Boehringer Ingelheim and CureVac have entered an exclusive global license and development collaboration focused on CureVac’s CV9202, an investigational therapeutic mRNA vaccine in early clinical development for the treatment of lung cancer. CureVac’s mRNA-based technology represents a potential novel approach in cancer treatment mobilizing the patient’s own immune system to fight the tumor.

Boehringer will begin clinical studies of CV9202 in combination with afatinib in patients with advanced or metastatic epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and in combination with chemo-radiation therapy in patients with unresectable stage III NSCLC. CureVac will receive approximately $45 million upfront and is eligible for milestone payments of as much as $556 million, and royalties on sales.

“At Boehringer Ingelheim we are proud of our commitment to help improve the treatment of cancers with a high medical need. In our collaboration with CureVac, we will investigate combining existing treatments with the approach of sustained activation of the immune system. With this we hope to be able to develop new treatments and further expand our broad pipeline in lung cancer,” said professor Klaus Dugi, chief medical officer, Boehringer Ingelheim.

Ingmar Hoerr, co-founder and chief executive officer of CureVac GmbH said, “This collaboration is extremely relevant for CureVac because, as a biotech enterprise, we rely on collaboration with strong partners for the clinical development and commercialization of our compounds. Cancer immunotherapy represents one of the biggest innovations in cancer treatment of recent times and we are delighted to now be working with Boehringer Ingelheim. The out-licensing and clinical development of our promising therapeutic vaccine CV9202 represents the logical next step in developing this novel treatment for cancer patients, and the significant commitment from Boehringer Ingelheim underscores the relevance of the mRNA technology.”