Winners of the Paul Ehrlich Prize
**
The dramatic story of the married scientists who founded BioNTech and
developed the first vaccine against COVID-19.**
Nobody thought it was possible. In mid-January 2020, Ugur Sahin told
Özlem Türeci, his wife and decades-long research partner, that a vaccine
against what would soon be known as COVID-19 could be developed and
safely injected into the arms of millions before the end of the year.
His confidence was built upon almost thirty years of research. While
working to revolutionize the way that cancerous tumors are treated, the
couple had explored a volatile and overlooked molecule called messenger
RNA; they believed it could be harnessed to redirect the immune system's
forces against any number of diseases. As the founders of BioNTech, they
faced widespread skepticism from the scientific community at first; but
by the time Sars-Cov-2 was discovered in Wuhan, China, BioNTech was
prepared to deploy cutting edge technology and create the world's first
clinically approved inoculation for the coronavirus.
The Vaccine draws back the curtain on one of the most important
medical breakthroughs of our age; it will reveal how Doctors Sahin and
Türeci were able to develop twenty vaccine candidates within weeks,
convince Big Pharma to support their ambitious project, navigate
political interference from the Trump administration and the European
Union, and provide more than three billion doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech
vaccine to countries around the world in record time.
Written by Joe Miller--the Financial Times' Frankfurt correspondent
who covered BioNTech's COVID-19 project in real time--with contributions
from Sahin and Türeci, as well as interviews with more than sixty
scientists, politicians, public health officials, and BioNTech staff,
the book covers key events throughout the extraordinary year, as well as
exploring the scientific, economic, and personal background of each
medical innovation. Crafted to be both completely accessible to the
average reader and filled with details that will fascinate seasoned
microbiologists, The Vaccine explains the science behind the
breakthrough, at a time when public confidence in vaccine safety and
efficacy is crucial to bringing an end to this pandemic.
