BioNTech founders Ugur Sahi and Ozlem Tureci, centre left and right, are awarded at the German National Prize in Berlin in 2025.Nadja Wohlleben/Reuters
The two co-founders and leading executives of Germany’s BioNTech BNTX-Q will leave the COVID-19 vaccine maker by the end of 2026 to set up their own company, the biotech firm said on Tuesday.
CEO Ugur Sahin and chief medical officer Oezlem Tuereci, the married couple behind the Western world’s most commonly used immunization shot during the pandemic, said in a statement they were “ready to become pioneers again.”
BioNTech said it had initiated a search for successors to ensure a smooth transition.
The new company will have distinct resources, operations and “funding options” to advance next-generation drugs based on mRNA, the same technology used for the COVID-19 vaccine.
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BioNTech said its current drug development pipeline, including cancer therapies and the COVID-19 vaccine franchise, would be unaffected by the founders’ plans to set up a new company.
BioNTech, which developed the COVID-19 shot with Pfizer, said it plans to contribute certain rights and mRNA technologies to the new company on an arm’s length basis in exchange for a minority stake and payments contingent on scientific and commercial achievements.