Dive Brief:
- Ugur Sahin and Özlem Türeci, who co-founded BioNTech and led its rise to prominence as a COVID-19 vaccine maker, are leaving the company to establish a new startup focused on mRNA technology.
- BioNTech said Tuesday that Sahin and Türeci, who’ve been serving as CEO and Chief Medical Officer, respectively, will step down by the end of the year. Afterwards, they’ll steer a startup working on “next-generation mRNA innovations.” BioNTech will grant that unnamed biotech certain rights to its mRNA technology in exchange for a minority stake, but won’t provide ongoing capital support, the company said.
- BioNTech, meanwhile, will focus on advancing a late-stage portfolio that now includes several different cancer medicines. The company said its supervisory board has initiated a search to identify successors for Sahin and Türeci and ensure a “smooth transition.” It’ll provide more details on the partnership with the new startup once an official deal is signed. Paperwork should be completed by the end of the first half.
Dive Insight:
BioNTech was formed in 2008 and initially focused on cancer work. But it rocketed to stardom during the pandemic, when formed a partnership with Pfizer and developed, in record time, the first vaccine for COVID-19.
The development of that shot, Comirnaty, was a scientific milestone and validation for mRNA technology, which went on to win a Nobel Prize shortly thereafter. The vaccine also quickly established itself as one of the industry’s most lucrative pharmaceutical products, with sales peaking at nearly $38 billion in 2022. That success launched BioNTech into the upper echelon of biotechnology companies, with a market value exceeding $20 billion.
The company has since had to change course. Vaccine sales rapidly fell as the pandemic ebbed, and along the way, the company returned to its roots in cancer. BioNTech began to invest heavily in the space, in the process amassing a pipeline of vaccines, bispecific antibodies and a cell therapy, among others.
BioNTech is now on the verge of seeing that pipeline yield marketed medicines. The company expects to have 15 Phase 3 trials in cancer underway by the end of the year, as well as “multiple” late-stage data readouts across major cancer types. In its statement, the biotech assured investors that the new company would have different priorities and its formation would enable BioNTech to “maximize value for patients and shareholders alike.”
Sahin and Türeci’s departure represents “a logical step for a company maturing toward multiple product launches,” wrote Leerink Partners analyst Daina Graybosch. But the management transition also "injects significant uncertainty into a stock under pressure to deliver on a portfolio of late-stage oncology assets," she added.
Company shares tanked by more than 20% in early Tuesday trading.
