A little more than two months after inking a licensing deal with Sanofi, CureVac has completed another tie-up, banking a $45 million upfront from Boehringer Ingelheim and partnering its therapeutic vaccine aimed at lung cancer. The deal also includes up to about $556 million in prospective milestones for the German biotech.

In exchange for the cash, Boehringer gains the global commercial rights to CV9202, a cancer vaccine. The private German pharma company plans to match it with Gilotrif (afatanib) for non-small cell lung cancer, with added plans to pair CV9202 with chemo/radiation therapy for unresectable–or inoperable–stage III NSCLC.

While cancer vaccines have had a bleak history in the clinic in recent years, Boehringer believes that CureVac’s mRNA approach has the potential to kick up a powerful immune response which could succeed where others have failed.