Behind the success of one of today’s most sought-after vaccines are three decades of hard work by an immigrant couple of Turkish descent.
According to the latest study on the Covid-19 vaccine of Pfizer/BioNTech, conducted by Director of the French Pasteur Institute Olivier Schwartz and colleagues, the company’s vaccine shows signs of being less effective before the B.1.617 strain from India, n , but can still protect the vaccinated person from this strain. Pfizer/BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine is one of the fastest to make yet. Behind that breakthrough in speed is 30 years of research and development by a Turkish-born doctor couple. Before the pandemic broke out, Dr. Ugur Sahin spent years researching mRNA, a type of gene-guided technology that could be implanted in the body to help it fight viruses and other threats. In January 2020, a few days before the coronavirus was first diagnosed in Europe, he used this knowledge to design a version of the vaccine on his home computer. Doctor couple Ugur Sahin (left) and Özlem Türeci (right). Photo: BBC. The idea of pregnancy 30 years ago The story of the first Covid-19 vaccine licensed in the West began 30 years ago in a rural area of Germany. Two young doctors, children of Turkish immigrants, fall in love, vowing to jointly invent a new treatment for cancer. Dr Sahin was born in the city of Iskenderun, Turkey. When he was 4 years old, his family moved to Cologne, Germany. There, his parents worked in a Ford factory. Dr. Türeci’s father, a surgeon, also came to Germany around the same time to work at a Catholic hospital in the town. Sahin and Türeci say that when they were young, it was their frustration with the plight of cancer patients that motivated them to study mRNA. “We realized that with standard therapy, very quickly we wouldn’t be able to do anything more to help the patient,” they said. The two then began researching new treatments based on programming the body’s immune system to defeat cancer as an infectious disease. In 2001, the two founded Ganymed Pharmaceuticals GmbH, their first company to develop antibody treatments. “Our motivation is to bridge the gap between science and life. As we research, we see solutions that were not possible before for our patients,” said Dr. Türeci. One day in 2002, Sahin and Türeci left the lab during their lunch break and went to the marriage registration office, where they became officially husband and wife. Photo: The Wall Street Journal. In 2008, the couple founded BioNTech to expand their research from antibody treatments to mRNA. Since Ganymed Company was sold for $1.4 billion in 2016, BioNTech has been their sole focus. All executives at BioNTech are scientists, including the chief financial officer and salesperson. Half of BioNTech’s staff are women, including scientists of 60 different nationalities. Speed of light One Saturday, January 7, 2020, after reading a research paper, Dr. Sahin was sure that the disease little known in China would soon engulf the world. Immediately, he began designing 10 potential vaccines against the disease, one of which later became the vaccine that now dominates vaccination campaigns in the European Union (EU) and the US. That same day, he announced that BioNTech would redirect research to combat a virus that had yet to be named and diagnosed in Europe. Mr. Jeggle, who has worked with Dr. Sahin since 2001, recalls: “To say I was surprised is an understatement. Because really, the company didn’t have much capital at that time and we were focusing on cancer research.” Project Lightspeed, as Dr. Sahin calls it, will develop a vaccine in months, not years as is usual. Handshake between two big men BioNTech previously worked with Pfizer, a multinational pharmaceutical corporation, to develop an influenza vaccine based on mRNA technology. So when Dr. Sahin needed a partner to organize the testing, production and global distribution of vaccines, he knew who to turn to. In March 2020, the two companies signed a cooperation agreement. A month later, the first human trials of the vaccine began. Vaccines from Pfizer and BioNTech were subsequently licensed for use in the UK, US and other European countries, respectively, with high efficacy confirmed in many countries. According to the latest financial report, Pfizer predicts vaccine sales will reach $26 billion in 2021. However, Dr. Sahin said that any profits made will be reinvested. He affirmed that the goal of BioNTech has not changed: Bringing cancer treatment regimens based on mRNA and other innovative methods to the market. Sold commercially under the name Comirnaty, Pfizer’s vaccine is 90-95% effective in many countries. Storage and transportation conditions were once major obstacles for Pfizer’s vaccines. This affects the distribution of vaccines and the accessibility of the people, because not all countries or localities have super cold storage available. Even advanced countries like the United States and Europe find this difficult at first. Under pressure from drug regulators in many countries (and the need to expand the market ahead of competitors), Pfizer increased the temperature and storage time of Comirnaty. Accordingly, an unthawed vial of Comirnaty can be stored at 2ºC to 8ºC for 5 days to a month. Epidemic prospect Recently, Dr. Sahin predicted that the epidemic situation will continue to spread until mid-2022 due to the outbreak in India and the continued scarcity of vaccines. The father of the vaccine Comirnaty advised that governments should consider using a combination of different vaccine manufacturers. He asserted that the pandemic will not end until herd immunity is achieved worldwide. Dr Sahin and Türeci also say they are expanding their manufacturing alliance to include more than 30 companies to produce more vaccines and deliver them to countries like India. In Vietnam, on May 18, the Ministry of Health signed a contract with Pfizer Company to buy 31 million doses of the vaccine, which is expected to be provided in the third and fourth quarters of 2021. Four former US presidents join the Covid-19 vaccine campaign Former US Presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama together appeared in a media campaign to urge Americans to get vaccinated.
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