If messenger-RNA vaccines are the breakout medicine of the pandemic, then the tiny lipid spheres that bring them into people¡¯s cells are the unsung heroes.
The world desperately needs more of both.
Consider BioNTech SE, which until a year ago purchased only a few grams at a time of lipids to support a drug-development program that most people thought was years away from becoming mainstream. Now it¡¯s tapping big German chemical companies like Merck KGaA and Evonik Industries AG to vastly scale up production of the materials, a crucial step if it and partner Pfizer Inc. are to make good on plans to ship 2 billion doses of their COVID-19 vaccine this year.
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