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In a long interview with the British network “Sky News”, the German scientist of Turkish origin Ugur Shaheen revealed many of the secrets that accompanied the production of the new vaccine against the Corona virus, which was recently announced by the American company “Pfizer” and the German company “Biontech” and gave the world hope for The end of the difficult situation of the epidemic, according to “Sky News Arabia”.
The spotlight was on Shaheen, 55, and his wife, Ozlam Toriji (53 years old) this week, after the two companies announced that they had come up with a vaccine that is more than 90 percent effective in clinical trials..
Shaheen, a founding partner of “Bountech” company specializing in biochemistry, said he expects the vaccine to be distributed in Britain in mid-December..
But he stressed that the matter depends on the licenses granted by the authorities for the vaccine, so the earliest date will not be before the middle of next month..
Even with the distribution of the vaccine, no radical change will occur, according to the German scientist, who warned of a harsh winter.
“The winter will be tough and it will get worse before the situation starts to improve,” Shaheen said, adding that “while security checks and government approvals are completed, the best thing to do is wear a medical mask and maintain social distancing.“.
He continued: “Everyone has a responsibility, and the issue is not limited to governments, and the most important thing here is to wear a mask and be careful and avoid many people staying in one room for a long time.”“.
Shaheen expected life to return to normal by the middle of next year in Britain, Europe and the United States..
In the interview in which he spoke from his home in Germany, Shaheen referred to the stages of making the vaccine, starting last January, after news began to flow about the presence of a virus in China..
He said: “We scientists weren’t expecting it to be effective, as our expectations were in the 60-80 percent range.”“.
Shaheen cited the “only pressure” that came through in the vaccine industry, saying: “It was not a race with each other, but a race against time.”“.
He said he would get the vaccine the first day he was allowed.
The German scientist does not have a television at home and goes to work by bicycle, although the market value of his company has reached $ 21 billion..
He said that all he wanted was to focus on his work, considering himself middle class and assured that he wanted nothing more than a normal life..
The scientist emigrated from Turkey, his home country, with his family when he was a four-year-old boy, and lived and studied in Germany until he obtained a doctorate in medicine from the University of Saarland in 1993..
And when Professor Shaheen came across a scientific paper on the Corona virus outbreak in Wuhan, China in January this year, he was surprised at how similar the cancer drugs were to those needed for potential viral vaccines..
He said that “it was clear that the possibility of Corona turning into a pandemic is great”, and hoped that the epidemic would reach Germany, adding: “So it was logical to start working quickly, so we don’t have time to lose.“.
Shaheen Özlam Tureigi met at work, and together they established a company in 2001, and married the following year..
In 2008, they co-founded the company “Biontech” and that same year they sold their first company for more than a billion dollars..
The company quickly appointed 500 employees to work on potential compounds for the expected vaccine, and last March it had the support of the US company “Pfizer” and another Chinese company..
Less than 9 months later, the couple were the first to offer the world real hope of ending the epidemic..
