Biontech plans to take over German competitor Curevac: Deal worth billions

Mainz. The Mainz-based pharmaceutical company BioNTech plans to acquire its Tübingen-based rival CureVac. BioNTech announced on Thursday that it intends to acquire all of CureVac's shares. With the purchase, the Mainz-based company aims to gain additional expertise in mRNA-based cancer therapies. The transaction will be worth billions. It is already the second multi-billion dollar deal announced by BioNTech within a short period of time.

BioNTech and CureVac participated in the race for a coronavirus vaccine in 2020. BioNTech was successful, CureVac was not.

The Mainz-based company says it intends to exchange every CureVac share for BioNTech American Depositary Shares (ADSs). Both companies are listed on the US technology exchange Nasdaq.

The price is set at approximately $5.46 for each CureVac share, corresponding to a valuation of the Tübingen-based company of approximately $1.25 billion (€1.08 billion). Upon completion of the acquisition, which is targeted for completion by the end of 2025, subject to regulatory approval, CureVac shareholders are expected to hold between 4 and 6 percent of BioNTech, according to the report.

(from left to right) Andreas Voßkuhle, Ugur Sahin, Özlem Türeci, and Friedrich Merz at the award ceremony for the 2025 German National Prize in the French Friedrichstadt Church. The two scientists Türeci and Sahin were awarded the prize because, through their commitment, they have achieved a "medical revolution" and saved numerous lives, Merz said in his laudatory speech.

Source: IMAGO/Future Image

BioNTech believes it is well on its way to a complete takeover. Shareholders who together hold 36.76 percent of CureVac shares have signed agreements to tender their shares subject to the terms and conditions, including the biotech holding company Dievini, owned by SAP co-founder Dietmar Hopp. The German government has confirmed its fundamentally positive attitude toward the deal. BioNTech therefore assumes that the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW), which holds 13.32 percent of CureVac on behalf of the Federal Republic of Germany, will support the transaction.

This would then amount to 50.08 percent of Curevac shares. The takeover offer is subject to a minimum acceptance threshold of 80 percent. According to BioNTech, Curevac shareholders who initially did not tender their shares will be offered the same consideration per share in a planned restructuring.

“For us, this transaction is another building block in Biontech’s oncology strategy and an investment in the future of cancer medicine,” said Biontech CEO and co-founder Ugur Sahin.

BioNTech, which once became famous and rich with its mRNA-based Covid vaccine, is researching cancer immunotherapies and is aiming for an initial regulatory filing in the US by the end of this year for a type of next-generation chemotherapy for uterine cancer.

For many people, a cancer diagnosis is a death sentence – despite modern therapies. Companies like BioNTech, Moderna, and CureVac hope to use mRNA vaccines to combat tumors more effectively in the future. But can cancer simply be injected away?

This type of therapy uses antibody-drug conjugates. Antibodies are intended to deliver chemotherapy drugs more specifically to cancer cells. Another pillar BioNTech relies on in cancer therapies is mRNA technology. It targets the blueprints of the body's own proteins and became famous through coronavirus vaccines, such as the one developed by BioNTech and the US company Pfizer.

CureVac has also been researching mRNA technology for years. The Tübingen-based company, along with BioNTech and others, was once considered one of the hopefuls for developing a vaccine against the virus. Then the company withdrew its first vaccine candidate from the approval process due to comparatively low efficacy, which subsequently led to patent disputes between CureVac and BioNTech. Recently, the Tübingen-based company had cut jobs and wanted to focus on research.

"For me, this transaction is far more than just a business move," said Curevac CEO Alexander Zehnder. "For over two decades, both companies have pursued similar goals and have often approached challenges from different perspectives." These efforts will now be brought together under one roof. Curevac's research and development site in Tübingen will be retained.

For BioNTech, the transaction comes shortly after the announced collaboration with the US company Bristol Myers Squibb. This collaboration revolves around the development of one of the most promising cancer drug candidates, called BNT327, which is intended to counteract the effects of tumors that suppress the body's immune system.

This agreement involves billions of dollars in payments from the US company to BioNTech – a total of 3.5 billion US dollars (approximately 3.06 billion euros) will be paid without conditions, partly in the second quarter and partly with continuing payments until 2028. If certain development milestones are achieved, BioNTech can receive up to 7.6 billion more US dollars.

RND/dpa