
Research in the field of infectious diseases became particularly important with the outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. At Fraunhofer ITEM, funding programs of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research as well as contract research commissioned by industry helped to get numerous projects up and running within a very short time. The aims were to better understand the infectivity and transmissibility of SARS-CoV-2, to develop corona-specific active and passive vaccines and to evaluate the safety and efficacy of therapeutics for treating COVID-19. The findings from a broad range of research projects performed at Fraunhofer ITEM have made a valuable contribution to the fight against the corona pandemic and help to generate knowledge for potential future pandemics. For example, researchers of the Division of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology managed to manufacture neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 as an investigational medicinal product in record time: the IMP was advanced to the stage of clinical testing in less than seven months.