[Music] 1991 and i was in my final year [Music]

developing a vaccine normally of [Music]

takes studying medicine i first got to know them
years that's when you spend much of personally in
so it was obvious we couldn't your day the mid-90s
follow our on the ward it was obvious then that we
normal procedure i arrived on a ward where needed them
[Music] was interning as a doctor and he both in our area of special
it was daunting if we developed was in research
a charge of the station both because of who they were
vaccine that couldn't be used it'd so that means right from day as people
be a one and because of their total
disaster has always made me work hard commitment
that was one possible scenario on a cancer ward like that you absolute commitments
because really the key element in their research
we just didn't know enough get to know one another you see centered around messenger rna
the level of urgency was firsthand how the other reacts in the foundations had already
extremely high different situations been laid by
advice i don't know how they did how they react to patients who a scientist who herself had roots
it all are sick in
in the fastest time possible who need care hungary
i thought if we're in lockdown when emergencies happen [Music]
then why it wasn't just that it was very i started to
not i'm going to take part in the intense work at university of
trial work pennsylvania in
it's pretty exciting to find out that but you often also found yourself 1989 and then
history is truly being written in having immediately i started to
minds to tell patients you couldn't offer focus to make
[Music] them mrna focus on that project and
[Music] any more treatment i just looked it up actually in
in 2020 a company based in i saw with what dedication and 1990 was
mainz germany precision first time my first glance was
was set to revolutionize and we both had innovative rejected
medicine ideas for and which was written about
as early as january uhur shaheen helping patients mrna to use
and those conversations led to us as a therapy and that time it was
uzlam churucci had begun meeting just
working on a privately and that ultimately mrna coded for the reporter
vaccine against tsar cov2 brought us protein and
it turned out to be the world's together since the major worry was
first [Music] stability of
highly effective vaccine since then they've been together rna my first proposal was to
security measures around the in make
couple at science and in life circular rna first paper actually
biontec are tight and even have a daughter on
the most valuable thing the together vaccine came out in the french
researchers then a few years later an laboratories pierre marine
possess at the moment is their invitation laboratory 93
time from austrian cancer researcher they used messenger rna
nevertheless they were prepared christoph huba led to them and vaccinated mice against
to give starting influenza
a lot of it for this film research at the gutenberg and they used liposome
we first met many many years university in formulation and
ago it was mainz later
here in the u.s an individual element they are all such important antibodies just
duke university ali gilboa they modules and we examined every think
they did single one what potential they have
a lot of effort to make a cancer of these modules and optimized done
vaccine the so i looked up professor hingada
and process and found out that our in
ali gilbert's work mrna zurich and he told me that they
uh inspired the kurak founder produces more than a thousand were the
ingmar her times more most impressive postdocs he
that was the first time we protein than in normal natural ever had
worked with circumstances that's all we needed to know
mrna and saw in humans that [Music] we said right
mrna really and shaheen were carrying out we're investing in those two in
did exhibit high levels of activity research their
in into mrna modules long before team
dendritic cells the in this
and that's when we knew that we arrival of the sars cov2 virus we team that the strongmans
had the they'd been researching the had a
basic technology that could technology totally different approach than
enable us to to find a vaccine against cancer the
get the tumor antigens we were in 2008 the couple founded the average venture capital investors
studying biontech venture capital investors
into dendritic cells as part of a company and this unrelenting scrutiny of
therapeutic cancer vaccine becoming one of just a few what we
messenger rna contains genetic medical were doing is what led us to
information necessary for research teams to go into build a
making business while company able to truly offer
proteins keeping close ties to the solutions
[Music] academic field because we'd notched up so
in a vaccine the mrna molecule and told us about his vision for many
contains the innovations
instructions to produce a tiny next big advance in cancer that would have been impossible
piece of treatment in any
the virus that was really when the idea for other country or with another
in sars cov2 that's the spike biontech was born group of
protein and by the time we'd invested investors
which itself is harmless three or today investments are always
when you're vaccinated the mrna four times in bayern tech made with
molecule we were so fascinated by these an eye to optimization
transports the instructions for two scientific optimization simply
making personalities i left the meeting takes
this spike protein into the body and time patience and honest
the spike protein is then went straight to my brother's communication
produced office and and the willingness to put in
inside the ribosomes of the said dearest brother you have to investment
body's cells come for a decade or longer
with one single purpose in mind see this [Music]
