Beautiful Virgin Islands

Monday, Aug 04, 2025

The co-founder of BioNTech designed the coronavirus vaccine it made with Pfizer in just a few hours over a single day

The co-founder of BioNTech designed the coronavirus vaccine it made with Pfizer in just a few hours over a single day

BioNTech co-founder Ugur Sahin designed 10 different vaccine candidates over a single day in January. The FDA authorized one of them on Friday.

The Food and Drug Administration granted emergency authorization to Pfizer and BioNTech's coronavirus vaccine on Friday.

The two-dose vaccine is the first to be authorized in the US, though Moderna's coronavirus vaccine will likely receive FDA authorization this month as well.

After months of testing, the vaccine was found to be 95% effective in preventing COVID-19 in a large-scale trial. Its development process was unprecedentedly fast — no other vaccine in history has been created and manufactured so quickly. Previously, the fastest vaccine ever developed took more than four years.

But perhaps most remarkably, BioNTech co-founder Ugur Sahin designed the vaccine in just a few hours in mid-January, according to The Journal, a podcast from Gimlet and The Wall Street Journal.

A BioNTech spokesperson confirmed to Business Insider that Sahin — who founded the company with his wife, Özlem Türeci — made a "rough design over one weekend."

Moderna's vaccine also took just two days to design, as Business Insider previously reported. The reason both candidates could be designed so quickly comes down to the technology they rely on: messenger RNA, or mRNA.

The FDA had never approved an mRNA-based vaccine or treatment before. But now that the agency has granted authorization to Pfizer and BioNTech — with Moderna's likely to follow shortly — mRNA vaccines could set a new industry standard.

How mRNA vaccines train the body to fight the coronavirus


Messenger RNA is genetic material that tells cells how to make proteins. Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine candidate works by injecting a small piece of coronavirus mRNA into the body. That RNA codes for the virus' spike protein, which is what helps it attach to and invade cells. That's also what antibodies target and neutralize.

So the mRNA vaccine spurs the body to produce the spike protein internally in order to trigger that same immune response.

Moderna's candidate works in the same way and has been found to be 94.5% effective in trials.

Utilizing mRNA vaccine technology meant BioNTech and Moderna only needed the coronavirus' genetic sequence to design a vaccine. That's why they could move forward so quickly.

How BioNTech and Pfizer joined forces

The Pfizer facility in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, on December 1, 2020.


On January 24, Sahin read a paper in The Lancet that described Chinese family members who traveled to Wuhan then contracted COVID-19.

"What was most concerning is that one of the family members had the virus and was virus-positive but did not have symptoms," Sahin told The Journal. This meant that the virus could be transmitted by asymptomatic carriers — and had probably already spread out of China.

"The math behind it just showed me it will happen, it's just a matter of a few weeks," Sahin said.

He decided to shift BioNTech's focus toward a coronavirus vaccine. The following week, Sahin told the company that operations going forward would be devoted mostly to developing and testing the vaccine.

Using the coronavirus' genetic sequence, which Chinese researchers published on January 11, Sahin designed 10 different candidates on his computer that weekend. One was the candidate later selected for larger trials — the one the FDA has authorized.

Sahin designed that winning candidate in just a few hours, according to The Journal.

But BioNTech, with a pre-pandemic workforce of 1,000, didn't have the capacity to manufacture the hundreds of thousands of doses needed for large-scale trials — let alone the hundreds of millions it would need if the vaccine worked.

So in February, Sahin called Pfizer's head of vaccine research, Kathrin Jansen; BioNTech had worked with Pfizer since 2018 on a flu vaccine.

"This is a disaster, and it's getting worse," Dr. Jansen told Dr. Sahin, according to The Wall Street Journal. "Happy to work with you."

The two companies announced their partnership in mid-March.


Kathrin Jansen, Pfizer's head of vaccine research and development.


Pfizer would manage the logistics, including manufacturing the vaccine in large batches and organizing the Phase 3 trial, which wound up involving 43,500 volunteers. BioNTech, meanwhile, handled the vaccine's design.

Pfizer and BioNTech announced that their vaccine was more than 90% effective on November 9. When Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told told senior company officials of the findings, people jumped up from their chairs, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The full results of the Phase 3 trial were even stronger: The findings, published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Thursday, suggest that the vaccine doesn't trigger severe side effects in most people and is 95% effective at preventing COVID-19.

Anthony Fauci, the nation's leading infectious-disease expert, called the results "just extraordinary" and said they would "have a major impact on everything that we do with regard to COVID."

The speed at which BioNTech and Pizer developed the vaccine does not mean they sacrificed thoroughness, according to Albert Rizzo, chief medical officer for the American Lung Association.

"We're not skipping steps — we actually have better technology," Rizzo previously told Business Insider. "Why did it take two weeks to cross the Atlantic back in the 1800s? Well, we had to go on a boat. Whereas now, you can get across the ocean in several hours."

The pros and cons of mRNA vaccines


For decades, vaccines contained a dead or weakened version of a virus itself. Then early advances in genetics allowed vaccines to use proteins made by the virus instead. That method was first used in the 1980s to develop a vaccine for hepatitis B. Companies like Novavax are relying on the same protein-based model to create their coronavirus vaccine candidates.

