Berlin invests 300.0m euro in Covid-19 maker CureVac

Berlin unveiled a multi-million dollar investment into German biotechnology outfit CureVac, alongside dievini Hopp BioTech, SAP co-founder Dietmar Hopp's holding company.

CureVac is one of the world's pioneers in mRNA technologies and is currently working on one of the more promising candidates for a vaccine against Covid-19.

The €300.0m of equity financing would be provided by the federal government, through state lender, Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau, in exchange for an approximately 23% stake.

Company management would retain full control over corporate policy decisions, CureVac said in a statement.

German economics minister, Peter Altmaier, highlighted the disruptive nature of CureVac's technology, which would be available through the market for many people.

His expectation was that the monies would help accelerate the company's development programmes and to harness the full potential of its technologies.

"This is also of high importance for industrial policy as we in Germany and Europe need these essential research results and technologies," Altmaier said.

The investment from KfW also marked the first under Berlin's comprehensive Corona Economic Stimulus and Future Technologies Package announced on 3 June.

"With this package, we aim to secure more independence in the entire production process of medical substances and vaccines. This investment is a first step in this direction."