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On January 25, 2020, I read a medical paper about a new virus in Wuhan. By January 27, we had started designing the vaccine. There was no committee meeting. I just told my team: this is it.
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We had been working on mRNA for twenty years. The world just didn't care until it needed a vaccine in nine months.
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My wife and I are both scientists. We started BioNTech because we believed mRNA could cure cancer. COVID was not the plan. But the science was ready.
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People ask if I'm a CEO or a scientist. I say: what is a CEO of a science company if not a scientist? The lab coat is the leadership.
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We still ride our bicycles to work. My wife and I live in a modest apartment in Mainz. The vaccine made us billionaires on paper. It didn't change who we are.