But BioNTech was founded on the idea that mRNA could be used to develop cancer vaccines, hence its mRNA-based approach to the coronavirus. One of the company's senior vice presidents, biochemist Katalin Karikó, first discovered how to configure mRNA to be used in vaccines.


A volunteer receives an injection during South Africa's first human clinical trial for a potential vaccine against the coronavirus, at Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto, June 24, 2020.


Since RNA vaccines aren't cultivated using cells, they're quicker to produce.

The drawbacks of Pfizer and BioNTech's vaccine, however, are that people must get two injections three weeks apart, and it needs to be shipped at about -94 degrees Fahrenheit. That requires dry ice and special freezers.

Crucial questions about the vaccine also remain, like how long it will protect people from COVID-19 and whether it can prevent transmission and asymptomatic infection.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
OpenAI’s Bold Bet: Teaching AI to Think, Not Just Chat
Tesla Seeks Shareholder Approval for $29 Billion Compensation Package for Elon Musk
Nvidia is cutting prices on its RTX 50-series graphics cards after sales slowed and inventories piled up
Ghislaine Maxwell Transferred to Minimum-Security Prison Amid Ongoing DOJ Discussions
U.S. Tariffs Surge to Highest Levels in Nearly a Century Under Second Trump Term
Matt Taibbi Slams Media for Role in Russiagate Narrative
Pilots Call for Mental Health Support Without Stigma
All Five Trapped Miners Found Dead After El Teniente Mine Collapse
Ong Beng Seng Pleads Guilty in Corruption Case Linked to Former Singapore Transport Minister
BP’s Largest Oil and Gas Find in 25 Years Uncovered Offshore Brazil
Italy Fines Shein One Million Euros for Misleading Sustainability Claims
JPMorgan and Coinbase Unveil Partnership to Let Chase Cardholders Buy Crypto Directly
Declassified Annex Links Soros‑Affiliated Officials and Clinton Campaign to ‘Russiagate’ Narrative
UK's Online Safety Law: A Front for Censorship
Nationwide Protests Erupt in Brazil Demanding Presidential Resignation
Parents Abandon Child at Barcelona Airport Over Passport Issue
Mystery Surrounds Death of Brazilian Woman with iPhones Glued to Her Body
Bus Driver Discovers Toddler Hidden in Suitcase in New Zealand
Switzerland Celebrates 734 Years of Independence Amid Global Changes
U.S. Opens Official Investigation into Former Trump Prosecutor Jack Smith
Leaked audio of Canada's new PM Mark Carney admitting the truth about the Net Zero agenda: "We're gonna make a lot of money off of this."
China Enforces Comprehensive Ban on Cryptocurrency Activities
Absolutely 100% Realistic EVO Series Doll by EXDOLL (Chinese Company) used mainly for carnal purposes
World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab: "In this new world, we must accept... total transparency. You have to get used to it. You have to behave accordingly. But if you have nothing to hide, you shouldn't be afraid."
Meet Mufti Hamid Patel, head of Office for Standards in Education in Pakistan
George Soros tells the World Economic Forum: "President Trump is a con man and the ultimate narcissist, who wants the world to revolve around him."
Hamas are STARVING the hostages.
Decline in Tourism in Majorca Amidst Ongoing Anti-Tourism Protests
British Tourist Dies Following Hair Transplant in Turkey, Police Investigate
Poland Begins Excavation at Dziemiany After New Clue to World War II‑Era Nazi Treasure
WhatsApp Users Targeted in New Scam Involving Account Takeovers
Trump Threatens Canada with Tariffs Over Palestinian State Recognition
Trump Deploys Nuclear Submarines After Threats from Former Russian President Medvedev
Trump Sues Murdoch in “Heavyweight Bout”: Lawsuit Over Alleged Epstein Letter Sets Stage for Courtroom Showdown
Germany Enters Fiscal Crisis as Cabinet Approves €174 Billion in New Debt
Trump Administration Finalizes Broad Tariff Increases on Global Trade Partners
J.K. Rowling Limits Public Engagements Citing Safety Fears
JD.com Launches €2.2 Billion Bid for German Electronics Retailer Ceconomy
Azerbaijan Proceeds with Plan to Legalise Casinos on Artificial Islands
Former Judge Charged After Drunk Driving Crash Kills Comedian in Brazil
Jeff Bezos hasn’t paid a dollar in taxes for decades. He makes billions and pays $0 in taxes, LEGALLY
China Increases Use of Exit Bans Amid Rising U.S. Tensions
IMF Upgrades Global Growth Forecast as Weaker Dollar Supports Outlook
Procter & Gamble to Raise U.S. Prices to Offset One‑Billion‑Dollar Tariff Cost
House Republicans Move to Defund OECD Over Global Tax Dispute
Botswana Seeks Controlling Stake in De Beers as Anglo American Prepares Exit
Trump Administration Proposes Repeal of Obama‑Era Endangerment Finding, Dismantling Regulatory Basis for CO₂ Emissions Limits
France Opens Criminal Investigation into X Over Algorithm Manipulation Allegations
A family has been arrested in the UK for displaying the British flag
Mel Gibson refuses to work with Robert De Niro, saying, "Keep that woke clown away from me."
×