The new venture will be the couple’s third company, after they founded Ganymed Pharmaceuticals in 2001 and BioNTech in 2008.

It will explore mRNA innovations, building on BioNTech’s blockbuster Comirnaty coronavirus vaccine, developed along with US pharma giant Pfizer.

The product was both the first Covid vaccine to receive approval in the West and the first mRNA vaccine approved for widespread use.

Unlike traditional vaccines which contain some form of target virus or its components, mRNA vaccines contain genetic materials that instruct human cells to make proteins typical of the targeted virus – allowing production to be scaled up more quickly since the virus need not be grown in the lab.

BioNTech will supply the new firm with some patent rights and technologies in exchange for a minority stake, it said.

BioNTech’s chairman Helmut Jeggle said he hoped the new firm would help mRNA-based technologies “to reach their full potential”.

“We look forward to working together with their new company on potential combination therapy approaches,” he added.

-Agence France-Presse