UK Signs BioNTech Deal to Treat 10,000 With Custom Cancer Drugs

The UK government agreed to work with BioNTech SE to treat as many as 10,000 cancer patients with personalized therapies by 2030, a research partnership that will give the German company quicker access to patients it needs to test its drugs.

(Bloomberg) — The UK government agreed to work with BioNTech SE to treat as many as 10,000 cancer patients with personalized therapies by 2030, a research partnership that will give the German company quicker access to patients it needs to test its drugs.

The collaboration could be worth as much as $750 million over the next eight to 10 years, a person familiar with the matter said. UK patients will be able to participate in the program as early as September, Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay said in a statement.

After reaping billions of dollars in sales from the Covid-19 vaccine it developed with Pfizer Inc., BioNTech is spending its windfall on a broad pipeline of experimental medicines. The company is competing with rival messenger RNA vaccine maker Moderna Inc. to expand the platform — used successfully against Covid — to cancer treatment.

The UK deal aims to speed up development of the new treatments via a public-private partnership, BioNTech Chief Executive Officer Ugur Sahin said in a statement. The collaboration will use the UK’s clinical trial network as well as key health and genomics data to quickly identify eligible patients, and will include vaccines for infectious diseases as well as medicines that leverage the immune system to fight tumors.

The 10,000-patient target includes people who will be treated as part of clinical trials. The alliance will be a significant boost to BioNTech’s cancer patient numbers, the company said. Fewer than 1,000 people have been treated so far with personalized therapies, which often require multiple doses.

BioNTech plans to open a new UK research and development hub in Cambridge by the end of the first quarter and expects to hire more than 70 scientists for the site, the company said. Its regional headquarters will be in London. The company declined to comment on the financial details of the agreement.

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