BioNTech (BNTX 5.20%) is famous for its coronavirus vaccine, but the biotech has additional drug candidates in the works. In this video from Motley Fool Live, recorded on April 5, Fool.com Contributors Brian Orelli and Keith Speights discuss BioNTech's pipeline and what's in store for the company's future.
Brian Orelli: Then as biotechs are apt to do, BioNTech also gave an update during its fourth-quarter results on its pipeline. Any thoughts on what the mRNA specialist is going to do next?
Keith Speights: Yeah. The main thing to watch with BioNTech is still BMT162b2, the COVID-19 vaccine. There's still a lot of work going on with Pfizer (PFE 0.44%) and BioNTech. The two companies are evaluating a third dose to potentially provide additional protection against the South African variant. They're testing the vaccine in kids ages six months to 12 years old. They also have a single-dose lyophilized or freeze-dried version that's in late-stage testing. They expect results from that study in the third quarter. That could be a big story for both of these companies to potentially have a single-dose version of the vaccine. Maybe even more importantly, have a version of the vaccine that doesn't require cold storage. There's some good things that could be on the way for BioNTech just with the COVID-19 vaccine development.
The company is also moving its other pipeline candidates forward. BioNTech said that they expect to advance three oncology programs into phase 2 testing this year. Also, they are advancing six oncology programs from pre-clinical into phase 1 testing. Those are some big stories there. By the way, not all of those are messenger RNA programs. We think of BioNTech in terms of MRNA because of the COVID vaccine. But the company has some other areas of focus as well. They have some non mRNA programs, including a couple of checkpoint immunomodulators that are in early stage testing, they've got a CAR T cell therapy, it's in phase 2 testing. They're not just mRNA, although they're famous for mRNA right now.