for the immune system to they're the real deal january 24th 2020 became an
recognize the and i remember what kind of historic
alien protein and then to produce results they date not only for biontech but for
an were producing with ozlem the
immune response i thought if they're already whole world
there are multiple modules it's working on when uhur shaheen read about a
not just
coronavirus outbreak in wuhan
in a
business magazine
he knew right away that the virus
wouldn't stay within china's
borders for
long
and um he was alarmed by that
and i've lived with
long enough to know he doesn't
worry
easily
i made a few really conservative
projections
i took an infection rate of two to
three
and the longer i looked at it the
clearer it became that in all
probability we were looking at an
outbreak that had already spread
around
the virus was dangerous
because it was
new no one had antibodies
against the
viral infection and anyone could
get
infected
there was no protection
it didn't only trigger a simple lung
disease but also what's called a
multi-system disorder it was able
to
attack various organs infect and
damage
them
by then our mrna technology had
been
tried and tested in hundreds of
clinical
studies in cancer patients
realized we could use it to
produce an
immune response pattern that
under
certain conditions could protect
against
sickness
and maybe even against
infection
but biontech wasn't the only
company
working with mrna technology
german firm kurvak and u.s
company
moderna were also using the
method to
find a vaccine
but how does it work
the sar cov2 virus infects a
vaccinated
person the immune system
recognizes the
spike protein and triggers an
immune
response
b lymphocytes or b cells for
short
produce antibodies that attach
themselves to the spike proteins
that prevents the virus from
penetrating
cells
while at the same time marking
the virus
thanks to their immune memory
battalions
of t cells are able to seek out the
cells that have been infected
with the
virus
and then white blood cells
known as
phagocytes ingest and destroy
all of
those tagged or infected cells
thereby stopping further
infection
[Music]
that weekend i designed vaccine
sequences i took our mrna
vectors and
put it all together
then i sent all our employees an
email
telling them we would meet on
monday
[Music]
as soon as i began explaining to
my
colleagues how we were going
to have to
work i got the first objections
people were saying that it would
be
impossible
i said yes you're right
but we have to completely
change our way
of thinking
if you tell me something's
impossible
because it's outside the law of
physics
i'll accept it
the limit of physics is light speed
and in that breath i said we're
calling
this project light speed light
speed so
that everyone realizes that we
like
light must take the shortest and
quickest route possible to
develop this
vaccine
i think it really started to sink in
when hugo told the board that he
wanted
to start project lightspeed it was
obvious if this is
idea this is serious
according to the world health
organization more than 300
manufacturers
began working on a vaccine
against the
coronavirus in 2020
most used well-known vaccine
procedures
but it was two new ideas that
proved to
be the most successful
mrna-based vaccines and viral
vector
vaccines
the pasteur institute in paris is
one of
the leading centers for basic
research
in medicine and biology
its director christophe don faire
is
familiar with the difficulties
surrounding mrna technology
but also its
advantages
in it's expensive and difficult to
store
and distribute so it's not
necessarily
suited to developing countries who would then undergo clinical something that only the big
the benefit of an rna vaccine is trials pharmaceutical companies have
that it what we basically did in that first time and
works quicker and is perhaps week money for
more was decide to get everything [Music]
versatile than a viral vector ready for pre-clinical development is the
vaccine clinical trials first
nevertheless we still use viral we had the capacity to carry out stage on the way to making a
vectors clinical trials and recruit new vaccine
like the one for measles at the hundreds and sometimes it takes many years
pasteur hundreds of people to
institute beyond complete
the production costs are much biotech science is excellent [Music]
lower but what it can't do of course is at the end of that stage the
the rna vaccine is an addition to carry clinical
our out a clinical trial of 40 000 trials can begin
existing arsenal but we shouldn't people this is where the vaccine is
believe that all of the other um or carry out the distribution trialled on
platforms afterwards human test subjects
will become obsolete simply so on monday i called up my this complex process is done in
because we colleague at several
have an rna vaccine pfizer and said we want to stages usually completed one
but at this point in time there develop a after
was no vaccine are you interested in another
vaccine going into if this phase is successful the
the virus had arrived in europe partnership vaccine
and the there are virus outbreaks every is submitted for approval by the
whole continent went into year and european medicines agency the
lockdown this one will be stopped before a ema
people began to die of covid19 vaccine even gets to the clinical if all the data meet the
and soon trial requirements
the numbers were higher than in phase the vaccine gets approval
china in the clinician this means the green light for
where the virus originated test production of the new vaccine
[Music] in the meantime the pandemic [Music]
in january of 2020 few people had reached before they're supplied for use
had taken new york the
