They cancel a vaccine that was tested in Argentina because it is only 47% effective against Covid-19

Bad news for those who trusted the German coronavirus vaccine. The biotechnology company CureVac NV announces that his The Covid-19 vaccine was only 47% effective in a test of last phase, and this implies that it does not fulfill the central objective of the study.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), it is advisable to apply vaccines whose efficacy exceeds 50%. And in fact, those that are applied in the world even exceed 70%.

In all cases, the effectiveness of this CVnCoV vaccine was tested on 40,000 volunteers from Latin America and Europe, and the disappointing result stems from an interim analysis based on 134 cases of Covid-19. The company said at least 13 variants of the virus were responsible for infections among the population studied.

Yesterday, after the release of this information, US-listed CureVac shares fell 50.6% to $ 46.81.

CureVac CEO Franz-Werner Haas acknowledged that the company expects more solid results in the interim analysis and that the trial, which is currently underway, will continue until the analysis. final is obtained. “The final effectiveness could still change,” he said.

Until early June, the company expected the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to approve its use based on data from the Phase 2b / 3 clinical trial.

As the only major buyer of CureVac, the European Union (EU) acquired up to 405 million doses of the vaccine last November, then entered into a memorandum of understanding with Germany for an additional 20 million doses.