Filenews 15 February 2021
German pharmaceutical company Bayer has announced plans to deliver the first batches of curevac's anti-coronavirus vaccine in the fourth quarter of the year.
"We are confident that we will be able to deliver the first vaccines before the end of the year if all goes well," the company's chief executive Werner Bowman said during a visit by North Rhine-Westphalia's prime minister Armin Lassett to Bayer's plant in Wuppertal.
Bayer's chief pharmaceutical officer Stefan Olrich said the company expected to start production in the fourth quarter.
German biotechnology company CureVac launched Phase III of its vaccine clinical trials in December and plans to announce preliminary data in the first quarter of the year.
The company recently struck a deal with Bayer to produce its vaccine.
Like Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, the CureVac vaccine is based on new mRNA technology.
CureVac was at the centre of a dispute between the EU and the US last year, following reports that they wanted then-president Donald Trump to try to secure exclusive access to the promised vaccine.
Brussels intervened and financed CureVac with €80 million to remain on European soil.
Source: RES-IPA
