6 January 2023
Today, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has announced they are signing a Memorandum of Understanding with BioNTech to develop a new partnership to support the development of new immunotherapies and vaccines against cancer and infectious diseases using innovative mRNA technology. In response, the British Society for Immunology has released the following statement.
Dr Doug Brown, Chief Executive of the British Society for Immunology, said:
“The UK leads the world for the quality of our immunology research, and our scientists are at the forefront of building in depth understanding of how our immune systems function in health and disease. Today’s announcement of a new partnership between the UK government and BioNTech builds on these existing strengths within UK medical research and is great news for the life sciences industry and for patients. BioNTech is a world-leader in the mRNA vaccine technology that has been used so successfully during the COVID-19 pandemic. The potential of this technology to revolutionise the way we treat other conditions such as cancers or infectious diseases beyond COVID-19, is huge and it’s fantastic to see that the UK will be at the cutting edge of this innovative research."
The full announcement on this new partnership can be viewed on the Department of Health & Social Care website.