BioNTech will acquire its German competitor CureVac to invest in the development of cancer drugs. Both companies participated in the race for a coronavirus vaccine in 2020.
Pharmaceutical company BioNTech wants to acquire its Tübingen-based competitor CureVac. BioNTech has announced its intention to acquire all of CureVac's shares. With this acquisition, worth billions of euros, the Mainz-based company aims to gain additional expertise in the field of mRNA-based cancer therapies.
"We want to bring together complementary capabilities and technologies," said Ugur Sahin, co-founder and CEO of BioNTech. "Our goal is to advance the development of innovative and transformative cancer treatments and set new therapeutic standards for various types of cancer in the coming years."
Berlin supports the purchase
The transaction will be financed through a stock swap. Each CureVac share will be valued at approximately $5.46, a valuation of more than a third of yesterday's closing price on the Nasdaq stock exchange. After the transaction is completed, CureVac shareholders are expected to own between 4 and 6 percent of BioNTech. The management and supervisory boards of both companies unanimously approved the deal. The deal is expected to close in 2025.
The deal is subject to customary closing conditions, including a minimum acceptance threshold of 80 percent of CureVac’s shares, which BioNTech can lower to 75 percent under certain circumstances, and required regulatory approvals. CureVac’s major shareholders, including SAP co-founder Dietmar Hopp’s biotech company Dievini, as well as the board of directors and supervisory board, which together hold 36.76 percent of the shares, have pledged to divest their shares.
The German government also appears to have no objections. “The Ministry of Economic Affairs supports this transaction and will now start the usual review procedures,” a spokeswoman said. A final decision has not yet been made regarding the participation of the German Reconstruction Bank (KfW) in the share swap. Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, the German government has held a 13% stake in CureVac.
Tübingen as a research center will be preserved
BioNTech and CureVac both entered the coronavirus vaccine race in 2020. However, the Tübingen-based company, which was also considered one of the big hopes, withdrew its first vaccine candidate from the approval process due to its relatively low efficacy. This also led to patent disputes between the two companies. BioNTech, on the other hand, won the race and made a lot of money from its mRNA-based Covid vaccine.
The group is currently researching cancer immunotherapies and plans to file an initial application for approval in the U.S. by the end of the year for a next-generation chemotherapy for uterine cancer. mRNA technology is another pillar of BioNTech’s cancer therapy portfolio. It is based on the body’s own protein building blocks. CureVac has also been researching mRNA technology for years.
"For me, this transaction is much more than just a commercial step," said Alexander Zehnder, CEO of CureVac. "For more than two decades, the two companies have pursued similar goals and often approached challenges from different perspectives." The goal now is to unite these two entities under one roof. CureVac's research and development location in Tübingen will remain./ DW (A2 Televizion)
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