BioNTech Is Creating Cancer Vaccine With UK's Help; Cancer Vaccine Trials Could Start as Early as September

Pharmaceutical firm BioNTech has struck a deal with the United Kingdom to develop a cancer vaccine.

Thousands of patients from the U.K.'s National Health Service (NHS) will participate in the cancer vaccine trials as part of a £750 million ($891 million) research project.

According to the Daily Mail, BioNTech is the same firm behind one of the most successful COVID-19 vaccines. The firm has managed to make a deal with ministers to set up several specialist hubs in England.

BioNTech said on Friday that the first of these hubs would open in Cambridge, with around 70 scientists working together on technology that will use a person's immune system to fight cancer.

The company added that it would also open an office in London simultaneously and may later consider investing in manufacturing in the U.K.

In a statement, U.K.'s Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay said the collaboration would help accelerate clinical trials of personalized immunotherapies for cancer and infectious disease vaccines.

With the agreement, he noted that cancer patients in the U.K. will get early access to trials exploring personalized mRNA therapies, like cancer vaccines.

Barclay said patients could start participating in these cancer vaccine trials as early as September, aiming to deliver some 10,000 jabs by 2030. If successful, they would roll out these cancer vaccines globally.

"This partnership will mean that, from as early as September, our patients will be among the first to participate in trials and tests to provide targeted, personalized and precision treatments using transformative new therapies to both treat existing cancer and help stop it from returning," Barclay said.

"The partnership will aim to help patients with early and late-stage cancers. If successfully developed, the cancer vaccines could become part of standard care," he added.

According to Barclay, access to the trials will be via the Cancer Vaccine Launch Pad being developed by NHS and Genomics England.

He said the launch pad would help to quickly identify huge numbers of cancer patients who could be eligible for the trials and "explore potential vaccines across multiple types of cancer."

The new partnership comes after the U.K. government pledged to develop new therapies, including targeted vaccines, and find methods of earlier diagnosis.

Daily Mail reported that early-trials in ovarian, testicular, and pancreatic cancer have shown early promise, with patients provided a personalized vaccine for their immune system to attack their disease.

What Is BioNTech and How Did It Help Pfizer Develop Its COVID-19 Vaccine?

BioNTech has gained notoriety during the pandemic for partnering with Pfizer to develop its COVID-19 vaccine. According to CNBC, that vaccine has proven to be 90% effective in preventing COVID-19 infection.

When the COVID-19 pandemic finally hit, BioNTech devoted its efforts to tackling the deadly coronavirus.

They had already been working with Pfizer for a flu vaccine and partnered with the American pharma giant once again to develop the now-successful COVID-19 vaccine.

BioNTech was the one that manufactured the batches for the clinical trial and did its own trials in Germany, while Pfizer took care of clinical trials in the United States.

The Turkish-German Behind BioNTech That May be Developing the Cancer Vaccine

In October 2020, BioNTech made its stock-market debut on the Nasdaq, being valued at just under $3.4 billion. Thanks to its research on COVID-19, the company is now worth over $29 billion.

Turkish immigrants Ugur Sahin and his wife Ozlem Tureci founded the firm in 2008 alongside Austrian cancer expert Christoph Huber.

It is reported that before 2020, the firm was relatively little known. Founded in the city of Mainz in Germany by the husband and wife duo, they researched to develop a broader range of cancer immunotherapies.

They started a relationship with Pfizer to develop mRNA-based vaccines to prevent influenza, which is widely known as the flu. The rest is history.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

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