Date: 2015-11-03
Type of information: Private placement
Company: Curetis (Germany)
Investors: Baillie Gifford (UK) Chartwave Limited (UK) Coppel family (Mexico) Elma Investments (USA) Sigma Group (USA - NJ)
Amount: $110 Million (€100 million)
Funding type: private placement
Planned used: Proceeds from the financing round will be used to further develop CureVac’s clinical pipeline of natural, chemically unmodified mRNA therapeutic and prophylactic product candidates. The new capital will also fund research and clinical development to expand CureVac’s proprietary mRNA platform technology. CureVac’s mRNA programs include novel mRNA-based cancer immunotherapies and prophylactic vaccines against infectious diseases (RNActive®), molecular therapies designed to trigger the body's own produc-tion of therapeutic proteins (RNArt®), and RNA encoded antibodies (RNAntibody®). CureVac’s most advanced product candidate, CV9104, is being developed in Phase IIb for the treatment of prostate cancer. Data from the company’s Phase I/IIa study in prostate cancer was recently published in the peer-reviewed Journal for ImmunoTher-apy of Cancer and indicated that CureVac’s mRNA cancer immunotherapy was well tolerated and immunogenic. CureVac’s development pipeline also includes clinical programs in non-small cell lung cancer (partnered with Boehringer Ingelheim) and rabies, as well as development programs against infectious diseases, including HIV, rotavirus, RSV and tuberculosis.
Others: * On November 3, 2015, CureVac announced that it has raised about $110 million (€100 million) to enable accelerated expansion of its industry-leading messenger RNA (mRNA) development platform and clinical-stage pipeline. CureVac also announces the change of its corporate legal form to a joint stock company, Aktiengesellschaft (AG). This new financing round was led by Baillie Gifford, adding to the approximately $220 million CureVac has raised since its founding in 2000. The new investors, Baillie Gifford, Chartwave Limited, Coppel family, Elma Investments Ltd and Sigma Group, join existing investors dievini Hopp BioTech holding GmbH & Co. KG of Dietmar Hopp and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In addition, CureVac has filed for a change of its legal form from a German limited liability company (GmbH) to a joint German stock corporation (AG). The change of legal form is part of a process of adapting the corporate structure to facilitate further international growth on the corporate level.
Therapeutic area: Cancer - Oncology - Immunological diseases - Infectious diseases
