CureVac hiking capacity to 300 million COVID-19 doses in 2021

BERLIN (Reuters) - German biotech firm CureVac <5CV.DE> is building a network with partners to allow it to ramp up manufacturing of its experimental COVID-19 vaccine so it can produce up to 300 million doses in 2021 and up to 600 million in 2022.

The company said in a statement on Tuesday that it wants to build a broad European vaccine manufacturing network using expertise and capacity in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and Austria, plus potentially Sweden, Poland, Italy and Ireland.

CureVac said it expects to announce partnerships with vaccine developers and manufacturers in the coming weeks.

"It is our goal to ramp up the production capacity of our vaccine candidate within a short period of time to ensure a stable supply," said Florian von der Muelbe, Chief Production Officer of CureVac.

CureVac said last week its vaccine candidate has been shown to remain stable at 5 degrees Celsius (41 F) for at least three months, making it potentially easier to distribute than some rivals' compounds.

(Reporting by Emma Thomasson; editing by Thomas Seythal)