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[MR-from-NG]

At long last a lifeline for the human race

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus- ... e-12128862


Coronavirus: The married couple behind the successful Pfizer COVID vaccine
Ugur Sahin and Ozlem Tureci founded the pharmaceutical company BioNTech which has developed the 90% effective coronavirus vaccine.

By Amy Coles, news reporter

Tuesday 10 November 2020 10:26, UK
COVID-19CORONAVIRUS
Must credit BioNTech.de website
Image:
The couple set up the billion pound company in 2008. Pic: biontech.de



Why you can trust Sky News
News that a Pfizer vaccine is 90% effective against COVID-19 has been heralded as a turning point in the global fight against the virus.

But while the vaccine has been bankrolled by the American pharmaceutical giant, the science itself is the work of BioNTech, a German company founded by married couple and dedicated physicians Ugur Sahin and Ozlem Tureci.

Together, they are being hailed as the brains that allowed the potentially transformative coronavirus vaccine to come about.

Scientists and entrepreneurs Professor Sahin, 55, and Dr Tureci, 53, are now among the 100 richest Germans, with the value of their company BioNTech soaring to $21bn (£16bn) in the wake of the vaccine breakthrough.

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Ugur Sahin, CEO and co-founder of German biotech firm BioNTech, is interviewed by journalists in Marburg
Image:
Ugur Sahin is chief executive and co-founder of the German biotech firm
Grab taken from video on BioNTech website - must credit biontech.de
Image:
Dr Ozlem Tureci is the company's chief medical officer. Pic: biontech.de
But, as children of immigrants, they came from humbler beginnings.

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Chief executive officer of BioNTech, Mr Sahin was born in the Turkish city of Iskenderun, moving to West Germany at four years old. His father was a gastarbeiter, a migrant worker at a Ford factory in Cologne.

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Dr Tureci, who is the company's chief medical officer, was born in Germany and is the daughter of a Turkish physician who migrated to the country from Istanbul.

Mr Sahin trained as a doctor, studying in Cologne and Hamburg but turned his focus to researching immunotherapy. He met Dr Tureci early in his academic career.

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Dr Tureci once said in an interview that even on the day of their wedding, they both made time for lab work.

The pair had a passion for research and oncology which they took forward into their first company Ganymed Pharmaceuticals which they set up in 2001.

The company set out to research the possibility of using modified genetic code, or Messenger RNA (mRNA), to trick the body into fighting cancer and develop cancer-fighting antibodies.

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They sold this business in 2016 for $1.4b (£1bn). By then, they were already busy building BioNTech, founded in 2008, to pursue a much broader range of cancer immunotherapy tools.

The couple's work on the potential of mRNA proved to be vital in the development of the COVID-19 vaccine.


Play Video - Is this the vaccine the world is waiting for?
Is this the vaccine the world is waiting for?
In January, Professor Sahin came across a scientific paper on a new coronavirus outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

It struck him how small the step was from anti-cancer mRNA drugs to mRNA-based viral vaccines.

BioNTech quickly assigned about 500 staff to project "light speed" to work on several possible compounds, winning pharma giant Pfizer and Chinese drug maker Fosun as partners in March.

Now trials have shown the vaccine, which uses mRNA genetic material to prompt the body to produce antibodies, is 90% effective.

FILE PHOTO: The headquarters of German biotech firm BioNTech is photographed in Mainz
Image:
The value of BioNTech has soared to $21bn (£16bn)
Colleagues describe Professor Sahin as "modest" and understated.

Matthias Theobald, a fellow oncology professor at Mainz University, where Professor Sahin still teaches, said: "He is a very modest and humble person. Appearances mean little to him.

"But he wants to create the structures that allow him to realise his visions and that's where is aspirations are far from modest."

Matthias Kromayer, a board member of venture capital firm MIG AG, whose funds have backed BioNTech, said: "Despite his achievements, he never changed from being incredibly humble and personable."

[Kikapu]

That’s cool.

Now watch Erdogan take credit for it because the scientists have Turkish heritage.

[Paphitis]

Australia has already started producing vaccination stockpiles.

They are doing this just to be ready if the vaccination passes muster so that they can avoid lead in times. the idea is that as soon as certification is given, the first viles are injected into people the very next day.

Trouble is, if the vaccine they have doesn't pass, millions worth of product is disposed of.

manufacturing started this month and the plan is to have 10 million doses by Christmas.

[Get Real!]

The RoC will be in no hurry to promote/distribute anything German-Turkish!

I did read btw that it has to be kept frozen to -70 degrees, preventing it from being available at pharmacies, GPs, etc so that’s a little bit suspicious… and kinda points to a monopolized distribution.

[Paphitis]

The RoC will be in no hurry to promote/distribute anything German-Turkish!

I did read btw that it has to be kept frozen to -70 degrees, preventing it from being available at pharmacies, GPs, etc so that’s a little bit suspicious… and kinda points to a monopolized distribution.

Australia has one in production.

[MR-from-NG]

Australia has already started producing vaccination stockpiles.

They are doing this just to be ready if the vaccination passes muster so that they can avoid lead in times. the idea is that as soon as certification is given, the first viles are injected into people the very next day.

Trouble is, if the vaccine they have doesn't pass, millions worth of product is disposed of.

I have never volunteered for any kind of vaccine and I won't be for this one. Never had the flue jab and never will.

[Get Real!]

The RoC will be in no hurry to promote/distribute anything German-Turkish!

I did read btw that it has to be kept frozen to -70 degrees, preventing it from being available at pharmacies, GPs, etc so that’s a little bit suspicious… and kinda points to a monopolized distribution.

Australia has one in production.

Yeah, I read about it here...

https://www.liveleak.com/view?t=uo8B4_1604988076

[Get Real!]

Oh sorry... I messed up with the wrong link!

[MR-from-NG]

The RoC will be in no hurry to promote/distribute anything German-Turkish!

I did read btw that it has to be kept frozen to -70 degrees, preventing it from being available at pharmacies, GPs, etc so that’s a little bit suspicious… and kinda points to a monopolized distribution.

Any good Greek/GC should choose death over anything made by a Turk to cure them

[MR-from-NG]

That’s cool.

Now watch Erdogan take credit for it because the scientists have Turkish heritage.

Erdogan will probably claim he gave the couple the formula for the vaccine