All it takes is the bite of an infected female anopholes mosquito to cause a malaria infection caused by parasites.

Such a comparatively simple bite caused an estimated 229 million new cases of malaria in 2019 alone.

If detected in time, malaria can be treated and cured.

Nevertheless, the World Health Authority (WHO) counted 409,000 malaria deaths in the year before last.

The disease occurs predominantly in African countries and is particularly dangerous for younger children under five years of age.

This group accounts for about three in four deaths.

Many foundations, institutions, companies and researchers have therefore been involved in the fight against the infectious disease for years.

Ilka Kopplin

Editor in business.

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This now also includes the Mainz vaccine manufacturer BioNTech. The aim of the initiative announced on Monday: to develop a malaria vaccine based on its own mRNA technology and also to establish production capacities on site, announced the company, which is listed on the Nasdaq, at a joint press conference of the non-profit Kenup Foundation, high-ranking representatives of the WHO, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the Gates Foundation and other representatives.

BioNTech's project is part of the so-called Eradicate Malaria Initiative, which aims to eradicate malaria and is led by the science-oriented Kenup Foundation. The company did not name a specific investment amount, but BioNTech boss Ugur Sahin spoke of "significant investments" in development. The biotech company is supported in this project by several partners, including the European Commission and the European Investment Bank. The Gates Foundation is also involved in the project.

"The response to the pandemic has shown us that science and innovation can change people's lives when everyone involved works towards a common goal," said Sahin.

Work will be done on a vaccination that will prevent the disease and reduce deaths.

The Mainz-based company relies on its own mRNA technology, on which the corona vaccination developed together with partner Pfizer is based.

Several vaccine candidates will be analyzed and the most promising will start in a clinical trial by the end of 2022, it said.

BioNTech can also build on research into vaccines against HIV and tuberculosis.

The biotech company has been supported by the Gates Foundation since 2019.

In the coming year BioNTech also wants to start a clinical study with a vaccination against tuberculosis.

Demand for patent cancellation

BioNTech's malaria project comes at a time when the African continent is still being hit hard by the corona crisis.

The African countries are far from the vaccination rates that prevail in industrialized nations.

For this reason, the revocation of the patents on the corona vaccine is repeatedly demanded.

To improve supply in Africa, the EU and various countries also spoke out in the spring in favor of building up more production capacities locally, which are lacking.

BioNTech recently announced that it had found its first partner in the South African vaccine company Biovac for filling and packaging the corona vaccine.

BioNTech now wants to go one step further against malaria and is currently analyzing the possibilities for sustainable production and supply solutions, as they say. Investigate ways to build state-of-the-art manufacturing capabilities either alone or with partners. In the future, it should be possible to produce various mRNA vaccines there. BioNTech works with the WHO and the organization African Disease Control and Prevention, i.e. the African organization for disease control and prevention, on questions of regulation or the selection of locations.

So far there is a vaccine against malaria that was developed by the pharmaceutical company Glaxo-Smith-Kline. The WHO has been administering the vaccine since 2019 in a pilot project in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi in particularly affected areas. However, the vaccine offers only moderate protection. The WHO writes on its website: In children between five and 17 months of age who received four doses of the vaccine as part of the large clinical study with 15,000 participants, four out of ten cases and in three out of ten cases of a severe disease have been prevented. The study was carried out from 2009 to 2014.