BioNTech's founding couple to quit to set up new venture

By Ludwig Burger

FRANKFURT, March 10 (Reuters) - The two co-founders and leading executives of Germany's BioNTech 22UAy.DE will leave the COVID-19 vaccine maker by the end of 2026 to start again with a new 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 immunisation shot during the pandemic, said in a statement that they were "ready to become pioneers again".

BioNTech said it had initiated a search for successors to ensure a smooth transition.

The company's stock plunged 17.4% on the news by 1249 GMT, hitting its lowest since August 2024.

The couple's new venture 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.

RETURN TO EARLY DISCOVERY WORK

The departure marks a shift by the founders back toward exploration and early-stage development, breaking from Sahin's repeated ambitions in recent years to build a major pharmaceutical company.

"As BioNTech advances multiple late-stage product candidates towards commercialisation, we support (Sahin and Tuereci) in taking the opportunity to apply their strengths and undivided attention to a new venture," said BioNTech Supervisory Board Chairman Helmut Jeggle.

BioNTech said its current drug development pipeline, including cancer therapies and the COVID-19 vaccine franchise, would be unaffected by the founders' plans to strike out on their own.

BioNTech, which developed and sold the COVID-19 shot with Pfizer PFE.N, 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.

Founded in 2008, BioNTech has sought since the pandemic to emphasise its focus on experimental cancer treatments. That was part of an effort to show its success with Pfizer - chalking up more than $40 billion in combined vaccines sales in 2021 and 2022 - was not a one-off.

In a major step in those efforts, Bristol Myers Squibb BMY.N last year agreed to pay up to $11.1 billion in a partnership to work on a next-generation cancer immunotherapy that could take on rival Merck & Co's best-selling drug Keytruda.

In a separate statement, BioNTech reported a net loss of 1.14 billion euros ($1.33 billion) for last year, compared with a loss of 665 euros in 2024.

Still, despite continued spending on new drug development, the commercial success of the coronavirus shot left BioNTech with reserves of cash and financial securities of 17.2 billion euros at the end of 2025.

The vaccine has also received the highest scientific recognition: Hungarian scientist Katalin Kariko in 2023 was among two winners of the Nobel Prize for Medicine for her work on mRNA and her contributions to BioNTech's COVID vaccine.

($1 = 0.8593 euros)