44 2GM Saturday November 14 2020 | the times
NewsSaturday interview
come through, they knew they were
on to something.
It is not yet clear whether people
who have been inoculated can still
pass the virus to others, even if they
do not become ill themselves. “They
might be infectious. As more trials
come in we will learn more. In a
pandemic the first goal and objective
is to ensure that disease is prevented
and there is some herd immunity.”
The vaccine has been tested on the
elderly, the young and the vulnerable,
she says. “They also have robust
immune responses. We can’t for
moral reasons expose people who are
severely ill, but we have people who
have cardiological disease, lung
disfunction, cancer, diabetes, obesity.”
They won’t know for months how
long the inoculations will last, or
whether like flu jabs they will need to
be updated. “We have day 80 now,
and the immune response is stable
and constant. That is encouraging.”
The vaccine must be kept at
minus 70C for stability and is
expensive at about $40 (£30) per
treatment. “Normally when you are
developing a vaccine, you will have
seven to eight years to do the clinical
development to optimise storage
conditions. I would expect the
expense to come down.”
More than 1.2 million people have
died from Covid-19. The objective is
to develop herd immunity around the
world. This would require people to
overcome their concerns about the
consequences of being vaccinated.
Does she worry about the anti-vaxers’
fears? “Our duty is to make sure our
data is presented transparently for
everyone to evaluate, to ensure that
people can inform themselves about
our and other vaccines,” she replies
before insisting that the vaccine is
safe and effective. “I would have it, I‘The vaccine is our duty and
passion. We’re not important’
The couple behind the
Biontech jab success are
driven by altruism, they
tell Alice Thomson
and Rachel Sylvester
O
zlem Tureci and Ugur
Sahin are rapidly
becoming the most
celebrated marriage in
science since Marie and
Pierre Curie discovered radioactivity.
The German-Turkish couple are on
the brink of claiming the first
effective coronavirus vaccine but, liketheir predecessors, they ride
everywhere on bikes, are not
interested in the billions of pounds
they could make from their discovery
and are happiest working together in
their white lab coats, even on their
wedding day. Like Marie Curie, they
are immigrants — their parents both
came from Turkey as part of the guestworker programme — and they may
yet share a Nobel prize.
Dr Sahin, born in Iskenderun, near
the Syrian border, is the son of a car
factory worker. Dr Tureci is the
daughter of a surgeon from Istanbul.
They met at Saarland University in
Homburg and have been
collaborating ever since, though their
obsession until this year was cancer
medicine, and how to manipulate the
immune system to eradicate tumours.
They conduct their interview in
separate offices, one after the other,
but it is clear this is very much a joint
operation and they have huge
admiration for each other. Their first
company, Ganymed Pharmaceuticals,
specialising in monoclonal antibodies,
to help the body fight cancer, was
eventually sold for €1.3 billion. Their
second company, Biontech, based in
their hometown of Mainz, built
personalised cancer vaccines out of
messenger RNA to carry genetic
instructions to cells. Vitally they also
knew these methods could potentially
work against a virus.
They were having breakfast on
January 27 when Dr Sahin mentioned
an article he had read in The Lancet
about a strange new disease that
appeared to be spreading in Wuhan.
He had immediately understood the
possible implications of a virus that
was highly infectious and could also
be asymptomatic. When he
researched the air links between
Wuhan and other cities, he realised
that Covid-19 was likely to become a
global pandemic.
The couple went into action,
creating the Light Speed project,
named because they were convinced
they needed to act as fast as possible
to prevent the world becoming
devastated by the coronavirus. Pfizer,
the US pharmaceutical company,
helped with funding. “The first
decision was to use our mRNA
technology for the pandemic setting.
It is very versatile,” Dr Tureci says.
Soon 600 of their employees were
focused on finding a vaccine. “We
realised it might become a big threat.
We talked about different scenarios
and what has emerged is one of the
more serious and frightening
scenarios,” she says.T
heir desire to find a vaccine,
she explains, did not grow
out of any competitive,
financial or scientific
impetus, but because they
felt a “moral” imperative to help the
world. “We have always needed to
know the immune system very well.
This is an expertise which makes it
our duty to contribute now,” she
explains. The team has worked in
shifts night and day. “Many of us have
not had vacations and have worked
through the weekends, that is why we
have been able to do it. We are
available for different time zones too;
we are in constant meetings with
Pfizer in America and with our
Chinese partner.”
They never contemplated defeat.
“We have been in the innovation field
for many years, we are habitualised
not to think about the scenario that it
might not work but rather to ensure
that we address all potential flaws,”
Dr Tureci explains. “This very sober
and scientific way of doing it allows
us to stay away from the pessimistic
mind-wandering mode.”
As soon as the trial results began toCurricula vitae
Ugur Sahin
Born Iskenderun, Turkey. He is 55.
Education Studied medicine at
the University of Cologne, where
he also obtained a PhD.
Career After an eight-year
residency at the Saarland
University Hospital, he joined the
University of Mainz in 2000,
becoming a professor in 2006. In
2001 he and Dr Tureci co-founded
Ganymed Pharmaceuticals, which
was sold in 2016. He is now chief
executive of Biontech.Ozlem Tureci
Born Lower Saxony, Germany.
She is 53.
Education Saarland University
Faculty of Medicine, Homburg.
Career Having co-founded
Ganymed Pharmaceuticals,
she became its chief
executive officer in 2008.
She joined Biontech in
2008, becoming chief
medical officer in 2018.
Family They married in
2002 and have one
teenage daughter.Quick fire (answered
by Dr Sahin)
Marie and Pierre
Curie or Louis
Pasteur? That’s very
difficult. Both.
Nature or nurture?
Nature
Poetry or prose?
Poetry
Bicycle or car?
Bicycle
Nobel prize or a
yacht? Nobel prize
Goethe or
Shakespeare?
Shakespeare