> This type of treatment sounds amazing, and I know mRNA vaccines were in development for a long time before COVID, but I have to wonder if this research would have taken a lot longer to happen had COVID not happened.

At least BioNTech was able to take the billions they made from pivoting into COVID vaccines and use the money to speed up their cancer-related pipelines. Running clinical studies is expensive and difficult to do if you have to beg for money for an unproven platform.