uhur shaheen's grim prediction people were dying and soon the individual components of the
seriously number of vaccine are
but by now biontech was already deaths had reached the also examined by germany's
a thousands drug
decisive step ahead six weeks later pfizer and regulatory body the paul airlisch
i had selected eight candidates biontech institute and in france the ansm
for sealed a deal on cooperation at the same time formal co-
pre-clinical trials and my team [Music] vigilance or
selected the pandemic forced everyone drug safety ensure side effects
another 12 to 15 candidates involved to are
so we had more than 20 rethink structures and speed up constantly documented checked
candidates who work and
could be tested in pre-clinical processes assessed
trials developing a vaccine is usually a [Music]
the aim was to identify four hugely this is by libra business
candidates expensive process that takes but challenges kept cropping up
years
it wasn't a case of beginner's with totally unknown in the final phase of clinical tests
luck consequences the
when things wouldn't work we'd i thought if we're in lockdown company chose the vaccine
have a then why candidate that
meeting at 11 o'clock at night not i'm going to take part in the had the least amount of side
and then trial effects
sit there until 1 30 in the morning you're sealed off in a hospital it wasn't the one that miriam
trying to find out what the lab ward and zach had
values your body is exposed to been given
were and how to something and and then
the vaccine's development you don't know what will happen and then this letter arrived and it
wasn't geared you start by going to an info said
up to manufacturing a new evening the trial is not yet complete
vaccine where you're told all about it now it's up to you to decide
against the coronavirus you haven't signed anything at whether or
all of bioentech's work was that not you get vaccinated but how
planned point you meant to sleep on it would i
around producing a vaccine [Applause] know what my reaction to it
against i had my first vaccination on may would be
cancer cells 13th no one told me what my
you could hardly catch your at 5 past 10 i was the 13th test situation was was
breath subject i officially vaccinated or
during that time the first test subjects reacted unvaccinated
we basically worked around the really let's take five ten minutes break
clock badly we had to keep diaries as a test subject
and the impossible was made my first night was terrible had to live with a high level of
possible four o'clock aching limbs i kept uncertainty
a few weeks earlier there had going it wasn't until summer of 2021
been hot and cold when she
nothing a nurse comes and takes my got a regular vaccine that she
and now we had a vaccine that blood felt
fulfilled pressure and brings some completely protected against the
all the criteria blankets virus
someone was getting vaccinated [Music] understands i have to say this
it was temperature 38.5 was
really exciting for us to watch i should add that i got an early different to many other
that variation of the vaccine situations
first vaccination it wasn't the one everyone gets in the past i was stressed and
of course it's all carried out now anxious
under the main trial phase three was about the first test subjects or
safe conditions completed patients when they were treated
with doctors on standby who but my trial wasn't finished by for the
stay and the time very first time with something
monitor what's going on the vaccine was announced that we'd
[Music] and went on the market developed
[Music] it still isn't that annoyed me a bit this time i was more reassured
is a theater director in berlin you feel a bit ignored or like a because we were very familiar
when the pandemic broke out leaf with mrna
she made an left dangling on a tree then on the 24th of july we
unusual decision blood selected
to become a test subject in trials several versions of the vaccine vaccine candidate bnt 162 b2 for
for a were the
vaccine trialed in parallel phase 3 trial
a total of 44 000 test subjects world had been waiting for this which is the largest
were moment pharmaceutical
vaccinated a new chapter was beginning for contract
half of them were administered project ever in the history of the
our lightspeed pharmaceutical industry it come
vaccine and the other half a [Music] here
placebo a we did something we hadn't here i came here in 2019 as head
non-active substance done before of
we hoped that by november we'd which was to negotiate with antibodies production while
be able governments doing work
to say for the first time that the around the world for novartis
group right from the start we were it's uh
with the vaccine had fewer aware of [Music]
infections the potential for dependence on then in 2020 it was announced
than the group with the control governments wanting to get their that we
substance hands were to become part of the bion
november 9 2020 was a major on the vaccine for export often tech
day for the expertly world
crucial third phase we took a very pragmatic that was really exciting of course
an independent committee was approach and
set to and so what governments did uh of course it's a personal change
publish its findings was they switching firms
of course we were very very hedged their bets that means do you get new colleagues you
excited that they have to
that sunday was our day of truth bought vaccine from new establish what kind of mindset
if the data showed the study had technologies everyone's working in is it the
proved and they bought vaccines that same
negative then basically our entire were based very early on we met for an
investment in the past 10 on evening and
months would old technologies because no one could see that people got on
have been in vain knew culturally we got on
