German biotech company Curevac plans to cut almost one in three jobs as part of a corporate reorganization, it announced on Wednesday.
The company plans to cut 30% of its jobs and reduce operating costs by a total of 30% from next year.
Curevac also announced that it would sell the rights to its messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) flu and Covid-19 vaccines to the British pharmaceutical group GSK for up to €1.45 billion ($1.56 billion).
Curevac is thus securing urgently needed funding after struggling with problems in clinical trials and patent disputes relating to its mRNA technology.
According to the agreement, the Tübingen-based company will receive an initial payment of €400 million, up to €1.05 billion in milestone payments and other variable remuneration. The Curevac share price rose by almost 28% in the meantime.
In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, the biotech company was initially considered one of the hopefuls in the development of a vaccine against the virus. However, Curevac withdrew its first vaccine candidate from the authorization process due to its comparatively low effectiveness.
The vaccine manufacturer is currently working on the development of a new second-generation coronavirus vaccine. The company is also researching vaccines for cancer therapy.
However, a product is not yet on the market. Following the reorganization, the focus will be on approaches with high value potential in oncology, among other things, according to Curevac.
