Only Pfizer is known abroad: Biontech – world famous only in Germany

Abroad, Pfizer is associated with the corona vaccine that Biontech developed. The German researchers who receive the Federal Cross of Merit today are, however, unknown. Why is that?

How the perception differs: The Biontech founders Özlem Türeci and Ugur Sahin received the Federal Cross of Merit today. In Germany the spouses are celebrated as "vaccination heroes". Abroad, however, the fame for this goes entirely to Pfizer – even though Biontech has developed the beacon of hope.

How does Pfizer contribute to its success? A big one – even if the US pharmaceutical giant only became a development partner for the corona vaccine project in March of last year. The companies brought the vaccine to market together – and shared the considerable risks.

A look back helps to understand the respective roles of the partners: Sahin and Türeci founded Biontech in 2008. The goal of the two human physicians: to revolutionize the fight against cancer. Her company specializes in individualized, tailor-made immunotherapies for cancer patients – but none of them have yet been approved. Their approach is based on the genetic characteristics of each tumor.

Ugur Sahin and Özlem Türeci.

(Photo: imago images / Sämmer)

Biontech relies on "next-generation sequencing", a method that can record billions of genetic features in human genetic material as well as changes in cancer – that is something completely new. And this knowledge, especially the expertise with the messenger molecule mRNA, which contains the building instructions for the production of proteins, helped Biontech in the search for a corona vaccine. The genetic blueprint for modified virus components is injected into the body. Cells absorb this genetic information and use it to produce harmless pathogen parts, to which the immune system reacts. It stores the immune response that later protects against a real infection. One of the advantages over traditional vaccines is that they can be developed more quickly.

"Very helpful"

At the end of January 2020, Sahin became aware of the corona virus in a scientific publication, as he himself likes to tell. It was about the outbreak of the pandemic in Wuhan, China. The oncologist then decided to focus resources on finding a vaccine to move forward quickly. The name of the project: "Speed ​​of Light".

This step would not have been possible for a small company with around 1,300 employees without a large partner like Pfizer. The Americans have been working with Biontech since 2018. The cooperation was originally launched with a view to flu vaccines and medication. Pfizer contributed significantly to the financing of the product range, says Thomas Schießle, pharmaceutical analyst at Equi.ts, in an interview with ntv.de. "That's several tens of millions of euros in running costs each year – just for the staff and the laboratory."

"If the big industrial partners pay for the infrastructure, it is very useful for the smaller companies," said Schießle. "As a rule, the further development of a promising product or an entire range of products is paid for. The partner company can then often not only finance this project, but also indirectly – at least in part – other projects."

In the wake of the pandemic and the global search for an antidote, the two companies expanded their collaboration in March. They combined the technology from Biontech with the experience and financial strength of Pfizer. Nevertheless, the risk of failure was great. Because so far no gene-based vaccine had been approved for humans.

Great challenge

In addition, the development of a vaccine is complex anyway. Since many attempts fail, the financial risk is enormous. There is usually a long way to go to complete complex investigations into the pathogen and lengthy experiments to determine whether the vaccine is effective. This time, however, the route could be shortened. Because with Sars-CoV-2, the genetic sequence was known early – and that the so-called spike protein is the key to fighting the virus. This is also where Biontech comes in.

Pfizer also played an important role in the clinical trials. In the first phase, it is checked whether the vaccine is safe. The aim of the following two phases is to find out what the correct dosage looks like and whether the vaccine protects. For this, the candidate is injected into several thousand volunteers who are healthy. In addition, a control group of the same size is formed that does not receive any vaccine. This data collection is not only expensive, it also requires a network – especially if things are going to be particularly fast, as with the corona vaccine. Here, too, the existing organization of a global pharmaceutical company is important. For the clinical studies, Biontech and Pfizer used 60,000 test subjects worldwide.

In addition, there are costs for the testing and approval process by the responsible authorities. According to analyst Schießle, they were in the three-digit million range for Biontech and Pfizer. Manufacturers are making a significant financial bet – it is very likely that even promising projects will fail this way. In addition: As a rule, production begins during the test. That was also the case with the corona vaccine from Biontech and Pfizer. It's risky. Because if the vaccine is not approved, the previous production must be destroyed.

"It's our technology"

Large corporations usually step in at the end of drug or vaccine development. Above all, they take care of the clinical studies, approval and production. They leave the risky research to small firms. "The strengths of the respective partners come into play," says analyst Schiessle. "Some are innovative and have a very promising product in the pipeline. Others are able to organize studies and carry out extensive testing and approval procedures quickly and successfully."

It should not be forgotten that Biontech's groundbreaking technology is also based on government-funded research, for example in universities, where the foundations for new drugs and vaccines are laid. The researchers then work with companies to develop a product – such as Oxford University with Astrazeneca. Or they found a startup. Small companies, however, have neither the money nor the know-how to go all the way to approval on their own. According to the Guardian, Pfizer has invested around two billion dollars in the vaccine partnership with Biontech.

While Pfizer is mainly associated with the corona vaccine abroad because of its international reputation, Sahin remains calm. "It's our technology," he told the "Spiegel". In addition, both companies benefit from the success. According to the investment bank Morgan Stanley, Pfizer and Biontech share the revenues fraternally, i.e. 50:50.