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Pfizer, based in the US, explained that they achieved the success of 90 percent of the coronavirus vaccine developed jointly with the German-based company biontech, by their families who had emigrated from Turkey to Germany. Türeci Özlem y Ugur Sahin was founded in 2008.
This success of the Türeci and Şahin couple, who are married, is shown as an example of how beneficial immigrants can be for the country in Germany, where immigration has been talked about in recent years.
European Reform Center chief economist Christian Odandahl said in a Twitter post after the news: “Germany has been grappling with how open it should be about immigration for a long time, and the ‘guest worker’ program after war has always been in question, “he added:
“Uğur Şahin’s father was one of these guest workers who came to work at the Ford factory in Cologne, now his son may be the person who ended the epidemic that hit the world.”
Who is Uğur Şahin?
As Executive Director of BioNTech, Prof. Uğur Şahin also works at the Mainz University Medical Center.
Şahin, 55, previously served as chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board of the pharmaceutical company Ganymed, which he co-founded with his wife.
Şahin, immunologist and oncologist, After being born in Iskenderun, he emigrated to Germany with his family at the age of four.
Şahin, whose father worked at the Ford factory in Cologne, dreamed of becoming a doctor.
Şahin, who made this elusive dream come true for the son of a factory worker,
Today he and his wife are among the 100 richest people in Germany.
The couple had sold their first company, Ganymed, for 1.4 billion euros, according to the British Telegraph newspaper.
The market value of BioNTech has exceeded € 20 billion.
Telegraph reports that the company that focuses on cancer treatment is focusing on fighting the coronavirus with the pandemic:
“In January, Professor Şahin gathered his team and said:” Our new task is to defeat this virus. This is a humanitarian duty. “
Şahin, who did not stop teaching at the university despite his business success, walks into meetings with a bicycle helmet in hand and is described by his academic friends as a modest person.
Who is Özlem Türeci?
One of the founders of the company, Dr. Özlem Türeci, after serving on the Clinical and Scientific Advisory Board for ten years, became BioNTech’s Chief Medical Officer in 2018.
Tureci, 53, is also president of the Cancer Immunotherapy Association.
Türeci’s family, whose father is a doctor in Istanbul, emigrated to Germany before he was born.
He met his wife Türeci while working in Hamburg.
“We work in the laboratory even on our wedding day,” says Türeci.
The couple were doing studies at the Ganymed company that teach the immune system to fight cancer with modified genetic codes. In this practice, the immune system detects cancer cells as a virus that enters the body and tries to kill them.
The Ganymed sale was the largest sale by a medical company in Germany to date.
With the aim of revolutionizing the field of vaccines using mRNA technology at the BioNTech company, the couple now use this method for the coronavirus vaccine.
According to Euronews, the couple have predicted that this will happen before the coronavirus outbreak turns into a global pandemic and decided that vaccination studies with this method that they have developed for 25 years should begin immediately.
By calling the board of directors for an emergency meeting, the duo made an effort to convince executives that they thought what happened in China would not affect the entire world.
What is BioNTech?
Founded in 2008 by Uğur Şahin, Özlem Türeci and Christoph Huber, the company has conducted a lot of research in the medical field over the years.
The BioNTech company also signed an agreement with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in September 2019 on HIV and TB treatments.
With the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, the company reached an agreement with the pharmaceutical giant Prifzer to develop a vaccine against SARS-Cov-2.
The European Union has signed a contract for 200 million doses to receive the vaccine from the joint venture of the two companies.
If the vaccine was successful, Japan signed a contract to receive 120, the US 100 and the UK 30 million doses of vaccine.
The market value of the company, which now exceeds 20 billion euros, is more than Prosche and Deutsche Bank, according to the Times.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the company has tripled in value since January.
Using the mRNA method, which allows more vaccines to be produced faster and compared to traditional vaccine methods, the company aims to produce more than 100 million doses of vaccines by the end of the year.
Other founding partners of the company are German billionaire brothers Thomas and Andreas Struengmann.
The brothers were among the partners of the Ganymed de Türeci company and the Şahin couple.
According to Euronews, BioNTech, under pressure from Şahin, has created two different research groups working seven days a week since January to achieve faster results. Şahin called these studies the “Project Speed of Light” (Project Speed of Light).
Since there was a travel ban to the US at the time, some of the genetic material developed in the labs was transported to the US on a private jet belonging to Pfizer executives.
Euronews claims that BioNTech will own the vaccine, but Pfizer will receive some concessions as a result of the partnership.
The Wall Street Journal describes the 1,500 BioNTech company deal with Pfizer, which has more than 100,000 employees:
“The two companies would begin testing the flu vaccine they developed together in 2020. But the pandemic changed plans.
“The two companies rolled up their sleeves for a project to work together without even signing a contract.
“We only start with confidence,” says Şahin.
“Under the agreement, BioNTech opened its mRNA research to Pfizer, which closed its infectious diseases division a few years ago.
“Pfizer put its experience and infrastructure in vaccine development into the production of this vaccine.”
Source: BBC Turkish
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