In a sign of BioNTech’s growing confidence and ambitions, the mRNA leader has struck a deal directly with the U.K. government to recruit patients for trials of the German biotech’s cancer immunotherapies.
The Memorandum of Understanding is underpinned by the goal of seeing 10,000 U.K. patients provided with personalized cancer therapy either via a trial or as an approved treatment by 2030. With the U.K. singled out as one of BioNTech’s key markets, the top-level collaboration will also extend to infectious disease vaccines and see the company invest in both a research hub in Cambridge, England and a regional headquarters in London.
BioNTech intends to make the most of the UK’s well-regarded clinical trial network, genomics and national health data resources, the company said in the Jan. 6 release. Next up will be the selection of candidates, trial sites and the “set-up of a development plan with the aim of being ready to enroll the first cancer patient in the second half of 2023,” the company said.
“The UK successfully delivered COVID-19 vaccines so quickly because the National Health Service, academia, the regulator and the private sector worked together in an exemplary way,” BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin, M.D., said in the release. “This agreement is a result of the lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic as we all experience that drug development can be accelerated without cutting corners if everyone works seamlessly together towards the same goal.”
It follows a busy 2022 for the company’s post-COVID portfolio, with its solid tumor CAR-T granted a PRIME tag in Europe and positive early data of a pancreatic cancer vaccine in combination with Roche’s Tecentriq. BioNTech has already revealed plans to bring up to five trials for infectious disease vaccines into the clinic in 2023.