GSK has reached a licensing agreement with mRNA vaccine developer CureVac worth up to €1.4bn to develop its vaccines for flu, Covid-19 and avian flu.
The UK drugmaker has an existing collaboration with the German vaccine maker but it will pay €400mn to CureVac to take full control of developing vaccines under the agreement. There could also be an additional €1.05bn in milestone payments linked to sales and development of the jabs, as well as royalties.
The deal hands GSK the ability to develop potential flu and Covid-19 combination vaccines, which could be updated for new seasonal variants, and compete with existing mRNA vaccines such as those produced by Moderna, Pfizer and BioNTech.