BERLIN, Dec 23 (Reuters) - BioNTech (22UAy.DE) on Friday initiated an early-stage study to evaluate its experimental malaria vaccine in humans, the German drugmaker said.Known as BNT165b1, it is the first vaccine candidate from BioNTech's malaria project, which will also establish vaccine production in Africa.After decades of work, the only approved malaria vaccine, Mosquirix, made by British drugmaker GSK (GSK.L), was this year endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO), but a lack of funding and commercial potential has thwarted GSK's capacity to produce as many doses as needed.No direct comparisons have been made, but some scientists suggest the Oxford shot is a step forward from Mosquirix and provides longer immunity.BioNTech's malaria vaccine effort is based on its mRNA technology, which was employed during the pandemic to quickly develop COVID-19 vaccines, by prompting the human body to make a protein that is part of the pathogen, triggering an immune response."