The Mainz-based pharmaceutical company Biontech has started a study for a malaria vaccine. The safety, tolerability and effectiveness of the vaccine candidate called BNT165b1 are to be examined, as the company announced on Friday.

The Phase 1 study is expected to enroll approximately 60 healthy participants with no prior or current malaria infection at multiple sites across the United States. The vaccine candidate will be tested at three different dose levels.

"The start of this study is an important milestone on our way to making a contribution to combating diseases with a high unmet medical need," said Medical Director and Biontech co-founder Özlem Türeci. The aim is to develop an mRNA-based vaccine that could help prevent malaria and reduce mortality.

Around 619,000 malaria deaths in 2021

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that around 619,000 people will die from malaria worldwide in 2021, slightly fewer than the approximately 625,000 the year before. Cases of the disease rose to 247 million, but the growth rate had slowed, it said. Around 95 percent of the illnesses and deaths were registered in Africa.

The Mainz-based company Biontech is currently building a production facility for mRNA vaccines in Rwanda. It is expected that the Covid-19 vaccine from Biontech/Pfizer and potentially also mRNA vaccines against tuberculosis and malaria, for example, can be produced there from 2024 if approved. So far, many children in Africa have been vaccinated with the vaccine RTS,S from the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline.