GSK, CureVac team up on next-gen Covid-19 jab

LONDON – British pharmaceutical group GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and German biotech firm CureVac today announced plans to jointly develop a coronavirus vaccine with the potential to counter multiple variants of Covid-19.

“The development programme will begin immediately, with the target of introducing the vaccine in 2022, subject to regulatory approval,” said a joint statement.

GSK will also support the manufacture this year of up to 100 million doses of CureVac’s first-generation Covid-19 vaccine, it added.

The collaboration, building on an existing relationship, is to develop next-generation coronavirus jabs “with the potential for a multi-valent approach to address multiple emerging variants in one vaccine”.

The pair noted that “the increase in emerging variants with the potential to reduce the efficacy of first-generation Covid-19 vaccines requires the acceleration of efforts to develop vaccines against new variants to keep one step ahead of the pandemic”.

GSK chief executive Emma Walmsley said: “Next-generation vaccines will be crucial in the continued fight against Covid-19.”

The value of the new collaboration has been put at €150 million (RM731 million).

“We are very pleased to build on our existing relationship with GSK with a new agreement,” said CureVac chief executive Franz-Werner Haas.

“With the help of GSK’s proven vaccine expertise, we are equipping ourselves to tackle future health challenges with novel vaccines.”

A more contagious Covid-19 variant first detected in Britain has spread across the globe, according to the World Health Organisation.

Another variant, detected initially in South Africa, has raised greater alarm among researchers over its possible impact on immunity.

The coronavirus has killed more than 2.2 million people since it first emerged in China in December 2019, according to an AFP tally based on official sources.

More than 100 million vaccines have been administered around the world, but none of the world’s 29 poorest countries has formally started mass inoculations. – AFP, February 3, 2021