On May 13, 2021, CureVac announced together with its collaboration partner GSK, first preclinical data in a rat model, showing that its second-generation COVID-19 vaccine candidate, CV2CoV, induced high levels of antigen production as well as strong and dose-dependent immune responses in vaccinated animals. CV2CoV is a co-development between CureVac and GSK and is based on a new mRNA backbone, which differs from CureVacﾒs first-generation vaccine candidate, CVnCoV, currently in late-stage clinical testing.

In addition, the serum of vaccinated animals showed significant cross-neutralization against variants first discovered in Denmark (B.1.1.298), the UK (B.1.1.7) and South Africa (B.1.351). The full manuscript of the preclinical data was published on the pre-print server bioRxiv.