BioNTech has named the head of Swedish pharmaceutical company Sobi to be its next CEO, marking the latest step of a transformation that will see the prominent messenger RNA drugmaker become more of an oncology specialist.
Guido Oelkers, who has run the rare disease-focused Sobi since 2017, will take over for co-founder and former CEO Ugur Sahin by Feb. 1, 2027. Sahin, meanwhile, will leave BioNTech to run a new and unnamed mRNA startup.
BioNTech is still searching for a successor to Chief Medical Officer Özlem Türeci, another co-founder who will join Sahin at the fledgling company. BioNTech is looking for a leader with “exceptional medical and scientific expertise” as well as experience in late-stage clinical development, it said in a statement. BioNTech first announced the coming leadership transition in March.
BioNTech was formed in 2008 and originally focused on cancer. But the company became a household name during the pandemic, when it teamed with Pfizer to develop Comirnaty, the first marketed shot for COVID-19.
Comirnaty went onto become one of the most lucrative products in the history of the pharmaceutical industry, and the mRNA technology behind it won a Nobel Prize. BioNTech was suddenly worth billions, too.
Yet that success was short-lived. Comirnaty sales plummeted in the pandemic’s aftermath, and mRNA technology became a political target, particularly once Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took over the Department of Health and Human Services. Vaccines built on mRNA technology have since been under intense scrutiny.
BioNTech adapted by putting more and more resources into oncology, using a combination of internal research and dealmaking to build a pipeline of vaccines, bispecific antibodies and cellular medicines.
by Delilah Alvarado
Source: biopharmadive.com
Stefan Doboczky has served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Hovione since 2024, where he has been instrumental in shaping the company’s strategy and vision. He will step down as Chairman upon assuming the role of Chief Executive Officer.
CordenPharma is investing €80 million at its Caponago, Italy, site, adding a new facility and fill-finish lines to lift sterile injectable capacity to 500 million units/year, backed by shareholder Astorg. The expansion involves two key components to augment manufacturing capacity for sterile injectable drug products.
The investment will reinforce the Bend site as a center of excellence for particle engineering and bioavailability enhancement and create a global manufacturing hub for commercial spray-drying. Lonza will offer a full range of spray-dried dispersion (SDD) capacity to support customers across both clinical and commercial programs.
