German Founder Award for BioNTech co-founders
15.09.2021 02:57
The co-founders of the Mainz-based biopharmaceutical company BioNTech, Dr. Özlem Türeci and Professor Dr. Uğur Şahin and her team made a significant contribution to containing the COVID-19 pandemic by developing the first mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine. For this, the partners of the German Founder's Prize - stern, Sparkassen, ZDF and Porsche - awarded the two researchers and co-founders and their entire team with the special German Founder's Prize on September 14th.
Before founding BioNTech in 2008, the research couple founded the biopharmaceutical company Ganymed Pharmaceuticals to develop new cancer therapies based on antibodies. In 2016, Sahin and Türeci sold their first unicorn to the Japanese pharmaceutical company Astellas. At BioNTech, too, the initial focus was on cancer research, based on four complementary classes of active ingredients. The company's own mRNA technology is the most advanced of the four classes. The aim is to develop innovative individualized therapies for people with cancer - the company is now also researching vaccines and therapies in the area of infectious diseases and autoimmune diseases.
At the first signs of an impending COVID-19 pandemic, BioNTech decided to make its contribution by developing a vaccine based on the company's own mRNA technology and quickly created resources for this project, which later became "Project Lightspeed". was called. In less than a year, BioNTech developed a COVID-19 vaccine together with the US pharmaceutical company Pfizer and made it available to people worldwide. The vaccine was the first mRNA-based vaccine ever approved for the market - the birth of a new class of drugs.
The world-famous vaccine has now been administered hundreds of millions of times. A total of 3 billion doses are expected to be produced by the end of the year, and 1.4 billion have already been delivered to more than 100 countries and regions around the world. This means that more than 15 percent of the world's population can be protected from contracting COVID-19. The success of the vaccine allows BioNTech to accelerate further programs. In August, the company announced that it was developing an mRNA-based vaccine against malaria - a disease that, according to the WHO, killed almost 400,000 people in 2019.
The company is now highly traded on the stock exchange. The Mainz company now employs over 2,500 people worldwide in branches in several German cities, the United States, the United Kingdom and soon also in Singapore. In addition, BioNTech is investing in expanding its own production network. The aim is not only to build regional and global capacities for the growing pipeline of product candidates, but also, in particular, to contribute to the democratization of medicine and healthcare. In addition to an mRNA production facility in Singapore for the Southeast Asia region, the company is also planning to build production capacities on the African continent.
The partner representatives from stern, savings banks, ZDF and Porsche honor the expertise, commitment and thirst for research with the special prize of the German Founder's Prize. Özlem Türeci and Professor Dr. Uğur Şahin and her team have implemented their goal of developing an effective and well-tolerated COVID-19 vaccine as quickly as possible. In addition to the research work, an equally great achievement can be seen in networking investors, companies as partners, suppliers and producers in such a way that the production and distribution of the vaccine is possible quickly, effectively and safely. The special German Founder's Prize is awarded to the two co-founders of BioNTech and their entire team because they show what science and innovation can achieve.