BioNTech to buy rival mRNA firm CureVac for $1.25bn

BioNTech has agreed to buy another specialist in mRNA-based vaccines and therapeutics, fellow German biotech CureVac, in an all-stock deal valued at around $1.25 billion.

Under the terms of the deal, each CureVac share will be exchanged for approximately $5.46 in BioNTech American depositary shares, which BioNTech said was a 55% premium to CureVac's average share price in the three months to 11th June.

CureVac's Nasdaq shares had risen by around a third (32%) at the time of writing to $5.35. The company was in the race to develop mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines with BioNTech and Moderna at the time of the pandemic, but has broadened its focus since then and – like its acquirer – has built a position in immunotherapies for cancer.

BioNTech said in a statement that combining the two businesses would allow it to strengthen its "research, development, manufacturing, and commercialisation of investigational mRNA-based cancer immunotherapy."

CureVac's lead oncology programme is CVGBM for aggressive brain cancer glioblastoma, an off-the-shelf drug scheduled to start phase 2 trials in the latter half of this year, followed by a squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) candidate codenamed CVHNLC that is due to start human testing in the coming months.

It is also planning to start trials next year of a personalised cancer immunotherapy based on the specific antigens found on the surface of patients' tumours, as well as a prophylactic vaccine for bacterial urinary tract infections (UTIs).

BioNTech's cancer pipeline, meanwhile, consists of individualised therapies for colorectal, bladder, and pancreatic cancers, mRNA-based immunotherapies for melanoma, head and neck cancer, and NSCLC, and BNT327 – mostly in midstage clinical development – as well as a PD-L1xVEGF bispecific antibody candidate that it just licensed to Bristol Myers Squibb for $1.5 billion upfront.

That deal will no doubt have emboldened BioNTech to look for its own business development transactions, although, it already had a strong cash position after ending the last financial year with nearly €16 billion in cash reserves. Meanwhile, oncology has likely risen even higher in priority for the company in the face of a changing and increasingly challenging regulatory environment for infectious disease vaccines in the big US market.

"This transaction is another building block in BioNTech's oncology strategy and an investment in the future of cancer medicine," said Prof Uğur Şahin, the company's co-founder and chief executive.

"We intend to bring together complementary capabilities and leverage technologies with the goal of advancing the development of innovative and transformative cancer treatments and establishing new standards of care for various types of cancer in the coming years."

The takeover has been unanimously approved by both BioNTech's and CureVac's boards and is expected to close before the end of the year, subject to the usual financial and antitrust reviews.