Lilly and CureVac to collaborate on mRNA cancer vaccines
Deal could see CureVac net up to $1.8 billion in upfront and milestone payments
Healthcare giant Eli Lilly and German biopharma specialist CureVac will team up to develop five messenger RNA (mRNA) cancer vaccines. The agreement will see Lilly make $95 million (£73 million) in upfront payments and equity investment. CureVac stand to receive up to a further $1.7 billion in milestone payments, dependent on the progress and eventual commercialisation of the products.
The companies will work together to develop vaccines based on CureVac’s mRNA technology to treat a range of tumour types. The plan is to use mRNA molecules that target tumour neoantigens to bring about anticancer immune responses.