CureVac and Wacker Sign Manufacturing Contract for COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate

On Nov. 23, 2020, biopharmaceutical company CureVac and contract development and manufacturing organization Wacker Chemie jointly announced that they have signed a contract for the manufacture of CureVac’s COVID-19 mRNA-based vaccine candidate, CVnCoV. Under terms of the initial agreement, Wacker will ramp up good manufacturing practice (GMP) production of the mRNA drug substance for the vaccine at its biotech site in Amsterdam in the first half of 2021.

Preparations for the start of production, technology transfers, and test runs are already underway, the companies reported in a press release. Wacker plans to produce more than 100 million doses of the CureVac vaccine per year at its Amsterdam site. The site can also be further expanded to meet rising demand in the future.

The Amsterdam site has a history of producing vaccines for clinical development and commercial supply, with a portfolio that ranges from conventional live and killed vaccines to protein-based, polysaccharide and glycoconjugate vaccines. Wacker has invested in the site in recent months to extend production to include mRNA-based vaccines.