| This article is very US-centric and self congratulatory. The vaccine is called BNT162b2, because it was fundamentally developed at Biontech. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tozinameran >Tozinameran[1] (INN), codenamed BNT162b2 and more commonly known as the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, is a COVID-19 vaccine developed by BioNTech and manufactured and distributed by Pfizer https://www.thelocal.de/20201110/biontech-four-things-to-kno... >While global headlines tend to lead with Pfizer's involvement, Şahin insisted to Spiegel: "It is our technology." It bothers me how Americanized the Western media has become. If Biontech was a US company and Pfizer was European, exactly 0 US media would call it the „Pfizer vaccine“. Yet most European media outlets have adopted the US-spin and now call it „Pfizer Vaccine“ (or „Pfizer-Biontech“ at most). > In a series of interviews over more than seven months, senior Pfizer executives and other managers shed new light on how the vaccine project took shape. Reading the article, it doesn’t look like the spoke to anyone at Biontech. > BioNTech simply plugged the genetic code for the spike protein into its software. On Jan. 25, BioNTech Chief Executive Ugur Sahin designed 10 candidates himself. Ah yes, the Germans simply plugged it into their software. Disregard over a decade of fundamental research done by hundreds of scientists with hundreds of millions of Euros in funding. Now let‘s focus on all the hard work American pharmaceutical Managers did. >To assemble its mRNA production network, Pfizer used its own money and didn’t take any from the federal government. Executives said they didn’t want to give agencies outside the FDA more leverage over the design of the trials. Yes, but:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tozinameran >In September 2020, the German government granted BioNTech 375 million euros ($445 million) for its COVID-19 vaccine development program at a time when Pfizer funded its portion of development costs without government funding.[20] BioNTech had also received 100 million euros ($119 million) in financing from the European Commission and European Investment Bank in mid-2020.[21]
Also: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-09/pfizer-va... And speaking of „Operation Warp Speed“: Coincidentally, „Light Speed“, the name Biontech gave its vaccine development effort, started in mid January. A time when almost nobody had even heard of the virus. Operation Warp Speed wasn‘t announced until April 29, three and a half months later. |