BioNTech shares plunge after founders announce exit

The founders of BioNTech, Uğur Şahin and Özlem Türeci, will leave the company to launch a new biotechnology venture focused on messenger RNA technology.

The married scientists plan to transition to the new company by the end of the year, BioNTech said on Tuesday, News.Az reports, citing Bloomberg.

Following the announcement, the company’s American depositary receipts dropped by as much as 21% in pre-market trading.

Markus Manns, a portfolio manager at Union Investment and a BioNTech investor, described the news as a major setback for the company at a crucial time.

“The departure of the company’s founders is devastating news for the company and its shareholders,” Manns said, noting that Şahin and Türeci had been central to BioNTech’s scientific and strategic direction.

The pair, known for developing the mRNA technology behind BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine, are scientists who prefer focusing on innovation rather than managing a large pharmaceutical company.

BioNTech, headquartered in Mainz, has long maintained a strong academic culture, publishing original research and fostering scientific development.

“BioNTech is now coming into a trajectory that has more to do with speed, execution, commercialization and so on, and industrialization,” Sahin said. “This is something that takes time, and I think also there are managers that love to do that.”

The company has grown swiftly in recent years, reaching a market capitalization of $26 billion. While that’s well down from the heights reached during the pandemic, it’s still almost seven times the level of its stock market debut in 2019.

News.Az 

By Nijat Babayev