Pfizer and BioNTech team up to develop mRNA-based shingles vaccine via IrishTimesBiz
and BioNTech are teaming up to develop a messenger RNA vaccine for shingles, competing with GlaxoSmithKline’s flagship vaccine for the painful disease that mainly hits older people.
Vaccine makers are rushing to invest in mRNA, which was first proven during the pandemic, in a race that will pit existing players against new entrants such asMany are focusing on diseases where existing vaccines are not very effective, such as flu, or where there are none. But Pfizer and BioNTech have chosen to target shingles, for which GSK had a vaccine approved in 2017.
About one in three Americans get shingles in their lifetime. It is a chronic form of the virus that causes chickenpox, which remains dormant in human nerve cells and can reactivate later in life. It can cause pain that lasts beyond the episode, a condition called postherpetic neuralgia, and in rare cases it can lead to facial paralysis, deafness and blindness.