BioNTech and Australia’s State of Victoria Form Strategic Partnership to Establish mRNA Research Center and Manufacturing Facility
October 06 2022 - 7:30PM
BioNTech and Australia’s State of Victoria Form Strategic
Partnership to Establish mRNA Research Center and Manufacturing
Facility
- BioNTech and Australia’s State of
Victoria will establish an mRNA research and innovation center to
strengthen translational research for innovative medicines from
discovery to delivery
- As part of the partnership,
BioNTech is committed to building a BioNTainer® facility for
end-to-end clinical scale manufacturing of mRNA-based products and
candidates in Melbourne
- BioNTech plans to further expand
its clinical development capabilities in Australia and evaluate the
testing of additional clinical cancer product candidates, including
the autologous CAR-T cell therapy candidate BNT211, in addition to
two Phase 2 candidates currently being tested in
Australia
MELBOURNE, Australia, October 7,
2022 —BioNTech SE (Nasdaq: BNTX) today announced that it has
agreed a Letter of Intent with the State of Victoria in Australia
on a strategic partnership between the State and BioNTech to
collaborate on the research and development of potential mRNA-based
vaccines and therapies. As part of the partnership, the parties
will establish a research and innovation center in Melbourne to
facilitate the transition of encouraging academic research into
clinical development. BioNTech plans to set up a clinical scale
end-to-end mRNA manufacturing facility based on its BioNTainer
solution in Melbourne with the aim of supporting the design,
manufacture and clinical testing of product candidates. Part of
BioNTech’s global network, the facility is expected to attract
interest from researchers locally, regionally and globally.
“Science and innovation can only make a
difference if it is applied outside of the laboratories and reaches
people worldwide. This partnership is a major step forward to
enable access to mRNA technology and promote collaborations in the
Asia-Pacific region,” said Prof. Ugur Sahin, M.D., CEO and
Co-founder of BioNTech. “Australia provides excellent academic
research, and we are looking forward to collaborating with
world-class scientists and researchers to strengthen Australia’s
mRNA ecosystem and to jointly develop potential novel treatments
and vaccines for people worldwide.”
As part of this collaboration, the State of
Victoria and BioNTech will establish a research and innovation
center, directed in partnership with the State, with the aim to
support Australia’s mRNA ecosystem by curating projects and to
determine their potential transition into preclinical and clinical
development, supported by BioNTech’s advice and know-how. The
partnership will also include the research and development of
experimental therapies including mRNA-based product candidates for
indications with high unmet medical need, for instance in oncology.
BioNTech will support the R&D efforts on a project-by-project
basis with the Company’s expertise in mRNA research and clinical
development of potential new products.
In addition to driving innovative translational
research, BioNTech will also support local delivery by developing
and commissioning an end-to-end clinical-scale manufacturing
facility for mRNA-based medicines and product candidates in
Melbourne, Victoria. BioNTech has developed the BioNTainer, a
mobile modular manufacturing unit requiring limited space for
operation, allowing for timely and flexible local production of
different mRNA-based constructs and products across a variety of
indications, and expects to create hundreds of jobs during
construction and operation in Melbourne.
“We at BioNTech are committed to global public
health, and as we continue to expand internationally, we look
forward to working jointly to drive the development of innovative
medicines,” said Dr. Sierk Poetting, COO of BioNTech. “Our
BioNTainers are designed as turnkey manufacturing sites for
mRNA-based medicines and product candidates. In Melbourne, our
BioNTainers will allow for an end-to-end production including fill
and finish for clinical-scale manufacturing of mRNA candidates,
once approved.”
BioNTech intends to further strengthen the
clinical development capabilities in Australia and includes sites
that aim to accelerate the development of its clinical stage
oncology pipeline which currently encompasses a total of 18 product
candidates in 23 ongoing clinical trials. BioNTech is currently
recruiting cancer patients for two Phase 2 mRNA-based product
candidates in Australia – BNT111 and BNT113 – and plans to further
expand its clinical development, including for the Company’s
candidate BNT211, which combines a CAR-T cell therapy approach with
an mRNA vaccine.
About BioNTech
Biopharmaceutical New Technologies is a next
generation immunotherapy company pioneering novel therapies for
cancer and other serious diseases. The Company exploits a wide
array of computational discovery and therapeutic drug platforms for
the rapid development of novel biopharmaceuticals. Its broad
portfolio of oncology product candidates includes individualized
and off-the-shelf mRNA-based therapies, innovative chimeric antigen
receptor T cells, bispecific immune checkpoint modulators, targeted
cancer antibodies and small molecules. Based on its deep expertise
in mRNA vaccine development and in-house manufacturing
capabilities, BioNTech and its collaborators are developing
multiple mRNA vaccine candidates for a range of infectious diseases
alongside its diverse oncology pipeline. BioNTech has established a
broad set of relationships with multiple global pharmaceutical
collaborators, including Genmab, Sanofi, Genentech, a member of the
Roche Group, Regeneron, Genevant, Fosun Pharma, and Pfizer. For
more information, please visit www.BioNTech.com.
BioNTech Forward-looking
StatementsThis statement contains forward-looking
statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements may include,
but may not be limited to, direct or indirect statements
concerning: BioNTech’s potential collaboration between the State of
Victoria in Australia and its leading scientific institutions with
regards to pandemic preparedness and the development of innovative
medicines; the ability of BioNTech to reach an agreement with
potential collaboration partners in Australia; the ability of
BioNTech to produce, deliver and install mRNA container
manufacturing facilities in Australia, including the ability to
meet all necessary infrastructure, technology and regulatory
requirements; potential delays in the establishment of the
BioNTainers in Australia, due to unforeseen events, including, but
not limited to, global supply chain issues; the development of
quality assurance capabilities to remotely support manufacturing
sites in Australia; the scale-up of local know-how and training in
Australia; the development of sustainable RNA vaccine capacities,
production and supply solutions in Australia and the nature,
timing, and feasibility of these solutions; the potential safety
and efficacy of the product candidates; BioNTech’s ability to
develop and commercialize products; and BioNTech’s anticipated
market opportunity and size for its product candidates, the rate
and degree of market acceptance of BioNTech’s investigational
medicines, if approved. Any forward-looking statements in this
statement are based on BioNTech’s current expectations and beliefs
of future events, and are subject to a number of risks and
uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially
and adversely from those set forth in or implied by such
forward-looking statements.
For a discussion of these and other risks and
uncertainties, see BioNTech’s Quarterly Report as Form 6-K for the
quarter ended June 30, 2022, filed with the SEC on August 8, 2022,
which is available on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. All
information in this press release is as of the date of the release,
and BioNTech undertakes no duty to update this information unless
required by law.
CONTACTS
Investor Relations Sylke Maas, Ph.D. +49 (0)6131 9084 1074
Investors@biontech.de
Media Relations Jasmina Alatovic +49 (0)6131 9084 1513
Media@biontech.de
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