With a COVID-19 win under its belt, Germany-based BioNTech is now targeting malaria with a new mRNA vaccine.
If all goes well, the company will start clinical trials on the vaccine in 2022 and it will be the first mRNA vaccine developed to prevent the mosquito-borne illness.
The company is also exploring the prospects of manufacturing the vaccine in Africa, where malaria still kills more than 400,000 people — mostly babies and young children — every year.
There is currently only one other vaccine approved to prevent malaria — but the shot, made by GlaxoSmithKline, is only about 30% effective.
