Curevac share: competition in corona vaccines – share crashes

Frankfurt With the approval for the first Covid vaccines from Biontech and Moderna and the start of vaccination campaigns in North America and Europe, the fight against the corona pandemic is in a new phase. There are initially outside competitors such as the Tübingen biotech company Curevac, whose vaccine candidates are still in clinical trials.

In the past few days, investors have been nervous about developers in general, and especially about Curevac. The background is the expectation that the competitive situation could rapidly intensify. There was speculation that the British Astra-Zeneca, despite its somewhat ambiguous test results, could soon get approval for its vaccine in Great Britain.

The Curevac share was at times almost twelve percent in the red on Tuesday and has thus lost almost half of its value again compared to its peak value of 125 euros at the beginning of December.

The Tübingen-based company, in which SAP founder Dietmar Hopp and his family still hold almost 50 percent and the federal government through the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) hold a good 16 percent, is valued at eleven billion euros on this basis. The competitors Biontech and Moderna are each trading a good third below their previous highs and currently have market capitalizations of 16 and 33 billion euros.

However, Curevac continues to see great potential for its vaccine: “We estimate the market to be so large that there will be room for several providers,” affirmed a company spokesman.

All three companies rely on vaccines made from messenger nucleic acids (mRNA) and thus pursue a new type of technology concept. Along with Biontech, Curevac is the second great hope from Germany when it comes to the development of Covid vaccines.