but the data was perfect which vaccine there were two teams that could
we had 95 vaccine efficacy in the end work
that day was really like the moon would work and a lot of the time together and at the very least
landing getting out of the we spent discussing science things
capsule and actually we would function and would be
saying it works signed in november enjoyable
it was amazing it was a major a supply agreement with the the next question we asked was
coup for european naturally
bion tech for german union and i think what the a technical one
biotechnology as a european how does this process work
whole i should say commission saw was none of us
this is an information that we really were quite reliable had ever produced mrna before i
it was news that was relevant for in our delivery and that actually understand people asking why it
the led to takes so
entire world the long but for the number of
obviously we had to make it commission representing 2007 processes
public states that need to be learned and
immediately uh signing an agreement with us carried out
overnight biontech held the key for up six months is nothing
to to 1.8 billion doses over the next mrna is produced in a
ending the pandemic in its hand two years starting at the end of biochemical
people and governments all over this process similar to natural
the year processes in
human cells could these cargo planes be but the vaccine was still hard to
usually mrna is broken down carrying the come
immediately thing that might eventually put by
after entering the body before it an end it was first administered to those
can to the pandemic at
have an effect if you looked at what was in the high risk
to prevent that a technique was pipeline for moderna or biontech it was incredible
developed a year in the middle of the second wave
the mrna is packed into tiny previously you wouldn't have after
bubbles of seen a christmas after the biontech
fat called lipid nanoparticles single rna molecule fit for the vaccine was
shielded inside the lipids the market approved the impact was very
mrna can in just one year they succeeded noticeable
reach the cell before then being in in the first care homes we
unloaded developing a product and started
it's like going to the world cup marketing it on vaccinating
with a a large scale during the first wave it was
team of amateurs and wings considerable terrible
they'll always be slip-ups [Music] you'd go back and realize how
[Laughter] we initially planned to go full many
the team had been working for capacity patients from the first visit were
two weeks and deliver 1.6 billion doses in now
in a three shift system 2021 dead
then at night between saturday then we noticed other vaccine when the vaccination started
and manufacturers had delays or had and the
sunday around three half past dropped second dose was complete
three the out all together we saw a complete turnaround
filter burst for us it was really the end of we came to carry out tests in the
two weeks of work literally went one care
down batch is just the beginning of the homes and saw the infection
the drain next rates had
it was gone and they had to start one plummeted
from at production sites in ida still
scratch openstein but despite the scientific
but that also meant the study maborg and other locations successes
was abroad many people remained anxious
delayed production was delayed biontech employees were and had
early on sunday i called working concerns about the vaccine
and told him we had a problem feverishly to expand production they wondered if the new
i said overnight we lost our meanwhile the world was vaccine had
starting waiting for the been adequately tested before
material vaccine its
we have to start from scratch a few weeks after biontech in approval
and ugo's reaction was january could it really be that effective
the poor team 2021 the moderna and [Music]
2020 was drawing to an end astrazeneca i've often been asked by friends
but the journey had just started vaccines were given approval and in
for the first in the eu and then in interviews with the media has it
vaccine it was transported to switzerland really
neighboring european countries in europe plenty of huge had proper approval
but also vaccination it's been rushed through so
south america and asia centers have been built across quickly
it's a rival often accompanied by the there must be risks attached
fanfare continent
but no the actual approval mutating over the next few immune
procedures months or observation
were all followed couple of years herd immunity always depends
clinical studies were set up so adapting to people and the on the
we could conditions of variant of the virus
tell whether this vaccine would its environment at the moment we're talking
work [Music] about 85
well the virus is constantly percent
and whether there would be multiplying for people to lead a normal life i
certain risks and in doing so random errors personally think that everyone
we firmly believe in the personal occur in should be
right the virus's genetic code given the chance to protect
to choose only some of them are relevant themselves
not least because we're doctors though from this virus with a vaccine
and they alter the properties of the the world health organization
we've always had situations with virus has called
our thereby creating a mutation on pharmaceutical companies to
patients where we cannot make for example it can change the waiver
that virus and their patent rights on all
decision for someone make it more easily medicines or
especially when an invasive transmissible and vaccines and drugs that are
treatment is therefore more contagious aimed at
concerned i talked to work and he addressing the problem of
when you're injecting something told me that we would need covert 19.
