Germany has approved human testing of a potential vaccine against the Covid-19 virus developed by biotechnology company BioNTech. The test is only the fourth of its kind in the world.

BioNTech is developing the BNT162 vaccine together with pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. Tests are also planned in the US, once approval is obtained from the regulatory body there.

Initially, BioNTech and Pfizer intend to test four variants of the RNA (mRNA) vaccine for initially 200 volunteers between the ages of 18 and 55. It is then planned to include another 500 people, including seniors, in the study.

With this RNA technology, body cells are allowed to produce separate innocuous proteins of the virus, to which the immune system then responds by producing antibodies.

The technology is particularly interesting to researchers, as it promises relatively rapid vaccine development and rapid production capacity building. However, there are no approvals for such products yet.

The news sparked euphoria among investors in the biotech company: BioNTech’s stock price on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange temporarily rose by 50%. In this way, the market capitalization of the company reached about 13 billion EUR.