GSK PLC on Wednesday restructured an existing collaboration with CureVac NV into a new licensing agreement to take control of developing a number of flu and Covid drugs.

The London-based pharmaceutical company has an existing collaboration with the German vaccine maker, agreed in 2020, to develop mRNA vaccines for infectious diseases.

Through this collaboration, GSK and CureVac currently have vaccine candidates for seasonal influenza and Covid-19 in phase II and avian influenza in phase I clinical development.

Under the terms of the new agreement, GSK will assume full control of developing and manufacturing these candidate vaccines. GSK will have worldwide rights to commercialise the candidate vaccines.

Nasdaq-listed CureVac will receive an upfront payment of €400 million, and up to an additional €1.05 billion in development, regulatory and sales milestones and tiered royalties in the high single to low teens range.

GSK said the agreement represents the latest step in its ongoing investment in vaccine platform technologies.

GSK Chief Scientific Officer Tony Wood said: ‘We are excited about our flu/Covid-19 programmes and the opportunity to develop best-in-class mRNA vaccines to change the standard of care. With this new agreement, we will apply GSK’s capabilities, partnerships and intellectual property to CureVac’s technology, to deliver these promising vaccines at pace.’

Shares in GSK were down 0.2% at 1,501.00 pence in London on Wednesday morning.

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