BioNTech SE Secures €375M in Grant Funding for Covid-19 Vaccine Research

BioNTech SE has announced it will receive a grant of up to €375M from an initiative by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) to support the accelerated development of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. 

The company is set on using this milestone-based funding to support its contribution to their mRNA vaccine program BNT162 that is being co-developed with its partners Pfizer Inc. and Fosun Pharma respectively.

The current goal of the initiative is the expansion of vaccine development and manufacturing capabilities in Germany, as well as the expansion of the number of participants in the late-stage clinical trials. The BNT162 vaccine program is one of three programs supported by the BMBF initiative, which will provide a total of up to 750 million Euro to its funding recipients.

BioNTech will use the grant funding to cover its expenses related to its COVID-19 vaccine program BNT162 within the funded project in order to advance the clinical evaluation and potential marketing authorisation as soon as possible. Pfizer will continue to independently fund its share of development costs for BNT162 without use of this or other government funding.

The milestones include:

• Preclinical evaluation of the vaccine candidates;
• Initiation and implementation of clinical Phase 1 and Phase 2/3 trials – this includes 4 clinical development milestones;
• Upscaling of production capacities to supply the clinical trials and general population;
• Submission for regulatory approval as well as future marketing authorisation of the vaccine.

BioNTech has already achieved 5 of the 8 defined milestones. They most recently received approval from the German regulatory authority to initiate the German arm of the global Phase 2/3 trial.

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