E
xperts around the world have welcomed the “promising news” of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine which has been found to be more than 90 per cent effective at preventing the disease.
Downing Street welcomed the results as “promising” and said the UK will have procured 10 million doses by the end of the year to be given out if it is approved.
While the Covid-19 treatment was funded by the American pharmaceutical giant, Pfizer, the science was primarily developed by BioNTech. The German company was founded by Özlem Türeci, 53, and Ugur Sahin, 55.
The married physicians are passionate about research and oncology. Dr Tureci once said in an interview that even on the day of their wedding, they both made time for lab work.
Their first company, Ganymed Pharmaceuticals founded in 2001, explored whether modified genetic code, or Messenger RNA (mRNA), could be used to trick the body into fighting cancer.
Chief executive officer Mr Sahin and Chief Medical Officer Dr Türeci are so dedicated to their work that according to a previous interview, the pair still made time for their lab work on their wedding day.