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Bojan Pancevski Profile picture
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2 Dec, 12 tweets, 7 min read
The married couple Ugur Sahin and Özlem Türeci, founders of ⁦@BioNTech_Group, invented the⁩ first #COVID19 vaccine to be authorized in the West. But their jab is a byproduct of 30 years of cancer research. My piece via ⁦@WSJ⁩ wsj.com/articles/how-a…
In January, days before #coronavirus was first diagnosed in Germany, Ugur Sahin, the CEO of @BioNTech_Group, used this knowledge of mRNA to design the vaccine candidate on his home computer within hours. That jab was now authorized in Britain wsj.com/articles/how-a…
Dr. Sahin was born in Iskenderun on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast in 1965. He moved to Germany four years later when his father was recruited to work at a Ford factory near Cologne as part of a policy to rebuild postwar Germany with foreign labor wsj.com/articles/how-a…
Frustration with being unable to help cancer patients drove their mRNA work. “We realized that with standard therapy we would quickly come to a point where we didn’t have anything to offer to patients,” Dr. Türeci said. “It was a formative experience.” wsj.com/articles/how-a…
Both founders of @BioNTech_Group are professors of medicine, and it shows: here is CEO Ugur Sahin explaining mRNA at a presser about the first authorisation of their #coronavirus vaccine
All executive directors at @BioNTech_Group are scientists, including the finance and sales chiefs. The CEO Dr. Sahin retains his professorship at the local university, where he trains Ph.D. candidates, sometimes with an eye on recruitment.
wsj.com/articles/how-a…
“Ugur is the visionary who shows us the future, and Özlem then tells us how to get there,” said Helmut Jeggle, manager of the Strüngmann family office, BioNTech's biggest investors who he said are happy to give the two scientists broad strategic leeway
wsj.com/articles/how-a…
The @BioNTech_Group, half of them women, includes scientists with 60 nationalities, including authorities in the mRNA field such as Katalin Kariko, a biochemistry professor. @WSJ wsj.com/articles/how-a…
Morgan Stanley estimated that the vaccine could bring Pfizer and BioNTech more than $13 billion in revenue. Any proceeds will be reinvested, Dr. Sahin said, into mRNA-based and other innovative cancer treatments, 11 of which are in clinical trial wsj.com/articles/how-a…
Coronavirus jab by @BioNTech_Group @pfizer is a transatlantic cooperation by internationally-staffed German & US companies: CEOs Ugur Sahin & Albert Bourla are of Turkish & Greek origin; Pfizer's vaccine chief Kathrin Jansen is German; BioNtech mRNA chief Katalin Kariko Hungarian
“The success of Ugur and Özlem is a fantastic combination of two people who complement each other,” said Rolf Zinkernagel, a Swiss Nobel Prize laureate who once employed Dr. Sahin. “He is an innovative scientist, and she is an amazing clinician." wsj.com/articles/how-a…
Here is @BioNTech_Group CEO Ugur Sahin saying already in 2018 that the vaccines they make within few weeks could be used "for rapidly spreading infectious diseases." Now such a vaccine has been authorized for #COVIDー19 in Britain

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Bojan Pancevski Profile picture
2 Dec
Wonder how the UK beat the US and the EU to a #coronavirus vaccine? Here's an explainer by @jennystrasburg, @drewhinshaw and yours truly. Via @WSJ
wsj.com/articles/how-t… via @WSJ
Pre-Brexit, the U.K. regulator’s massive portfolio of Europe-wide medicine evaluations (about 370). The agency has top staff - ~1,300 to EMA's ~900 - and is able to act much quicker outside the EU committee system. Brexit have it political license, too wsj.com/articles/how-t…
U.K. used emergency powers to authorize drugs on its own, allowing the MHRA to review the drug outside the EU framework even before the end of the Brexit transition period. All other EU members have the same power, but none have declared plans to use it wsj.com/articles/how-t…
Read 4 tweets
Bojan Pancevski Profile picture
2 Dec
The U.K. authorized emergency use of a #Covid-19 vaccine developed by @Pfizer and ⁦@BioNTech_Group⁩ , becoming the first Western nation to clear a coronavirus shot. With ⁦@jennystrasburg⁩ via ⁦@WSJ⁩ wsj.com/articles/pfize…
Britain becomes first nation in West to get a coronavirus shot; earliest doses to go to most vulnerable. Via @WSJ wsj.com/articles/pfize…
Milestone for #Brexit Britain as it becomes the first western nation - ahead of the US and #EU - to authorise a #coronavirus vaccine. The jabs mainly made in Germany will first be administered in the U.K. this week wsj.com/articles/pfize…
Read 10 tweets
Bojan Pancevski Profile picture
18 Nov
While the U.S. and Europe struggle to contain an autumn surge in #coronavirus infections, Finland and Norway are bucking the trend. Here’s how they do it. My report via ⁦@WSJ⁩ wsj.com/articles/finla…
All countries that have successfully managed #coronavirus have a tight control of their borders, like Finland and Norway. Yet borders across Europe remain largely open, even as governments reimpose draconian restrictions and curb fundamental freedoms.
wsj.com/articles/finla…
While the rest of the west is stuck in a loop of cyclical lockdowns & reduced to waiting for a vaccine, some nations are bucking the trend, keeping cases under control without stringent restrictions. @WSJ wsj.com/articles/finla…
Read 13 tweets
Bojan Pancevski Profile picture
3 Nov
“He was a dedicated Islamist terrorist who had pledged his allegiance to the Islamic State terror organization,” Austrian Chancellor @sebastiankurz told @WSJ of the gunman who killed four in Vienna terror attack. wsj.com/articles/vienn… via @WSJ
Fourteen members who police said were part of a network supporting the Vienna shooter were detained, and another were are arrested in the Swiss canton Zurich in relation to the attack wsj.com/articles/vienn…
Authorities said Mr. Fejzulai was released from prison in December because he was young and showed good behavior, and had been in a deradicalization program run by a nongovernmental organization wsj.com/articles/vienn…
Read 13 tweets
Bojan Pancevski Profile picture
2 Nov
Several attackers killed at least one person and seriously injured others in a terrorist attack that started in an area around a synagogue in the Austrian capital Vienna, police and government officials said.
wsj.com/articles/three… via @WSJ
The army was deployed to guard buildings while the entire police force was focused on containing what authorities said was a continuing attack late Monday in Vienna. wsj.com/articles/three…
Police were trying to establish whether one of the attackers wore an explosive suicide vest, Vienna Mayor Michael Ludwig said. The attackers opened fire on people in bars and restaurants, especially on those with outside seating, he told Austrian TV wsj.com/articles/three…
Read 5 tweets
Bojan Pancevski Profile picture
14 Aug
Most European authorities are reopening schools, admitting it was a mistake to keep them closed for so long & determined not to have blanket closures again even as #coronavirus infections are on the rise. Our report via ⁦@WSJ⁩ wsj.com/articles/schoo…
The reopening of schools in Europe is supported by teachers’ unions, as well as many par­ents. There’s no evidence that young children are driving the epidemic and there’ve been no school-re­lated out­breaks in day-care cen­ters and el­e­men­tary schools wsj.com/articles/schoo… Image
“School clo­sures are only ef­fec­tive if we want to dam­age our chil­dren,” said Prof. Wieland Kiess. He co­or­di­nated a study that showed iso­la­tion at home is dam­ag­ing the men­tal health of chil­dren, es­pe­cially those from poorer fam­i­lies. wsj.com/articles/schoo…
Read 9 tweets

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