BioNTech can acquire CureVac
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The Bundeskartellamt has cleared plans by BioNTech SE, Mainz, to acquire up to 100 per cent of the shares in CureVac N.V., Tübingen. The planned acquisition is to be carried out through a share exchange.
Both companies have become well known to the general public for their research into mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines. BioNTech has only one marketed product, the COMIRNATY® COVID-19 vaccine, which it distributes in cooperation with the company Pfizer. CureVac does not yet have any approved active ingredients on the market. However, the possible applications of mRNA technology extend far beyond COVID-19 vaccines and also include the development of active ingredients used in oncology. While BioNTech has a large number of research projects in this area, some of which are well advanced, CureVac’s research pipeline currently only has a few drug candidates in preclinical or early clinical phases.
Andreas Mundt, President of the Bundeskartellamt: “There are no significant overlaps in BioNTech’s and CureVac’s drug research pipelines. Where there is overlap with regard to mRNA technology as such, we also have no concerns, given the extensive research activities of large and globally active competitors in this area. The merger is not expected to restrict innovation-based competition.”
Although mRNA research is still a relatively new field of research, numerous companies worldwide are already active in this field in addition to BioNTech and CureVac and have developed their own mRNA platforms. Moreover, there are other biotechnological processes which can be used for the same medical purposes. In the Bundeskartellamt’s view, as well as in the view of the competitors surveyed, the merger is therefore unlikely to restrict innovation-based competition.
The Bundeskartellamt examined the merger plans on the basis of the transaction value threshold. The transaction value threshold allows the authority to examine under competition law mergers where companies or assets which (at the time of the merger) generate little or no turnover are acquired at a purchase price of more than 400 million euros.
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