German drugmaker and pharmaceutical giant BioNTech announced on Monday that it will soon begin the development of an mRNA-based vaccine to fight malaria.
It intends to begin clinical trials for testing the vaccine by the end of 2022, as reported by Reuters.
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BioNTech is also on the lookout for potential mRNA vaccine production sites in Africa. Organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO), the European Commission, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are all expected to provide logistical and financial support for the company.
It aims to assess multiple vaccine candidates that target the circumsporozoite protein (CSP) soon, including new antigens, which, according to theory, will be discovered during the pre-clinical research for the malaria vaccine. It will then select the most promising ones for the main clinical trials that are scheduled to start next year.
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The company has more plans to initiate clinical trials to test a vaccine candidate for tuberculosis in 2022 and is working on developing vaccines for nine different infectious diseases, including cancer.
