MTPConnect meets up with BioNTech team in Sydney

24 March 2022

Senior representatives of BioNTech, the company behind Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, have been in Australia this week. 

MTPConnect Board Director, Julie Phillips, and our Director of Stakeholder Engagement for NSW & SA, Dr Duncan Macinnis, met with BioNTech's Chief Operating Officer Dr Sierk Poetting and Dr Oliver Hennig, the company’s SVP Operations and Managing Director BioNTech Manufacturing.

At a roundtable in Sydney convened by Austrade, the agenda included mRNA manufacturing opportunities, regenerative medicine and Australia's clinical trials capabilities. The high quality of Australia’s medical products ecosystem and skilled workforce were key discussion points.

Erica Kneipp, the Research Director for the Human Health program at the CSIRO was also in attendance, along with Professor Pall Thodarson, the head of the UNSW RNA Institute and Jiamin Aw, Professor Regina Crameri and Nur Sidki Gomez from Austrade.

The BioNTech team is also visiting Victoria and Western Australia.

BioNTech SE is a German biotechnology company based in Mainz. It was founded in 2008 by husband and wife duo Professor Ugur Sahin (CEO) and Dr Ozlem Tureci (CMO). The company develops and manufactures active immunotherapies for patient-specific approaches to the treatment of diseases.

With deep expertise in mRNA vaccine development and in-house manufacturing capabilities, the company and its collaborators are developing multiple mRNA vaccine candidates for a range of infectious diseases alongside a diverse oncology pipeline.

The company’s COVID-19 mRNA-based vaccine has been at the forefront of the global fight against the virus after it was developed in partnership with Pfizer.

When BioNTech made its stock-market debut on the Nasdaq in October 2019, it was valued at around US$3 billion – today it has a market capitalisation of US$40 billion.

Pictured left to right: Prof Pall Thodarson (UNSW), Jiamin Aw (Austrade), Professor Regina Crameri (Austrade), Nur Sidki Gomez (Austrade), Dr Oliver Hennig (BioNTech, SVP Operations and Managing Director BioNTech Manufacturing), Dr Sierk Poetting (BioNTech, Chief Operating Officer), Austrade representative, Julie Phillips (MTPConnect), Erica Kneipp (CSIRO), Dr Duncan Macinnis (MTPConnect).