Boehringer walks away from CureVac deal

CureVac announced the termination of the 2014 programme BI1361849 in its financial report. Seven years ago, CureVac had received €35m upfront, with the promise of up to €430m in milestone payments. The collaboration aimed to investigate CureVac’s therapeutic mRNA vaccine in combination with Boehringer Ingelheim’s own tyrosine kinase inhibitor afatinib in non-small lung cancer (NSCLC). The programme applies an “older protamine formulation technology, which reflected the state of the technology development at the time”, CureVac said. Now, Boehringer Ingelheim wants to pull out of the programme.

There is a Phase 1/2 clinical trial in NSCLC applying BI1361849 as a combination therapy ongoing. The two companies are now weighing their options for the future of their collaboration.

The termination will become effective in November 2021.