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Her name is “Turkish from Prussia” and she came to Germany with her father from Istanbul when she was four years old, and today she is medical director of a company that became world famous in minutes. Her husband, her CEO, commutes from the same city to bike to her office every morning, though her co-founded company, valued in the billions, is another source of hope that humanity can cope with the coronavirus pandemic. .
BioNTech and the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer provided such detailed data on the efficacy of the potential vaccine, from a clinical trial of 44,000 people, that according to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, it could soon receive the first vaccine permit in the country.
Just one day after the announcement, the European Union expressed its interest and announced the possible signing of a contract with BioNTech for the vaccine, which contains genetic instructions (part of the genetic code of the virus) in order to “train” the immune system.
“Our positive data means that the authorities are working very actively and speeding up the process. It is only a matter of time before the relevant regulators get such approval for both the United States and Europe,” Uur Shahin said in an interview with the German newspaper. . The ambition is that 200 million doses are ready for Europe and 100 million for America by the first half of 2021.
They are both known for their modesty. Ozlem Turedji, 53, was born and raised in Lower Saxony, where his Istanbul-born father works as a surgeon in a small Catholic hospital; watching operations since childhood. She once said of herself: “I am a Turk from Prussia.”
Experience gained
Shahin, 55, whose father started working at the Ford factory in Cologne, met in the oncology department of the Homburg hospital, Saarland, where Shahin is a doctor and Turedzhi in the later years of his education. They start their wedding day in lab clothes; your working day continues after the celebration of a civil marriage.
They started their first company 20 years ago, Ganymed Pharmaceuticals, together with partners and investors, because otherwise they would not raise enough funds for research in the field of oncology. The company is developing antibodies against cancer cells and its work has been sold to the Japanese pharmaceutical company Astellas for more than 400 million euros.
Since 2008, another company, BioNTech, co-founded with Austrian oncologist Christoph Huber, has been working in the field of cancer immunotherapy. The technology they use implies that the body becomes a “machine” that produces antigens against cancer; On this basis, work with Pfizer on a new influenza vaccine will begin in 2018.
“Long-term added value”
The same should work against COVID-19, Shahin and Turedji said in January, when the pandemic began. Shahin explains that when he read about the coronavirus in Wuhan, he told his wife that “schools will have to close here in April” (a month later than it actually was). The company is beginning to redirect resources with 1,300 employees to vaccine development. In late October, Shahin said his company could create the vaccine itself, but that its distribution and mass production would be a challenge.
In October, Welt am Sonntag wrote that Sahin was among the 100 richest Germans, at that time his fortune was worth 2.4 billion euros. Today, after the sharp rise in their stocks due to the news of the vaccine, the amount will likely only increase. However, Shahin explained in several different interviews that it is not about money: “long-term added value” is important. There are no expensive possessions like a limousine; probably the change is that he replaced the white doctor’s apron with gray t-shirts. They haven’t stopped thinking about cancer patients and both continue to teach.
“You have to think of the virus as a ball of thorns, without which it cannot enter the cell, and the vaccine not only blocks the thorns, but also teaches the body to produce cells that can kill other cells if the virus they have come. This explains another German publication, which describes him as modest and reserved, speaking calmly as a doctor to a patient before surgery. “
The advancement of the two is also a success for the important Turkish community in Germany, whose stereotype traditionally describes its members as guest workers in manufacturing, construction and others.
