“In this year 2020, BioNTech will prove the skeptics wrong.”
In front of investors gathered in San Fransisco at the beginning of January, Uğur Șahin is telling the truth.
But not at all for the right reasons… With his companion Özlem Türeci, the immunologist founded the company BioNTech twelve years earlier to develop immunotherapies based on messenger RNA.
Only a handful of its researchers work on infectious diseases, and a partnership with Pfizer is sketched out against the flu.
When he faces American investors, it is therefore cancer, against which BioNTech is preparing to launch seven clinical trials, that Șahin thinks of.
But neither cancer nor personalized medicine will be the glory of BioNTech: two weeks after this American tour, the company will make a decisive choice that will lead it to change the face of a global pandemic.
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