Curevac: Vaccine researcher and company founder struggled to survive

The story of Ingmar Hoerr, the founder and former CEO of Curevac, is as impressive as it is dramatic. The Tübingen-based company of the 52-year-old biologist wants to fight the corona virus with the help of an RNA vaccine.

His company is in the second row for the time being, reports “Focus”. While the vaccines from Pfizer / Biontech and Moderna are about to be approved, an application from Curevac is not expected until mid-2021. As “Focus” writes, Curevac wants to start a large final series of tests “shortly” with around 35,000 test subjects in Latin America and Europe. The vaccine from Curevac should offer the advantage of remaining stable for longer and thus effective even at higher temperatures.

The beginning of the Curevac company

Around the year 2000 the entire scientific world was working on gene therapy to cure cancer. The prospect of one day being able to cure cancer was the trigger that the immunology professor Hans-Georg Rsameee, the chemistry professor Günther Jung and their then doctoral student Ingmar Hoerr founded the company Curevac in Tübingen. Hoerr, who carried out the crucial experiments in his doctoral thesis, researched the potential of messenger RNA (mRNA) against infectious diseases and cancer.

The three authors of the study and company founders pursued a strategy for curing cancer that should make it possible to sharpen the immune system against degenerate cells. Three years later, the first cancer patient was treated with the ribonucleic acid RNA, but there was no resounding success. Investors got out and held back when it came to the potential application area vaccines – that is not financially interesting enough.

“Cancer cells are more intelligent than viruses”

“We underestimated the challenge of cancer therapy using mRNA,” said Ingmar Hoerr “Focus”. “Cancer cells are simply much more intelligent than viruses and other pathogens.” The RNA method, which was unsuccessful at the time, is now a very promising idea: the method could free mankind from the pandemic today. The two most promising vaccines against the coronavirus from Pfizer / Biontech and Moderna work with the help of mRNA.

However, Hoerr almost never experienced this breakthrough. Hoerr only moved from the supervisory board to management in March. Five days after he took office the drama: Hoerr suffered a cerebral hemorrhage in his hotel room, as “Focus” reports. When he no longer responded to a text message from his assistant, with whom he had previously communicated, she alerted the hotel staff, which saved his life and her boss was admitted to the intensive care unit at the Berlin Charité in good time.

“I was in an artificial coma for weeks,” said Hoerr. When he woke up he was confused and had “wild fantasies”. At times he believed he had been kidnapped by the Russian secret service KGB. Hoerr is currently on leave, but he will “return to Curevac in one function or another”, he told the “Focus”.

The encounter with the investor Friedrich van Bohlen

The Krupp descendant Friedrich von Bohlen also sits on the supervisory board. The meeting of the two researchers – von Bohlen is a biochemist and holds a PhD in neurobiology – marked a turning point in the history of Curevac. He is co-founder and managing director of Molecular Health, as well as managing director and co-founder of Dievini Hopp BioTech Holding, which manages the life science activities and investments of SAP co-founder Dietmar Hopp and his family. In 2005, Curevac became part of the Hopp holding company, which Curevac largely financed, because the company is still making a loss: minus 37 million euros in the third quarter, as “Focus” reports.

Is it now too late for Curevac to get on board?

The fact that Curevac is a little later than Biontech and Moderna may not particularly diminish the company’s prospects in view of the estimated global vaccine demand of up to 14 billion doses. This is also shown by the pre-orders: The European Commission, among others, has secured 225 million cans. Hoerr confidently says that the “delay” also has to do with “the fact that we have done our homework”.

With this, Hoerr addresses the topic of the cold chain. While the vaccine from Pfizer / Biontech has to be stored at minus 70 degrees Celsius until shortly before use, the Curevac product should be significantly easier to use. The storage temperature ex works must be minus 80 degrees, but two to eight plus degrees would be sufficient for the following three months and more. The vaccine remains stable for almost 24 hours even at room temperature. The fact that Curevac has invested more research than others in solving the storage problem seems to have something to do with an apparently quite demanding cooperation partner.

Cooperation with Tesla CEO Elon Musk

In 2017, Tesla boss Elon Musk bought the mechanical engineering company “Grohmann Engineering” from Rhineland-Palatinate as a supplier for its electric cars – and thus also became a player against the coronavirus. Because Grohmann also manufactures micro-factories that should be able to produce hundreds of thousands of mRNA vaccine doses within weeks. “We developed the device together with Grohmann,” says Hoerr. Then Musk came and wanted to stop all areas that were irrelevant to his cars. “So we flew to California and convinced him to keep this project going.” Musk pardoned the “RNA printer”, as Hoerr proudly calls the machine. “I have the impression that he now takes the vaccine as seriously as his space program,” says Hoerr.

Curevac’s vaccine could solve transportation problems to poorer countries

In addition, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation selectively finances the work of Curevac. The main focus is on a project on messenger RNA vaccines against a group of viruses that cause problems especially in the poorer countries of the global south. At Gates you have no chance with a vaccine that requires ultra-cooling, says Hoerr. A product that required such an effort would be worthless for many of the target countries. “Perhaps with our vaccine we will be primarily responsible for the so-called Third World,” says Hoerr, who himself researched leprosy as a student in India.

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