BioNTech launches clinical trial of mRNA-based malaria vaccine candidate

BERLIN, December 23 (Reuters) – BioNTech (22UAy.DE) has launched a first-in-human phase 1 clinical trial of its malaria vaccine candidate BNT165b1 using mRNA technology, the German company announced on Friday.

The Phase 1 trial is expected to enroll 60 volunteers in the United States with no history of malaria to evaluate the vaccine candidate at three dose levels, BioNTech said in a statement.

BNT165b1 is the first vaccine candidate of BioNTech’s malaria control project, which aims to develop a highly effective mRNA vaccine as well as establish vaccine production in Africa.

The company said it will initially evaluate different antigens from the parasite that causes malaria over the next few months to help select the multi-antigen vaccine candidate with which to proceed with further trials.

Scientists around the world have been working for decades to develop a vaccine to prevent malaria, which infects millions of people each year and leads to hundreds of thousands of deaths – mostly babies and young children in the poorest regions. from Africa.

The world’s first and only licensed malaria vaccine, Mosquirix, was developed by GSK Plc (GSK.L) after many years of clinical trials in several African countries, but is only about 30% effective. In addition, a lack of funding and business potential have thwarted GSK’s ability to produce as many doses of his shot as necessary.

RNAM vaccines, which have come into the spotlight amid drugmakers’ race to develop a coronavirus vaccine, trick the human body into making a protein that is part of the pathogen, triggering a response immune.

Written by Miranda Murray, edited by Louise Heavens

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