BioNTech making rapid progress on COVID-19 vaccine program

Germany immunotherapeutics firm BioNTech (Nasdaq: BNTX) today provided further details on its R&D effort, “Project Lightspeed,” to develop a potential vaccine to induce immunity and prevent COVID-19 infection in response to the growing global health threat posed by the disease. BioNTech’s product candidate, BNT162, is a potential first-in-class mRNA vaccine in the worldwide effort against COVID-19.

BioNTech intends to initiate clinical testing for BNT162 in late April 2020, subject to regulatory approval, as part of a global clinical development program in Europe (commencing in Germany), the USA and China. The company has been in close contact with regulatory and scientific authorities around the world and is in ongoing discussions with other pharmaceutical companies and research bodies to make a vaccine available to the public as quickly as possible worldwide.

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