaccine candidate is performing in a Phase 1 clinical trial. The study tested different doses of the two-dose vaccine in adults between the ages of 18 and 60 years old; all doses generated an immune response. At the time, CureVac said it had selected the 12 microgram dose to move forward with in Phase 2 and 3 studies.
