Healthcare industry

Article - 17/10/2011

Papillomaviruses as cancer-causing agents and how they can be fought off

Studies presented at the recent International Papillomavirus Conference in Berlin demonstrate that vaccination can prevent infection with the types of HPV that cause the majority of cervical cancers. New improved vaccines to prevent HPV infections as well as therapeutic vaccines that are effective in people that are already infected are currently being developed. In addition, research has shown that other cancers can also be caused by infective…

Dossier - 15/03/2010

Vaccine development

As the recent discussion on the pros and cons of swine flu vaccinations has shown vaccinations are not very popular in Germany. However people tend to forget that no other medical development has helped people to the same extent as immunisation with vaccines has done. Examples include the discovery of the cow pox vaccination by Edward Jenner in 1796 and all the programmes that have been set up by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation…

Prime Vector Technologies GmbH - 09/04/2020

A modular brick system for developing a COVID-19 vaccine

Prime Vector Technologies GmbH (PVT), a start-up company based in Tübingen in southern Germany, uses a modular brick system to develop vaccines against cancer and infectious diseases. The PVT team is currently working flat out to develop a COVID-19 vaccine.

Extends ongoing collaboration with Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with award of two new grants. CureVac AG, a fully-integrated biopharmaceutical company pioneering the field of mRNA-based drugs, today announced the awarding of two new grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Vaccine development - 25/05/2021

Vaccines – a beacon of hope in the fight against pandemics

Having long been considered less lucrative for the big pharmaceutical companies, vaccine development is taking off in an unforeseen way in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Financial support is flooding in and all kinds of vaccine development strategies are being deployed. Among the winners in the competition for effective coronavirus vaccines are vaccines based on RNA technology. The development of much-needed vaccines against many other…

Does COVID-19 vaccination increase the risk of cancer patients undergoing therapy with immune checkpoint inhibitors to suffer a dangerous immune complication known as a "cytokine release syndrome"? A team of Heidelberg physicians and scientists has now shown in a clinical study: Increased serum levels of the characteristic cytokines occur frequently in cancer patients, but clinically relevant cases of the dreaded syndrome were not…

Press release - 11/03/2014

CureVac Wins Two Million EUR from Inaugural European Commission Vaccine Prize

10 March 2014 CureVac a German clinical stage biopharmaceutical company today announced that it has won the inaugural European Commission Vaccine Prize. The EU has dedicated the prize of two million Euros in an effort to stimulate innovative solutions for vaccine transportation and storage where cold chain cannot be guaranteed. CureVacs RNActive vaccine technology based on messenger RNA mRNA convinced the panel of judges of its potential as a…

Article - 15/03/2010

The first active immunisations against cancer

The first anti-cancer vaccines were developed to prevent women from becoming infected with papillomaviruses and to protect them against cervical cancer. The development of vaccines can be traced back to the work of Nobel Laureate Harald zur Hausen and his colleagues at the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg. But more development is required in the field of anti-cancer vaccines and this is why researchers worldwide are working on vaccines…

CureVac N.V., a global biopharmaceutical company developing a new class of transformative medicines based on messenger ribonucleic acid (“mRNA”), today announced the strategic decision to focus its COVID-19 vaccine development towards the development of second-generation mRNA vaccine candidates in collaboration with GSK and to withdraw its first-generation COVID-19 vaccine candidate, CVnCoV, from the current approval process.

Article - 26/06/2017

Hope for mRNA vaccines despite damper

The pressure is on to develop novel vaccines based on messenger RNA and aimed at combating cancer and protecting against pandemics. Although mRNA vaccination as a cancer monotherapy has suffered a setback this year, the industry is nevertheless confident that it will succeed because of existing proof that mRNA vaccines stimulate the body's immune defence.

Daniel Menichella, CEO of biopharmaceutical company CureVac, was today invited to the White House to discuss strategies and opportunities for the rapid development and production of a coronavirus vaccine with U.S. President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force and high-ranking representatives of pharmaceutical and biotech companies working on the outbreak’s response.

CureVac N.V., a global biopharmaceutical company developing a new class of transformative medicines based on messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA), today announced the publication of preclinical data demonstrating that their COVID-19 vaccine candidate, CVnCoV, protects against challenge infections with the SARS-CoV-2 Variant of Concern B.1.351 and a strain of the original SARS-CoV-2 B1 lineage (BavPat1) in a transgenic mouse model.

