CureVac vaccine shows only 48% efficacy
pharmafile | July 1, 2021 | News story | |
CureVac’s COVID-19 vaccine has shown only 48% efficacy in its final analysis.
This result is only marginally better than the 47% reported after an initial read-out two weeks ago.
The German biotech firm said that efficacy was slightly better at 53% when excluding trial participants older than 60 years, an age group that is by far the most severely affected.
The results wiped billions of euros from the drugs market value.
CureVac compares poorly to other COVId-19 vaccines, late-stage trials of BioNTech-Pfizer (and Moderna vaccines, which like CureVac’s are based on mRNA technology, had efficacy rates of well above 90% across all age groups.
However, these trials took place when the original version of the coronavirus was dominant.
The CureVac study, which involved about 40,000 adult volunteers in Europe and Latin America, showed that efficacy was 77% in the age group below 60 years of age when considering only moderate to severe symptoms and excluding mild cases.
Chief Executive Officer, Franz-Werner Haas, said: “In this final analysis, CVnCoV demonstrates a strong public health value in fully protecting study participants in the age group of 18 to 60 against hospitalization and death and 77% against moderate and severe disease – an efficacy profile, which we believe will be an important contribution to help manage the COVID-19 pandemic and the dynamic variant spread.”
CureVac previously said that the regulatory hurdle was 50% efficacy in principle but that various other considerations would come into play.
The EMA has said it would not impose a 50% efficacy threshold for vaccines and that full trial data was necessary for it to make a sound assessment on the benefits and risks of a shot.
The news reduced U.S.-listed shares of the company by 10.2%.
Lilly Subbotin
