The German company behind the first approved COVID-19 vaccine is developing a sting to fight cancer – which may be available within two years.
BioNTech was already engaged in a cancer-targeted jab when COVID-19 infection began to spread around the world.
The coronavirus vaccine developed by the company and Pfizer was approved within the first 11 months of the pandemic in Britain, raising the necessary funds to continue BioNTech to practice the cancer vaccine.
The COVID vaccine uses mRNA, a messenger RNA, to enter instructions into the human body for the production of proteins that prepare it to attack a virus.
“We have different cancer vaccinations based on mRNA,” said Ozlem Tureci, who co-founded BioNTech with her husband, Ugur Sahin.
Asked when such a treatment is available, Tureci said ‘it is very difficult to predict in innovative development. But we expect that in just a few years we will also have our vaccines (against) cancer in a place where we can offer them to people. “
On Friday, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier awarded the man-and-woman team one of the highest decorations in the country – the Order of Merit.
“You started with a remedy to treat cancer in one individual,” Steinmeier told the couple. “And today we have a vaccine for all mankind.”
Tureci said the award was “indeed an honor”, but said she could not do it without others.
“It’s about the efforts of many: our team at BioNTech, all the partners involved, including governments, government authorities, who worked together urgently,” said Tureci. “As we see it, it is a recognition of this effort and also a celebration of science.”
With Post threads