BioNTech founders tell UN they are optimistic coronavirus can be curbed by end of year
- BioNTech said the coronavirus vaccine, created with Pfizer has already received emergency approval in Britain
- UN chief Antonio Guterres and nearly 100 world leaders addressed a two-day UN session on the pandemic
The founders of BioNTech, the German co-developer of a Covid-19 vaccine alongside US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, on Friday said they were optimistic that the coronavirus pandemic could be contained by the end of next year.
“There is no other option,” BioNTech chief executive Ugur Sahin told a UN General Assembly meeting on Covid-19 via video link. “We have to achieve it and we will achieve it.”
Sahin's wife and BioNTech co-founder and chief medical officer, Ozlem Tureci, said she was also “very optimistic”, provided those responsible for vaccine development and distribution were mobilised.
Sahin said that when he read a scientific article on the coronavirus in January, he realised it was serious.
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“I ran to Ozlem and told her that this new outbreak will most likely become a pandemic,” he said. The couple called for their company to stop focusing solely on cancer drugs development.