BioNTech sees UK trials on cancer vaccines starting this year, paper says

[February 20, 2023]  BERLIN (Reuters) - Clinical trials for BioNTech's cancer vaccines should start this year in Britain, marking an important step towards their possible sale on the open market, the German company's top executive Ugur Sahin told magazine Der Spiegel.

BioNTech, known for its COVID vaccine with U.S. partner Pfizer, is currently deciding which types of cancer it wants to test its personalized cancer immunotherapies on and the locations where it will conduct the trials, Sahin said.

The company wants these therapies, which are based on messenger RNA (mRNA) technology similar to the one that underpins its COVID-19 vaccine, to soon become a regular treatment for cancer patients.

"We believe that this should be possible for large amounts of patients before 2030," Sahin said.

The logo of BioNTech is seen in Marburg, Germany, February 2, 2023. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer

The technology for this type of therapy has come a long way, he said.

"In 2014 we needed 3-6 months to create an individualized cancer vaccine, now we need 4-6 weeks. Our aim is to get it significantly under 4 weeks."

(Reporting by Klaus Lauer, Writing by Sarah Marsh; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

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