Ugur Sahin and Ozlem Türeci, of Turkish origin, who migrated to Germany with their families. Thanks to the Covid-19 vaccine, they could go down in history.
Ugur Sahin and Özlem Türeci are two doctors of Turkish origin. He is 55, she is 53, and they have been living in Germany for years, where they founded the company Biontech. In recent days their names have travelled around the world. And it is not out of the question that they could remain on the front pages of newspapers for a long time to come. More than that: Sahin and Türeci could go down in history.
It is Biontech itself, partnered with the American pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, that announced the identification of a vaccine against Covid-19. "Effective in 90 per cent of cases among the people tested," the two companies explained. They are promising to produce 50 million doses by the end of the year, and 1.3 billion during 2021.
"This is an important milestone for science – Sahin told the Financial Times –. Today the likelihood that other vaccines could also prove effective increases." A concrete hope is therefore emerging in the fight against the coronavirus. And it is significant that it comes from two spouses who arrived from Turkey when they were young.
Sahin's father had found employment at Ford's factories in Cologne. It is here that the son of migrants began his studies in medicine, which would later lead him to move to Hamburg, the city where he would meet Özlem Türeci, also a doctor, also of Turkish origin (her father was a doctor from Istanbul).
According to what was reported by the Reuters agency, the two researchers created Ganymed Pharmaceuticals in 2001, a company active in the development of antibodies in the field of oncology. Sahin specialised in molecular medicine and immunology, then pursued research and university teaching in parallel. Meanwhile, Türeci became president of the European Federation of Immunotherapy against Cancer.
The creation of Biontech came about thanks to funding received in 2008. Today the two, according to the German weekly Welt am Sonntag, are among the 100 wealthiest Germans in the country. And last Monday, following the announcement of the vaccine's discovery, the value of their company – listed on the stock exchange – shot up to 25 billion dollars (compared to 4.6 billion a year ago). A remarkable feat born of their foresight.
When the coronavirus had not yet caused a pandemic, but only a few sporadic cases in Wuhan, China, Sahin and Türeci were struck by an article that appeared in the scientific journal The Lancet. They immediately launched an urgent programme to develop a vaccine. "We were lucky not to have encountered major problems, but in January I had suggested to my collaborators that we could manage it by the end of the year," Sahin added to the Financial Times. He was right.
