BioCentury
ARTICLE | Cover Story

Translating mRNA vaccines

December 20, 2012 8:00 AM UTC

A collaboration between CureVac GmbH and the Friedrich Loeffler Institute has produced in vivo evidence that an mRNA-based vaccine can prevent influenza A infection.1 The results provide proof of concept for the company's vaccine platform in infectious disease, and Sanofi has options to the technology.

Conventional methods for influenza vaccine production rely on culturing the virus in chicken eggs or more recently in mammalian cells, followed by antigen purification. However, these approaches have multiple limitations, including a risk of contamination and an inability to rapidly upscale supply in response to an outbreak of a new strain.2,3...