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Andreas and Thomas Strüngmann: A "strong, independent and innovative pharmaceutical company in Germany" is the goal
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Dirk Bruniecki for manager magazin
The Strüngmann brothers want to convert the vaccine pioneer Biontech as anchor investors into a broad-based pharmaceutical company.
This is what the investors announced in manager magazin in their first joint interview in more than a decade.
"We want to become the powerhouse for immunotherapies of the 21st century," said Thomas Strüngmann (71).
The main goal is now to develop an individualized therapy against cancer.
His twin brother Andreas was convinced that the Mainz company "will again create a strong, independent and innovative pharmaceutical company in Germany".
The brothers hold around 45 percent of the company valued at around 70 billion euros. They said they "will definitely remain involved as an anchor investor". In 2005, Thomas and Andreas Strüngmann sold the generics company they had built up to Novartis for 5.65 billion euros and subsequently invested around one billion euros in biotech companies. Biontech is by far their largest company. After the development of a vaccine against Covid-19, the market value had increased almost sevenfold in the past 12 months.
Recently, numerous scientists and politicians had called for the patents for the corona vaccine to be released. The major Biontech shareholders reject this. "It is not acceptable for intellectual property to become the pawn of political considerations," said Andreas Strüngmann in an interview. Even if Biontech were forced to release all patents, it would not remove the shortage of vaccines. Instead, sufficient production capacities would have to be created worldwide.
The brothers are preparing the transition of their entrepreneurial activities, which are concentrated in the Athos Family Office, to the next generation. They are based on a traditional German company: "The Merck family constitution is a model for us," said Thomas Strüngmann. The Merck family holds 70 percent of the Dax-listed chemical and pharmaceutical company that was founded 350 years ago. The Strüngmann brothers have a total of six children.