CureVac's COVID-19 vaccine candidate demonstrated just 48 percent efficacy in preventing any disease severity, the German drugmaker said June 30.
Some regulators, including the FDA, have a 50 percent efficacy threshold for emergency approval. CureVac is moving forward with its vaccine, though, and has highlighted its data showing the vaccine's 53 percent efficacy rate in people ages 18-60. In that group, the vaccine protected against all hospitalization and death caused by COVID-19, and it provided 77 percent protection against moderate and severe COVID-19.
The vaccine uses mRNA technology like the vaccines produced by Pfizer and Moderna, but its storage requirements are easier to meet than the ultra-cold temperatures those two already-approved vaccines require.