TÜBINGEN, Germany / BOSTON, January 7, 2020 – CureVac AG, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company pioneering the field of mRNA-based drugs, today announced positive data from an interim analysis of safety and immunogenicity in its Phase 1 study evaluating CV7202, a novel prophylactic mRNA based rabies vaccine.

In this clinical trial, all subjects who received two doses of 1 µg mRNA vaccine (the lowest dose tested) demonstrated a strong adaptive immune response with protective virus-neutralizing antibody titers (VNT) levels above the threshold recommended by the WHO. The vaccination schedule was well tolerated.

“We are very encouraged to have protected the study participants, using this low dose. These results exceed our expectations and demonstrate the power and potential of our mRNA technology,” said Daniel L. Menichella, Chief Executive Officer of CureVac. “We are excited to continue our efforts to provide improved prophylactic and therapeutic vaccine approaches to individuals in settings with high unmet medical need.”

CureVac’s platform aims to optimize the properties of mRNA therapeutics and vaccines. The technology can be tailored to induce varying degrees of immune responses against antigens of choice, potentially providing potent prophylactic vaccines for the prevention of infectious diseases, such as rabies, as well as immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer. The technology can also be adapted to avoid such immune activation for purposes of molecular therapies, thereby providing potential new therapeutic modalities for patients suffering from rare diseases.

About the CV7202 Clinical Trial
The CV7202 clinical trial is based on CureVac’s naturally optimized mRNA technology using a latest generation lipid nanoparticle (LNP). The phase 1, dose-escalation, open-label clinical study in healthy adult volunteers is currently ongoing in Germany and Belgium. The primary objective of the study is the assessment of safety and reactogenicity, while secondary objectives evaluate the quantitative and qualitative immune response.

About Rabies
Rabies, a viral disease that causes inflammation in the brain, is almost always fatal following the onset of clinical symptoms. Rabies is primarily transmitted to humans by dogs, and, although the disease is preventable through vaccination, still occurs in more than 150 countries around the globe. The infection is responsible for tens of thousands of deaths every year, mostly occurring in Asia and Africa. The World Health Organization (WHO), the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Global Alliance for Rabies Control (GARC) have established a global “United Against Rabies” collaboration with the goal of achieving "zero human rabies deaths by 2030".¹