Scientists behind the coronavirus shot say the next target is cancer

Scientists who won the competition to provide the first widely used coronavirus vaccine say people can rest assured that the shot is safe, and the technology behind it will soon be another global tragedy, cancer. Used to fight against.

Ozlem Tureci, who co-founded the German company BioNTech with her husband, was working on how to use the body’s immune system to tackle tumors last year when it learned that Chinese people were infected with an unknown virus. ..

While having breakfast, the couple dubbed the “Project Lightspeed” initiative, deciding to apply the technology they had studied for 20 years to new threats.

Within 11 months, the UK approved the use of BioNTech, an mRNA vaccine jointly developed with US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, and a week later, the US approved it. Since December, tens of millions of people around the world have received this shot.

“It’s rewarding to make bold decisions and believe that an extraordinary team can solve problems and obstacles in real time,” Turechi told The Associated Press in an interview.

One of the biggest challenges for Mainz-based small businesses that have not yet brought their products to market is how to conduct large-scale clinical trials in different regions. Manufacturing process To meet global demand.

Together with Pfizer, the company, with the support of Fosun Pharma in China, said it “will have assets, features and a geographical footprint that we didn’t have.”

She and her husband, BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin, learned “how important international cooperation and collaboration is” in the lessons learned with colleagues.

Born to a Turkish immigrant in Germany, Turech, who has staff from 60 countries, contacted medical regulators from the beginning to ensure that new types of vaccines pass strict regulatory oversight. Said.

“The process of approving a drug or vaccine is a process in which many questions are asked, many experts are involved, and all data and scientific discourse are externally peer-reviewed,” she said.

During ~ This week’s horror in Europe over- Coronavirus A shot taken by British and Swedish rivals AstraZeneca, Turech dismissed the idea that every corner was cut out by people racing to develop the vaccine.

“It’s a very rigorous process, and it doesn’t stop after the vaccine is approved,” she said. “In fact, it is ongoing worldwide and regulators use a reporting system to screen and evaluate observations made with our company or other vaccines.”

She told AP that Tureci and all her colleagues had received the BioNTech vaccine themselves. “Yes, I was vaccinated,” she said.

As BioNTech’s profile grows during the pandemic, its value increases, providing funding that the company can use to pursue its original goal of developing new tools for cancer.

vaccine Created by BioNTech-Pfizer and US rival Moderna It uses messenger RNA, or mRNA, to carry instructions to the human body to create proteins that prime to attack certain viruses. Applying the same principle, Immune system Take on the tumor.

“Tureci, Chief Medical Officer at BioNTech, said:

Asked when such a treatment would be available, Tureci said, “It is very difficult to predict it with innovative developments, but within just a few years we will offer it. We expect to get vaccines against cancer wherever we can. To people. “

So far, Tureci and Sahin are working to ensure that government-ordered vaccines are delivered and to respond effectively to new mutations in the virus.

On Friday, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier presented his wife and husband with the Order of Merit, one of the country’s highest decorations, at a ceremony attended by trained scientist Chancellor Angela Merkel.

“You started with a drug to treat one individual’s cancer,” Steinmeier told the couple. “And today we have vaccines for all humankind.”

Before the ceremony, Turech said it was “certainly an honor” to win the award.

But she insisted on development vaccine It was the work of many people.

“It’s about the efforts of many people. Our team at BioNTech, all the partners involved, the government and the regulators also worked urgently,” said Tureci. “In our view, this is an endorsement of this effort and a celebration of science.”

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