The prognosis of the “father” of the Pfizer vaccine and …

One of the founders of BioNTech, the German company associated with Pfizer for the development of one of the coronavirus vaccines, he warned that although the vaccine will be available from next month in England the situation will not change in the short term. “It will be a difficult winter. It will get worse before it gets better ”, highlighted Ugur Sahin, during his first contact with the press.

Speaking to British media, Sahin said the planned inoculation with the vaccine will take timeTherefore, “the application in the middle of December does not mean that the situation will change drastically”.

According to the scientist, the effect could start to be noticeable in several months. “We could return to normal life in the middle of next year “, considered and avoided making hasty definitions.

In recent days, Pfizer announced that its vaccine against covid-19 was more than 90% effective in preventing the coronavirus. The figure is surprising because it far exceeds expectations. Later, from Moscow, they reported that their Sputnik vaccine had reached a higher figure: 92% effectiveness.

Immunologist Ugur Sahin, 55, told reporters how he started working on the vaccine when there was still no question of a global pandemic. As he explained, in January he was struck by an article published in the scientific journal The Lancet, which described the rapid spread of the new virus that emerged in Wuhan, Hubei province, China.

At that point, he decided to start working on a possible vaccine and came up with 20 candidate formulas. Among these projects, BioNTech chose the BNT16b2 formula to start the trials.

Özlem and Ugur, the German-Turkish couple behind the Pfizer vaccine

Ugur Sahin founded with his wife and colleague Ozlem Türeci, BioNTech in 2008, with the support of various partners. Specializing in the research of immunological therapies for cancer patients, the laboratory then focused on the development of the vaccine that should save the world from Covid-19.

Towards Türeci and Sahin they have the role of “inventors” of the technology with which the vaccine was developed. To its American partners, to produce and distribute it worldwide as soon as possible. The goal is to reach 1.3 billion doses by next year.

Sahin, born in Iskender and professor of experimental oncology in Mainz, like his wife, started working on the application of his research on the coronavirus in January. By that time, the new coronavirus had already spread beyond the Chinese city of Wuhan and reached Europe.