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BioNTech wants to develop malaria vaccine | The time

Scientists have been searching for a reliable vaccine against malaria for decades. German pharmaceutical company BioNTech claims to have found one, thanks to its mRNA technology.

If it is up to BioNTech, the first clinical trial of the malaria vaccine will start at the end of 2022. The pharmaceutical company says it is working on a safe and effective mRNA vaccine that offers long-term immunity against malaria.

Of technology behind the malaria vaccine is known for the corona vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. These are also made on the basis of mRNA, the messenger with which a cell receives instructions. An mRNA vaccine injects a piece of genetic code for the production of a harmless piece of virus protein. The immune system then attacks that protein, training it for attacks by the real virus.

400.000

death

More than 400,000 people worldwide still die each year from malaria.

Malaria is still one of the most dangerous and contagious diseases worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) registered 229 million cases of illness and more than 400,000 deaths in 2019, mainly among children under five years of age.

‘Unattainable dream’

Scientists have been searching for a vaccine against malaria for decades. The WHO’s goal was a vaccine that provides at least 75 percent protection. Last year, scientists at Oxford University developed a vaccine for the first time that protects against disease in 77 percent of cases. This was shown in a study with 450 children in Burkina Faso.

“Malaria has been with us for millennia,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO’s general manager. “Eliminating the disease has long been an unattainable dream. But thanks to new technology such as mRNA, we may be making what used to seem like fantasy.’ The WHO and the European Commission support the project.

BioNTech wants to develop a vaccine that can be stored at room temperature. The company is investigating whether it Africa can set up production facilities for the malaria vaccine and other mRNA vaccines.

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