How BioNTech's husband-and-wife team developed Pfizer's vaccine

A Lancet article about a mysterious virus in Wuhan in January inspired the couple

Ugur Sahin, left, and his wife Ozlem Tureci, the co-founders of German biotech firm BioNTech that developed a coronavirus vaccine for Pfizer. (Source photos by Reuters and courtesy of BioNTech)

ILGIN YORULMAZ, Contributing writer

November 13, 2020 16:13 JST

TOKYO -- When Ugur Sahin, co-founder of the German biotech company BioNTech, first picked up an article published in January in the Lancet medical journal about a mysterious virus in Wuhan, he told his wife and business partner Ozlem Tureci that he expected it to spread to Germany by April.