changes What’s driving the process industry

Vaccine for the entire world

CureVac is a pioneer in the development and manufacture of mRNA therapeutics. The company is currently expanding its Covid-19 vaccine production – supported by Endress+Hauser.

Text: Christine Böhringer
Photography: CureVac
Mann in Schutzanzug hält Impfdosis

It was 20 years ago that a doctoral student at the German University of Tübingen laboratory stumbled upon an unexpected phenomenon. Searching for new vaccine substances, the biologist injected mice with liposome-encapsulated RNA samples, which contain instructions for the manufacture of proteins. The body ought to recognize the protein produced by the cells as a foreign substance and trigger a defensive response. After injecting unencapsulated RNA into a control group, the young student made a surprising discovery: against all expectations, the bare RNA without a protective liposome coating triggered a strong immune response.

The young researcher at the University of Tübingen laboratory was Dr Ingmar Hoerr. One year after his serendipitous discovery, together with fellow students Dr Florian von der Mülbe and Dr Steve Pascolo and his  professors Dr Hans-Georg Rammensee and Dr Günther Jung, Ingmar Hoerr founded CureVac, a company that specialized in the research and development of innovative pharmaceuticals based on messenger RNA  (mRNA). The idea was that if researchers could find a way to stabilize the new method, the human body would be in a position to manufacture its own medications and vaccines. Ingmar Hoerr and his co-founders fought  long and hard for the technology, as few in the industry recognized its potential. It wasn’t until the coronavirus pandemic that a breakthrough was finally achieved. The technology is the foundation of the most promising vaccine against Covid-19.

Impfstoffherstellung

225Mio.

vaccine doses have been ordered from CureVac by the European Union, with an option for another 180 million.

Storage at refrigerator temperatures

Production of the vaccine is currently in high gear at Tübingen-based CureVac. A clinical phase 3 study was launched in December 2020. Assuming the results are successful, approval is expected in the second quarter of 2021. Although other companies brought their candidates to market earlier, speed is not everything. The CureVac vaccine is easier to handle. According to initial data, it can be stored for up to three months at  refrigerator temperatures. That means people in difficult-to-access regions can be vaccinated, an important advantage in efforts to ward off the virus in every corner of the world.

CureVac differs from other manufacturers in yet another way. “The company developed the end-to-end production process itself and manufactures the vaccine partially in its own plants,” says Philipp Garbers, Industry  Manager Life Sciences at Endress+Hauser Germany. In 2019 the authorities had already certified the world’s first GMP-compliant system for the manufacture of mRNA therapeutics at CureVac and granted approval for the production of clinical trial samples. The process is standardized and universal. All therapeutics can be manufactured on the same production platform, thus leading to faster availability of the new mRNA pharmaceutical.

The mRNA pioneers

CureVac AG, a global biopharmaceutical company active in the field of mRNA technology, boasts more than 20 years of experience in the development and optimization of this versatile biological molecule for medical purposes. CureVac’s proprietary technology is based on using chemically unmodified RNA as a medium to instruct the body on how to produce its own correspondingly encoded proteins to combat a wide range of diseases. With this technology as a foundation, the company has established an extensive clinical pipeline in the areas of prophylactic vaccines, cancer therapies, antibody therapies and the treatment of rare diseases. CureVac is headquartered in Tübingen, Germany and employs more than 600 people at its locations in Tübingen and Frankfurt (Germany) and Boston, Massachusetts (USA).

www.curevac.com

As a full-service supplier, Endress+Hauser was CureVac’s partner of choice for the measurement instrumentation and is currently helping the company to rapidly expand its production capacity. Another, even larger, plant is being built on the Tübingen campus, which is scheduled to go into operation in 2022 with an estimated capacity of billions of vaccine doses annually. “Standardization of the instrumentation was important to CureVac as a way to simplify the work of the production workforce,” explains Philipp Garbers. The company also profits from Endress+Hauser’s industry knowledge and calibration expertise. “In the pharmaceutical industry, the initial calibration of critical measuring points must be performed on-site in the qualification phase of new plants,” explains Philipp Garbers. “Endress+Hauser is one of the few companies in Germany with the capability to carry out these types of calibrations on-site for a wide range of parameters.”

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