RNA specialist raises €35 million in second round

Funding round completed

CureVac GmbH raised €13 million in the final closing of its second-round funding, bringing the total for the round to €35 million.

The investors are DH Capital GmbH & Co KG and OH Beteiligungen GmbH & Co. KG, both funds operated by the family of Dieter Hopp, founder of Europe’s largest software company SAP AG.

The money will allow CureVac to advance the clinical development of it messenger RNA-based (mRNA) cancer therapeutics in various undisclosed indications. The company’s RNActive. technology platform has shown promising results in preclinical studies.

“We expect to start Phase I/II studies to explore efficacy and safety of RNActive. in 2008,” said Thomas Lander, Managing Director and Chief Medical Officer.

The key to CureVac’s technology lies in its ability to stabilise messenger RNA, allowing it to be formed into long chains.

The natural role of mRNA is to physically transfer genetic information from the cell nucleus to the cellular protein production machinery, to produce the requisite protein.

The rationale of using for mRNA as a therapeutic is the same as that behind gene therapy. In theory, the injection of a customised mRNA molecule could induce the production of the desired protein by the body’s own cells.

The problem that CuraGen has had to overcome is that mRNA is a single stranded molecule, which is highly unstable and difficult to manufacture. Based on technology developed at Tübingen University, the company has devised methods for stabilising mRNA and forming it into long chains

CureVac has set up a GMP standard production facility. Its most advanced compound, a cancer vaccine, is scheduled to enter phase I/II trials in 2008. The company wants to establish partnerships with pharmaceutical or biotechnology companies in the near future, once it has clinical data.

CureVac has raised €38 million in private equity since it was spun out of Tübingen University in 2000.