Press release - 14/07/2016

Study in Peer-Reviewed Journal Vaccine Demonstrates Decoding Mode of Action of mRNA Vaccines

CureVac AG, the most clinically advanced mRNA company, today announced that a study of its RNActive® technology was published in the renowned, peer-reviewed journal Vaccine. The study demonstrated a mechanistic insight into the mode of action and rationale for the use of messenger RNA (mRNA) for the development of multiple vaccines.

CureVac N.V., a biopharmaceutical company developing a new class of transformative medicines based on mRNA and Celonic Group, a premium biopharmaceutical Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization specializing in the development and production of Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products and mammalian cell line-expressed bio-therapeutics, announced their partnership for the production of CureVac’s mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine candidate, CVnCoV.

KyooBe Tech GmbH - 08/10/2020

Next generation vaccine production

For decades, conventional inactivated vaccines have been produced by killing pathogens with toxic chemicals. However, this process often changes the surface structure of the pathogens to such an extent that the immune system is only able to induce a weak response. KyooBe Tech GmbH is offering a method that uses low-energy electrons to inactivate pathogens. Vaccines produced this way are much higher quality, making them safer and more effective.

CureVac AG, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing a new class of transformative medicines based on optimized mRNA, today announced that the German Health Authority Paul-Ehrlich-Institute (PEI) and the Belgian Federal Agency for Medicines and Health Products (FAMHP) have approved the Phase 1 clinical trial for its vaccine program to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection. The trial will be conducted in Germany and Belgium.

Vaccine development - 02/06/2020

CureVac as a pioneer of mRNA technology – what is behind the novel COVID-19 vaccine?

All eyes are on vaccines against the coronavirus. The Tübingen-based company CureVac is doing pioneering work in this field, and intends to initiate clinical testing of its lead vaccine candidate in June. At the same time, Curevac is manufacturing the material for this vaccine candidate. But that’s not all: the novel mRNA technology also has the potential to revolutionise the treatment of cancer and metabolic diseases. What makes the method so…

Article - 18/08/2014

VAXIMM: Vaccines that impede cancer growth

VAXIMM GmbH, a young biotechnology company from Mannheim, Germany, specialises in the development of vaccines for cancer treatment. The company’s first product candidate, VXM01, is a live oral vaccine that targets the VEGFR-2 receptor and hence the blood supply of tumours. VXM01 is currently undergoing clinical testing in pancreatic cancer patients.

Article - 15/03/2010

Campaign to eradicate malaria

After many decades, efforts to develop an effective vaccine against malaria have finally brought researchers closer to their goal. However, the goal of eradicating malaria completely can only be reached through a complex strategy, to which researchers from Heidelberg are making intensive contributions.

immatics biotechnologies GmbH, a biopharmaceutical company developing advanced therapeutic vaccines that are active against cancer, announced today that the first patients have been vaccinated in the IMPRINT study, a pivotal Phase III trial with IMA901, the company’s lead cancer vaccine for the treatment of renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

CureVac N.V. (Nasdaq: CVAC), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing a new class of transformative medicines based on messenger ribonucleic acid (“mRNA”), today announced results of the second interim analysis of its international pivotal Phase 2b/3 study in approximatively 40,000 subjects (the HERALD study) of CureVac’s first-generation COVID-19 vaccine candidate, CVnCoV.

Scientists from the German Cancer Research Center and Heidelberg University Hospital have for the first time been able to delay the development of hereditary colorectal cancer with a protective vaccination. Mice with a hereditary predisposition to colorectal cancer survived significantly longer after vaccination than unvaccinated animals. Combining the vaccination with an anti-inflammatory drug increased the protective effect.

At the University Hospital Tübingen, clinical evaluation of an in-house developed vaccine (CoVac-1) against SARS-CoV-2 was started in November 2020 under the direction of Prof. Dr. Juliane Walz in the CCU Translational Immunology of the Medical Clinic (Medical Director Prof. Dr. Helmut Salih). Now the results of the Phase I study are available and demonstrate a potent activation of the T-cell response against the coronavirus.

CureVac N.V. (Nasdaq: CVAC), a biopharmaceutical company developing a new class of transformative medicines based on messenger ribonucleic acid (“mRNA”), reports the European Commission’s announcement that tomorrow it will authorize an Advanced Purchase Agreement for CureVac´s mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine candidate, CVnCoV.

Cancer immunotherapy - 06/09/2018

The immunogenicity of tumours and the development of new cancer medicines

Microsatellite-unstable cancers are characterised by a large number of mutations within short repetitive DNA sequence regions, and can form novel peptides that the human immune system recognises as neoantigens. These cancers represent a starting point for the development of vaccines to prevent them appearing at an early stage of development. Microsatellite instability is particularly frequent in colon and cervical cancers.