BioNTech Appoints Oelkers As CEO, Succeeding Co-Founder Sahin

(RTTNews) - BioNTech SE (BNTX) announced on Monday that its Supervisory Board has appointed Guido Oelkers to the Management Board as Chief Executive Officer (CEO), effective February 1, 2027, succeeding co-founder and CEO Ugur Sahin.

Sahin is a physician and immunologist with experience in developing mRNA-based medicines for cancer and infectious diseases. He co-founded BioNTech and led the development of the company's COVID-19 mRNA vaccine and personalized cancer immunotherapies. He also serves as Chairman of the Scientific Management Board of the Helmholtz Institute for Translational Oncology (HI-TRON).

Oelkers brings more than three decades of experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry to the job. He has served as CEO of Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AB (Sobi) since 2017 and previously held CEO positions at BSN Medical Holding GmbH, Gambro AB, Invida Holdings. He also held executive roles at Nycomed International Management GmbH, DKSH Group, Aventis Pharma S.A. China and Hoechst AG.

The appointment follows a leadership transition in which Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Özlem Türeci stated intentions to leave the role to lead a new independent company alongside BioNTech co-founder and CEO Ugur Sahin. The company said that the search for a new CMO was ongoing. BNTX trade closed Friday at $90.58, down 2.44%. In the pre-market trading, the stock is up 1.67% at $92.09.