Icon: enlarge
Biontech founders Uğur Şahin and Özlem Türeci
Photo: Stefan F. Sämmer / imago images
There is hardly anything that the Germans are more in agreement about at the moment than in their jubilation over the Mainz entrepreneur couple Özlem Türeci and Uğur Şahin.
Your corona vaccine is considered the best weapon in the fight against the epidemic and your company is a flagship for Germany as a location for innovation.
Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier will soon award the two researchers the Federal Cross of Merit, and the "Bild" newspaper calls them, with unusual reverence, "our vaccination heroes".
Almost as popular at the moment, of course, is the demand to wrest one of the two researchers' most important tools: patent protection.
A broad alliance of politicians, physicians and non-governmental organizations supports the proposal by India and South Africa to release the exploitation rights to the vaccine formulas worldwide.
The World Trade Organization has stopped the plan for the time being, but it is by no means off the table.
In order to distribute the drugs fairly around the world, the Green Party leader Robert Habeck, for example, demands that the state must resort to compulsory licenses as part of an "emergency vaccine industry."
Read more with Spiegel Plus
More perspectives, more understanding.
Your advantages with SPIEGEL +
Icon: Check
SPIEGEL as a magazine
as an e-paper in the app and on the web
Icon: Check
All articles on SPIEGEL.de
exclusive texts for SPIEGEL + readers
Icon: Check
Try one month for free
can be canceled online at any time
One month for € 0.00
Try it now for € 0.00Arrow to the right
Already have a digital subscription? Register here
Read more with Spiegel Plus
More perspectives, more understanding.
Your advantages with SPIEGEL +
Icon: Check
SPIEGEL as a magazine
as an app and e-paper
Icon: Check
All articles on SPIEGEL.de
exclusive texts for SPIEGEL + readers
Icon: Check
Only € 19.99 per month
can be canceled at any time
Buy Now Right Arrow
Already have a digital subscription? Register here
Restore iTunes subscription
SPIEGEL + is processed via your iTunes account and paid for with a purchase confirmation.
24 hours before it expires, the subscription is automatically renewed for one month at the current price of 19.99 €
You can cancel the subscription at any time in the settings of your iTunes account.
In order to use SPIEGEL + outside of this app, you have to link the subscription to a SPIEGEL ID account immediately after purchase.
With the purchase you accept our general terms and conditions and privacy policy.