Anyone looking for particularly volatile stocks at the moment will quickly find what they are looking for in the manufacturers of Covid 19 vaccines. At the beginning of May, Joe Biden ensured that the intensity of the price swings in this segment increased once again. The US President advocated the temporary suspension of patent protection for Corona vaccines. As a result, the prices of the companies affected - above all BioNTech and Moderna - fell significantly. CureVac also came under pressure, although the German biotech company has not yet delivered a single ampoule of its vaccine. However, the Tuebingen-based company is on track to enter the global vaccination campaign soon. In an interview with a news agency, CEO Franz-Werner Haas confirmed plans to file for European Union (EU) approval later this month or in early June. The company has been testing its messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA)-based vaccine for about five months. More than 37,000 volunteers are now participating in the phase 2b/3 trial in Europe and Latin America.
After CureVac launched a rolling approval process at the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in February, the process is now underway in Switzerland. On 19 April, CureVac's Basel subsidiary submitted an initial data package to Swissmedic. Since then, the regulatory authority for medicinal products and medical devices has been reviewing the vaccine candidate "CVnCoV" for quality, safety and efficacy. The rolling approval process can shorten the time to approval. The contract for the purchase of 5 million vaccine doses was signed by the government and CureVac back in February. At the time, Bern accessed the contract on the basis of a supply agreement between the company and the EU. Brussels had secured a total of up to 405 million servings under the deal.
In the production of "CVnCoV", CureVac works with prominent partners. These include Bayer, GlaxoSmithKline and others as well as Novartis. The Basel-based pharmaceutical company produces the vaccine at a site in Kundl, Austria. In the current year, Novartis wants to produce up to 50 million doses there; in 2022, the volume is to be 4 times higher. CureVac's overall target is similarly ambitious: After 300 million doses in the current year, the company wants to ramp up production to up to 1 billion doses next year. In addition to the partner network, the Tübingen-based company sees its own development pipeline as the foundation for remaining on a growth course beyond the pandemic. In this context, the CEO also refers to the cash position built up last year: as of the end of 2020, CureVac had cash and cash equivalents totalling EUR 1.32 billion (see chart). The company raised the equivalent of around EUR 200 million via its IPO on the US technology exchange Nasdaq last August. Around two months prior to the IPO, the Federal Republic of Germany had invested EUR 300 million in the biopharmaceutical company.
Apparently, neither the solid cash position nor the prospect of a vaccine approval in the near future can change the fact that CureVac shares are trading well below the highs reached in December. The stock has been zig-zagging for months. Not least the resulting and already mentioned volatility makes CureVac a real "coupon giant". In line with this, Leonteq is issuing two new Softcallable Barrier Reverse Convertibles on the Nasdaq stock. In the product currency USD, investors can expect a fixed quarterly payout of 16% p.a.. Those who prefer an allocation in CHF receive a coupon of 15% p.a. In order to realize the corresponding maximum return at the end of the term, there is a clear requirement for both variants: CureVac should not fall to or below the barrier of 55% initial level. If this calculation does not work out, the underlying must return to or above the strike by the final fixing in order to avoid discounts on redemption. Please note: Due to the soft callable feature, early redemption of this issue is possible for the first time after 6 months and at 3-month intervals.
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