German biotech company CureVac is teaming up with the U.K. to develop its next generation of vaccines against new coronavirus variants, the British government said today.
As part of the deal, the U.K. has secured 50 million doses of the new vaccines “to be delivered later this year if they are required.”
CureVac said that “any resulting vaccine candidates will be manufactured and distributed in the UK and its overseas and dependent territories” if approved by regulators.
“This fantastic new partnership means we can work to swiftly tweak and rollout new variations of existing vaccines if we need to, while also building up Britain’s vaccine manufacturing base in the process,” U.K. Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said in a statement.
CureVac announced earlier this week that it was teaming up with pharmaceutical giant GSK to develop the new line of vaccines. The companies said they hope to have these new vaccines on the market by 2022.
CureVac’s original mRNA-based coronavirus vaccine candidate is still undergoing large-scale human trials. The EU already has a contract with the firm for 225 doses of its shot, with the option to buy another 180 million.
