MRNA

We had been working on mRNA for twenty years. The world just didn't care until it needed a vaccine in nine months.

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.

The COVID vaccine was proof of concept. The real mission is cancer. If mRNA can train your immune system to fight a virus, it can train it to fight a tumor.

We spent 10 years and $2.5 billion on mRNA before we had a single approved product. Every board meeting, someone asked: when does this pay off? Then COVID happened and it paid off in 11 months.

I told my board in 2017 that mRNA could become a universal vaccine platform. They looked at me like I was insane. Now we have vaccines for COVID, RSV, flu, and cancer in the pipeline. Who's insane now?

The vaccine was chapter one. Cancer is chapter two. If mRNA can teach your immune system to fight a virus, it can teach it to fight a tumor. That's where the real revolution is.