Forbes British Pharma giant GSK said on Wednesday it will pay as much as $1.5 billion to take control of several mRNA vaccines from vaccine developer CureVac, sending shares of the struggling German biotech soaring during premarket trading and strengthening the British drugmaker’s vaccine portfolio as it tries to compete with the likes of Moderna, Pfizer and BioNTech.
GSK said it would pay €400 million ($430 million) upfront to CureVac to take full control of developing and manufacturing mRNA vaccines for COVID-19, seasonal flu and avian influenza (bird flu).
The British drugmaker said it would pay an additional €1.05 billion ($1.13 billion) upon reaching various development, regulatory and sales milestones for the shots, as well as royalties from sales.
The shots for COVID and flu are in mid stage clinical trials and the deal could see GSK regularly update vaccines to combat seasonal variants and potentially develop joint COVID-flu shots, while GSK said the bird flu vaccine is in the earliest stage of clinical trials.
Available data for all vaccine candidates suggest they could be “best-in-class new vaccines,” GSK said.