German company wins EU prize for innovative vaccine technology

German biopharmaceutical company CureVac GmbH has won a 2 million euros (2.78 million U.S. dollars) inducement prize from the European Union for an innovative vaccine technology, the European Commission said in a statement Monday.

The company received the prize for progress towards a novel technology to bring life-saving vaccines to people across the planet in safe and affordable ways.

The European Commission prize encourages inventors to overcome one of the biggest barriers to using vaccines in developing countries: the need to keep them stable at any ambient temperature.

Maire Geoghegan-Quinn, European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science, said, "CureVac's success opens up the possibility of a real European breakthrough in the delivery of vaccines to areas where they are needed most. This technology could save lives -- exactly the type of innovation an EU inducement prize should support."

CureVac's RNActive vaccine technology is based on messenger RNA (mRNA) molecules that stimulate the immune system. It would be possible to rapidly produce these vaccines against almost any infectious disease, and deliver these to the most remote areas of the world. CureVac is currently running a number of clinical trials with these vaccines.

This is the first time the Commission has offered a so-called inducement prize to stimulate research and innovation in the European Union.

More such prizes are planned in 2015 under Horizon 2020, the EU's 2014-20 research and innovation programme, the statement said.