SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Curevo Vaccine (Curevo), a privately held clinical-stage biotechnology company dedicated to reducing the burden of infectious disease by developing safe and highly-effective vaccines, today announced the closing of a $26 million Series A1 financing round.
“Completing this A1 round ahead of data from our Phase 2b trial of CRV-101 head-to-head against Shingrix® is a meaningful demonstration of the confidence our investors have in the CRV-101 program,” said George Simeon, Curevo’s CEO. “The $86 million we raised in 2022 significantly extends our cash runway and allows us to more aggressively pursue our programs; we look forward to getting topline data from the Phase 2b shingles trial in early 2023.”
Funds participating in the financing included Janus Henderson Investors, RA Capital Management, Adjuvant Capital, and founding investor GC Biopharma, a South Korean biopharmaceutical company specializing in the development and commercialization of vaccines, protein therapies, and therapeutic antibodies.
“CRV-101 has the potential to demonstrate a favorable tolerability profile with comparable immunogenicity to Shingrix®,” commented Andy Acker, Portfolio Manager at Janus Henderson Investors. “We were impressed with the Curevo team’s execution of the Phase 2b trial, including enrolling 678 patients in just six months, and are looking forward to the results. We see significant commercial potential for a shingles vaccine that could match the clinical profile of Shingrix® (currently annualizing at $3B in sales) without manufacturing capacity constraints.”
“As Curevo's oldest partner, we are proud to continue to support accessible vaccines to prevent shingles,” stated EC Huh, PhD, GC Biopharma’s President. “We very much look forward to seeing the results of the CRV-101 Phase 2 trial in early 2023.”
CRV-101 is a clinical-stage adjuvanted sub-unit vaccine under investigation for the prevention of shingles in older adults. Shingles is a painful blistering skin rash caused by a reactivation of the varicella zoster virus. About 1 in 10 people with shingles develop nerve pain, which can last for months or even years after the rash disappears. CRV-101 was specifically designed to produce an optimal immune response while using a smaller amount of adjuvant with the intention of achieving similar efficacy but with fewer side effects than the currently-approved shingles vaccine. In the Phase 1 program, CRV-101 demonstrated very robust immunogenicity as measured by humoral and cellular responses with no grade 3 injection site reactions and a low (1.3%) rate of grade 3 systemic side effects (“grade 3” side effects are those vaccination-related reactions severe enough to prevent normal activities). According to the CDC website, about 1 in 6 patients (16.6%) receiving Shingrix® experienced side effects preventing them from participating in regular activities.1
About Curevo Vaccine
Curevo is a privately held, clinical-stage biotechnology company based in Seattle and dedicated to reducing the burden of infectious disease by developing safe and highly effective vaccines via its sub-unit vaccine technology platform. Its lead product is CRV-101, a sub-unit vaccine to prevent the reactivation of the varicella zoster virus (shingles) in older adults. Shingles is a serious medical condition involving a blistering skin rash where 1 in 10 people also develop serious, lasting nerve pain. The $4 billion shingles global vaccine market is characterized by product shortages and a high burden of vaccine-related side effects. Curevo is also developing a non-live, subunit chickenpox vaccine. For more information visit https://curevovaccine.com/.
Shingrix® is a registered trademark of GlaxoSmithKline, PLC.
1 https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/shingles/hcp/shingrix/about-vaccine.html
