CureVac hoping for EU approval of Covid-19 jab by June

German Covid vaccine maker CureVac is hoping that emergency use approval from the European Union for its coronavirus jab will be forthcoming by June.

According to the company’s chief executive officer, Franz-Werner Haas, who spoke to CNBC on Thursday, the firm was close to completing the recruitment process for its phase three trials.

Indeed, he expected the trials would have the necessary data by the end of April or early May.

The vaccine will then have to be submitted for review by the watchdog and other regulators before it is cleared for use.

Haas was keenly aware of the urgent need for more vaccination options to combat the pandemic.

The UK and the EU had already pre-ordered 455m dosis from the drug-maker.

Curevac's boss also said that the company was trying to avoid the manufacturing pitfalls hit by other vaccine makers

“Manufacturing is certainly a struggle at the moment,” he reportedly told the broadcaster.

“It’s not only that we are producing by ourselves, but we have an entire network in Europe, with other companies supporting us with manufacturing there as well, but it’s very hard sometimes to get the equipment, to get the facilities built-up but also the material to produce the mRNA.

“But we’re doing everything to get as many doses produced as we can.”