CureVac Shares Collapse as Preliminary Data Shows Covid Vaccine is Just 47% Effective

German biopharmaceutical company CureVac saw its shares drop 50% in extended trading on
Wednesday after the company released preliminary efficacy results about its COVID-19 vaccine candidate.

Data showed that the Covid vaccine demonstrated an interim efficacy of 47% against Covid-19 disease “of any severity.” The late-stage clinical trial found high prevalence of virus variants.

The company said final analysis of the results would be completed in the coming weeks.
The company’s late-stage clinical trial of approximately 40,000 participants across 10 countries found high prevalence of virus variants, in particular the lambda strain first detected in South America.

The HERALD study, conducted by Curevac in conjunction with Bayer, enrolled approximately 40,000 participants in ten countries in Latin America and Europe.

The second interim analysis included 134 cases, occurring at least two weeks after administration of the second dose. To identify strains causing COVID-19 infections within the trial, sequencing of virus variants has so far been performed on 424 COVID-19 cases, of which 124 fulfilled adjudication criteria and were included in the present efficacy analysis.

“While we were hoping for a stronger interim outcome, we recognize that demonstrating high efficacy in this unprecedented broad diversity of variants is challenging,” CEO Franz-Werner Haas stated.

“As we are continuing toward the final analysis with a minimum of 80 additional cases, the overall vaccine efficacy may change.”

The study also found varying levels of efficacy for different age groups, according to the company’s release.

CureVac is also working on a separate Covid vaccine candidate in partnership with GlaxoSmithKline.

The companies expect to enter clinical testing on that candidate in the third quarter of 2021, CureVac said.

Disclaimer: We have no position in any of the companies mentioned and have not been compensated for this article.