A second pharma partnership is poised to start a human trial of a candidate vaccine for COVID-19 using messenger RNA (mRNA) technology. Germany-based BioNTech SE and Pfizer Inc will test BioNTech’s BNT162 programme in approximately 200 healthy subjects between the ages of 18 and 55. Permission to start the trial was granted by the German regulator, the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut, the companies announced on 22 April.