The Biontech founders Özlem Türeci and Uğur Şahinsich are confident that they will be able to develop individual vaccines against cancer.
Approval could be granted as early as 2023.
Mainz - With the development of a corona vaccine, Biontech has made an important contribution to combating the corona pandemic.
The Biontech founders Özlem Türeci and Uğur Şahin even received the Federal Cross of Merit for their achievements.
Now they want to dedicate themselves to the fight against another disease: cancer.
In an interview with
Bild
, the two stated that they wanted to develop individual vaccines against cancer.
Biontech cancer research helped develop the corona vaccine
Before the corona pandemic, the founding couple had already researched cancer therapies. "When we recognized many years ago that there was a need for improvement in the area of cancer medicine, we thought: The immune system is the key," explains Türeci in the
picture
interview. The human immune system has perfected mechanisms in the fight against viruses and bacteria. These mechanisms are to be used specifically for the treatment of cancer, it said. "When Corona came, it was clear to us that the tools and technologies that we have developed over many years in cancer research are exactly what we need now."
Due to the appearance of the coronavirus, Biontech was unable to continue working on cancer research as planned.
The pandemic has slowed down clinical studies and new studies could not be implemented as planned, Şahin said.
Biontech founder: Corona vaccine brings benefits for cancer research
Nevertheless, the corona vaccine also has something positive for the company: "We can reinvest the vaccine revenues in the cancer products and do many more projects at the same time." As the founding couple always had to wait for new financing rounds, Şahin explains in an interview with
Bild
.
As a result of the success of the Biontech vaccine, in addition to better financing, another big step has been taken: “Both in terms of proving the effectiveness of an mRNA vaccine, the great database on the tolerability of our vaccine, as well as in terms of the acceptance of mRNA as a drug platform ".
Biontech vaccine for the treatment of cancer could be approved as early as 2023
The two founders are positive that some products are already in phase II. In this phase, it is checked whether the “vaccines can offer an improvement for the patients compared to the standard of treatment”. Groundbreaking data sets could already be available in the next two years. The first approvals could even be achieved in 2023. "That is what we have long believed in: Vaccines as therapies against cancer and other diseases."
“The mRNA technology is very versatile. However, mRNA is by no means the magic bullet that can now be used unchanged for various diseases, ”emphasizes Türeci. In addition to mRNA, they are working on three other classes of active ingredients, some of which can be combined. "In the area of cancer, we are convinced that within the next few years we will see mRNA technology in patients as part of cancer therapy."
(Jsch)
