Their corona vaccine made Biontech founders Özlem Türeci and Uğur Şahin world famous. To this day, you don’t have a car or a television – but you have plans that could save millions of lives again. a conversation
With their vaccine, doctors Özlem Türeci and Uğur Şahin changed the course of the pandemic – and their own lives at the same time. Today they are world famous and multiple billionaires. At the start of the seven-part stern podcast “A New Medicine – The Biontech Story”, we both meet in Şahin’s office at the company’s headquarters in Mainz. Before the interview begins, they talk about how they met 30 years ago at the University Hospital in Homburg. Şahin still remembers the couple’s first date in Saarbrücken: It ended at McDonald’s because they missed the last train home. The two of them didn’t have a car back then. But other things have changed.
Ms. Türeci, Mr. Șahin, since the corona pandemic you have been among the best-known people in Germany. How often are you recognized on the street or in the supermarket?
ŞAHIN: That happens regularly. Most people are friendly, some come up to us and want to say thank you for the vaccine.