By Sierra Jackson

Law360 (August 10, 2020, 3:23 PM EDT ) German biopharmaceutical company CureVac, which is working on a coronavirus vaccine, said Monday that it hopes to raise $200 million in an initial public offering led by Davis Polk and NautaDutilh.

CureVac BV, guided by Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP and NautaDutilh NV, said it is offering roughly 13.3 million shares for a price range between $14 and $16. That would bring in proceeds of nearly $200 million, based on the midpoint share price, filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission show.

The company said in its first July filing that as part of the deal, it will become CureVac NV and will be incorporated in the Netherlands, though rumors about the offering were circulating at least as early as June.

The underwriters, advised by Latham & Watkins LLP and De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek NV, will also have 30 days to purchase up to nearly 2 million more shares.

The shares will list on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol "CVAC."

Founded in 2000, the biopharmaceutical enterprise uses altered single stranded messenger ribonucleic acid, or mRNA, molecules to trigger the creation of proteins or antibodies that can help fight certain diseases, according to its website. It has used the method to create medicines to treat various cancers, rabies, fibrosis and other illnesses.

"Our vision is to revolutionize medicine and open new avenues for developing therapies by enabling the body to make its own drugs," the company said in its registration statement. "We are the pioneers in successfully harnessing mRNAs designed to prevent infections and to treat diseases by mimicking human biology to synthesize the desired proteins."

CureVac told the SEC that its coronavirus vaccine entered Phase 1 human trials in June to determine the best dosage, with results expected in the fourth quarter of 2020. The life science company said the vaccine will enter Phase 2 and 3 trials after the results are out and that the Phase 3 clinical study will look to include 20,000 volunteers in Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia.

Billionaire investor and software entrepreneur Dietmar Hopp, who is also a managing director for CureVac's majority shareholder venture capital firm Dievini Hopp BioTech Holding, has already agreed to purchase €100 million ($117.5 million) in a private investment separate from the offering, according to the filing.

The biopharmaceutical company has also received a flood of funding recently, prior to filing for its IPO, totaling roughly $640 million, according to a July announcement.

Some of the money came from the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy, which contributed $343 million in June. GlaxoSmithKline PLC also bought a 10% stake in CureVac for $171 million. And a group of new and existing investors that included the Qatar Investment Authority invested the remaining $126 million, the previous company statement said.

As part of the July GSK deal, CureVac also received a separate upfront cash payment of £104 million for research and development. The transaction included an agreement to collaborate on up to five vaccines and antibodies targeting infectious diseases, specifically excluding the coronavirus program.

Representatives for CureVac declined to comment beyond the filings, citing SEC guidelines.

CureVac is represented by Richard D. Truesdell and Leo Borchardt of Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP on matters of U.S. law and by NautaDutilh NV on certain matters of Dutch law.

The offering's underwriters are BofA Securities Inc., Jefferies LLC, Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC and Kempen & Co. USA Inc.

The underwriters are represented by Nathan Ajiashvili and Oliver Seiler of Latham & Watkins LLP on U.S. legal matters and by De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek NV on matters of Dutch law.

--Additional reporting by Elise Hansen and Benjamin Horney. Editing by Alyssa Miller.

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