Gender equality made vaccine possible, BioNTech co-founder says

The original text of this article has been published on the Guardian.

The co-founder and chief medical officer of BioNTech has credited its speed at producing a viable vaccine to the fact its workforce is more than 50% female. Speaking on International Women’s Day, Özlem Türeci also said the fact women are so under-represented in decision-making roles in medicine was “destroying value” for stakeholders.

The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was the first to be approved in the UK and Türeci said it was the company’s balanced workforce that “made the impossible possible” in creating a jab in just 11 months.

Türeci told a World Health Organization (WHO) briefing that the lack of gender equality in patient care, medical research and the biopharma industry is “obvious every day”. She added: “The higher the ranks, the more value-destroying [is] the lost opportunity of mobilising precious talent.”

Continues in article.