Meet the husband-wife duo behind Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine
United States pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and German biotech firm BioNTech had on Monday announced that their COVID-19 vaccine candidate is over 90% effective based on initial data from a large study. The companies are the first to show successful data from a large-scale clinical trial for the vaccine. Behind this early success is a Turkish immigrant husband-wife duo: Ugur Sahin and Oezlem Tuereci.
Who are Ugur Sahin and Oezlem Tuereci?
Sahin, the 55-year-old Chief Executive Officer of BioNTech, is the son of a Turkish immigrant who worked at a Ford factory in Cologne, Germany. Sahin rose from his humble beginnings and is now among the 100 richest Germans along with his wife Tuereci, the Chief Medical Officer of BioNTech. Tuereci is the daughter of a Turkish physician who had migrated to Germany.
Sahin, Tuereci met while working together in Homburg
According to Reuters, Sahin worked at teaching hospitals in Cologne and Homburg, where he met Tuereci. Medical research and oncology became a shared passion. Together, they focused on the immune system as a potential ally in the fight against cancer, trying to address each tumor's unique genetic makeup. Tuereci has said that the duo made time for lab work even on their wedding day.
Couple established Ganymed Pharmaceuticals in 2001
The duo established Ganymed Pharmaceuticals in 2001 to develop cancer-fighting antibodies even as Sahin—by then a Professor at Mainz University—juggled academic research and teaching. They won funding from venture capital firm MIG AG and Thomas and Andreas Struengmann, whose drugs business Hexal was sold to Novartis in 2005. Ganymed Pharmaceuticals was sold to Japan's Astellas in 2016 for up to $1.4 billion.
Duo founded BioNTech in 2008
Meanwhile, the duo had started building BioNTech, which was founded in 2008. Sahin and Tuereci had wished to pursue a much broader range of cancer immunotherapy tools, which included mRNA (messenger RNA), which sends genetic instructions into cells.
From cancer research to developing COVID-19 vaccines
In January this year, Sahin came across a scientific paper about a novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 (then known as 2019-nCoV), spreading in the Chinese city of Wuhan. To go from developing anti-cancer mRNA drugs to mRNA-based viral vaccines, BioNTech assigned 500 staff to project "light speed" to work on several possible compounds. American Pfizer and Chinese Fosun joined as partners in March.
'No safety concerns' with COVID-19 vaccine
While Pfizer has backed the development of the vaccine, the technology behind it is the work of BioNTech. The vaccine is among the leading candidates and so far, Pfizer and BioNTech have found no serious safety concerns. They are expected to seek emergency-use authorization in the US. Notably, the market value of NASDAQ-listed BioNTech has ballooned to $21 billion as of Friday's close.
Sahin remains 'incredibly humble and personable'
Speaking to Reuters about Sahin, Matthias Kromayer, board member of MIG AG, said, "Despite his achievements, he never changed from being incredibly humble and personable." Kromayer said Sahin would still attend business meetings wearing jeans, carrying a bicycle helmet, and a backpack. He described Sahin and Tuereci as a "dream team" as the duo reconciled their visions with the constraints of reality.
Sahin's aspirations 'far from modest,' unlike him
Mainz University Professor and Sahin's colleague Matthias Theobald added, "He is a very modest and humble person. Appearances mean little to him. But he wants to create the structures that allow him to realize his visions and that's where is aspirations are far from modest."