into about like ngos and a number of
someone's body six weeks governments were
no shortcuts were made with to also hoping that a patent waiver
this vaccine make a new vaccine then it would
it went through a rigorous would be result in wider production of the
program sufficient to vaccine
and that's why anyone who fight against new variants and that would especially help lower
wants to find today we know that income
out for themselves can look at the mrna vaccine both the countries get their populations
the data biotech and vaccinated
but a virus that can get around the but the eu and most of its
like pfizer as well as the modern member states
sars cov2 infecting millions of vaccines have been skeptical about
people they are still effective against the waving patents
inevitably ends up mutating variants and i am convinced that [Music]
the delta variant in particular now if a patent waiver wouldn't just
made the there is a new variance will come lead to a
fight against covid19 much that short-term supply of extra doses
harder production is scale up is solved on the
[Music] the contrary it could lead to chaos
we knew our vaccine would work problem and so we can raw materials could start running
because generate new vaccines out
at that point we'd already carried there are viruses for which a and be wrongly distributed
out vaccine and that could mean not being
experiments gives you lifelong immunity able to
but we also knew we'd have to for example polio or smallpox guarantee production quality
continue but this is a virus where we know for us it's important that we can
following these mutations we supply
and that the virus would carry on have to administer a booster to our vaccine to countries with
stay lower
income results every year we're now in a position to
yes having to significantly
in the next 18 months we're but now thanks to the income speed up these treatments for
sending 2 we're cancer
billion doses to countries with generating we can push forward immunotherapy
lower with our we had already started projects
and middle incomes vision much faster and to a on a
there's still a huge sea of greater vaccine for tb and hiv
infectious feel level nectar and that means three weeks ago we announced
diseases out there that we want we're we'd like
to focusing 100 on what we're to develop a vaccine for malaria
continue working on doing as a scientist usually we don't
we're going to open an mrna i think what we're currently look
production seeing is back that much we are usually
plant in singapore so we've got a just the tip of the iceberg look
backup mrna technology will probably forward and i i know that when i
for marburg turn went
things can happen and you need medicine upside down for by on tech i want to make sure
two large autoimmune that this
plants that you can work diseases intestinal diseases modified mrna i want to see to
between rheumatic enter to
we've said we'd like to produce diseases the clinic and when i was there i
the there will probably be even more want
vaccine locally in africa it's at the very least my dream to see when the first project with
that's important because during and i sanofi was progressing that okay
a can't even imagine in the whole i want
pandemic supplies and cosmos to see the first person to be
distribution are of possibilities what we're going injected
focused on where it's produced to see and when it was injected i said i
which itself is more of a political happening in the next five years want
challenge it sounds a bit like science to see the first person to get
but to break through everything fiction but better
you have it's become reality at least in yeah
to produce locally clinical yeah
biontech's economic success studies we're not done yet
has been it means that we're able to [Music]
blinding identify the without long scientific
almost overnight the mid-sized molecular fingerprint the cancer procedures and a
company mutation in every single patient bit of risk taking there can be no
from mainz exploded on the it's innovation
stock market totally different in every patient but research just can't be left up
at times during august 2021 it as individual as each patient to
was worth themselves the experts
more than some of the biggest if biontex hopes are realized for scientific innovation to have
companies mrna real
in germany technology could help make a social impact you also need
how do its founders deal with huge leap entrepreneurial spirit
that kind forward in the treatment of just like useless
of success cancer and the biontech team have
two years ago we were in a with this success and the shown
situation financial [Music]
where we kept having to present success
our