BioNTech founders receive honorary degree from University of Antwerp

On Thursday, BioNTech founders Uğur Şahin and Özlem Türeci received an honorary degree from the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the University of Antwerp. The duo pioneered mRNA vaccine technology and helped create the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.

Şahin and Türeci founded the German company BioNTech in 2008, and started researching the potential of mRNA vaccines. With success: their vaccines provided effective and the company expanded rapidly over hte years.

In 2020, BioNTech became known worldwide as one of the first companies to develop an efficient COVID-19 vaccine, in cooperation with the American pharmaceutical corporation Pfizer. 

The COVID-19 vaccine has been approved by the majority of countries in the world, and has been administered 1,2 billion times. 18 million doses have been purchased by Belgium. Last year, the company made a profit of more than 10 billion euros.

© BELGA PHOTO JASPER JACOBS