BioNTech’s CEO and his fellow co-founder will depart the biopharma by the end of the year to head up a new company focused on “next generation mRNA innovations.”
Uğur Şahin, M.D., who is currently the CEO of BioNTech, and his wife Özlem Türeci, M.D., who is chief medical officer, founded mRNA-focused BioNTech in 2008. The company rose to prominence and financial success thanks to its partnership with Pfizer for the blockbuster COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty.
More recently, BioNTech’s strategy to become a “fully integrated immunotherapy powerhouse” has seen the company gear up to push for the approval of an HER2-targeted antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) called trastuzumab pamirtecan, which is licensed from China’s DualityBio.
BioNTech is today touting 2026 as a “catalyst-rich year” that will see phase 3 oncology readouts from the likes of trastuzumab pamirtecan, as well as an OncoC4-partnered anti-CTLA-4 antibody called gotistobart and an mRNA cancer immunotherapy dubbed BNT113.
While BioNTech is “sharpening its strategic focus” on this late-stage pipeline, however, neither Şahin or Türeci will be along for the ride. Instead, both co-founders will set up a new company with “distinct resources, operations and funding options,” according to a March 10 release.
This new entity will be gifted mRNA tech from BioNTech to “enable and support the prioritized development of next-generation mRNA innovations with disruptive potential.” The licenses to this tech will be secured from BioNTech “on an arm’s length basis” in exchange for a minority stake in the new company as well the promise of milestones payments and royalties on sales, according to the release.
Şahin described the surprise career move as chance to “hand over the baton.”
“Over the past 18 years, we have built BioNTech from a start-up into a global biopharmaceutical company with a strong and diversified pipeline,” the CEO explained in a statement. “Today, the company is well positioned to advance its mission and evolve into a commercial multi-product company.”
“At the same time, Özlem and I are ready to become pioneers once again,” Şahin added. “Our vision has always been to translate our science into meaningful advances for patients, and we see extraordinary opportunities to unlock the next generation of transformative innovations.”
A binding agreement between BioNTech and the new company is expected to be signed by the end of June, with Şahin and Türeci transitioning over before the end of the year once their current contracts end. BioNTech’s board has already began searching for their replacements.
Şahin and his scientist wife, Türeci, began their entrepreneurial careers in 2001, founding Ganymed Pharmaceuticals, a company they eventually sold to Astellas for $460 million.
Following the meteoric rise in BioNTech’s fortunes, Şahin topped Fierce Pharma’s list of the most highly paid biopharma CEOs in 2024. While his 11.6 million euro ($12.7 million) pay package was relatively modest compared to some of his Big Pharma peers, Şahin was a billionaire on paper as he controlled 17.1% of the shares in the company. In 2024, the CEO exercised his option to purchase a chunk of those shares and, in the process, scored a pay package of 265 million euros ($287 million), which was nearly 10 times more than any other biopharma honcho.
