The final data on the effectiveness of the vaccine candidate from Curevac from Tübingen are also disappointing. But company boss Haas is still convinced of EMA approval.
Tübingen – The Tübingen biotech company Curevac assumes that the European Medicines Agency EMA will approve its vaccine despite its low effectiveness.
“The 18- to 60-year-old population is particularly favored by our vaccine. We talked about this with the EMA, ”said CEO Franz-Werner Haas on Thursday at an online press conference. There is a very clear trend that the vaccine works with younger people.
According to a final analysis, the Curevac preparation shows an effectiveness of 48 percent against Covid 19 disease across all age groups. In the age group between 18 and 60 years of age, the effectiveness is 53 percent against a disease of any severity and 77 percent against a moderate and severe course of the disease, as Curevac announced on Wednesday evening. There was therefore complete protection in this age group against hospitalization or death.
This makes the vaccine significantly less effective overall than other vaccines. The data of the interim analysis had caused a significant decline in the stock market price and disappointment among politicians.
After the publication of interim results in mid-June, the EMA had emphasized that there was no hard minimum level of effectiveness. In clinical studies, a minimum limit of 50 percent effectiveness is assumed. But especially in connection with the new virus variants, one has to check the data very carefully and weigh the advantages against the disadvantages.
However, the SPD health expert Karl Lauterbach assumes that the EMA will not allow the Curevac vaccine. “With its low effectiveness of 48 percent, the Curevac vaccine could not be used in Germany. If there are vaccines that are so much stronger, like Moderna and Biontech, like Johnson & Johnson and Astrazeneca, to some extent, then there is no place for a vaccine that is not so good, ”said Lauterbach of the Düsseldorf“ Rheinische Post ”. .
The federal government originally planned the Curevac vaccine for the vaccination campaign. Most recently, the Ministry of Health no longer expected deliveries from the company. The federal government also has an indirect 16 percent stake in Curevac through KfW. In this way, Berlin wanted to secure the company against a possible takeover from abroad. The SAP co-founder and investor Dietmar Hopp holds the largest share in the company. The preparation of the Tübingen company Curevac is a so-called mRNA vaccine – like that of Biontech / Pfizer (Germany / USA) and Moderna (USA). dpa
