Curevac COVID-19 vaccine scale production seen this year -investor

BERLIN, Sept 4- German biotechnology firm Curevac expects to be able to produce the COVID-19 vaccine it is developing at scale by the end of the year, investor Dietmar Hopp told the Handelsblatt business daily on Friday. Curevac is likely to be beaten to market by U.S. rival Moderna and Germany’s Biontech. Hopp said Curevac may also expand its cooperation with…

BERLIN, Sept 4 (Reuters) – German biotechnology firm Curevac

expects to be able to produce the COVID-19 vaccine it

is developing at scale by the end of the year, investor Dietmar

Hopp told the Handelsblatt business daily on Friday.

“We want to make 100 million doses available by the end ofthe year,” said billionaire Hopp, one of the founders ofsoftware company SAP.

He said he expected regulatory approval in spring or summerof 2021, although limited clearance could come this year tovaccinate people doing jobs that put them at risk of catchingCOVID-19 or regions with high rates of infection.

Curevac is likely to be beaten to market by U.S. rivalModerna and Germany’s Biontech.

“We can’t win this race,” Hopp said. “But we want to win therace to produce the best vaccine and here we have good chances.”

The Tuebingen-based startup, valued at $10 billion afterfloating last month on Nasdaq, is one of a number of firmsdeveloping vaccines based on molecules carrying a genetic codecalled messenger RNA (mRNA) to treat diseases.

Hopp said Curevac may also expand its cooperation withGrohmann, a subsidiary of Elon Musk’s electric car maker Tesla, in developing so-called RNA printers that would makeit possible to decentralise vaccine production.

Musk was in Germany this week and visited Curevac, sparkingspeculation that he may invest in the company. Hopp earlierdismissed this as “pure fantasy”.(Reporting by Douglas Busvine; editing by Jason Neely)