German biotech firm working on COVID-19 vaccines rejects takeover approaches

BioNTech SE

25/04/2020 14:26

BERLIN, April 25 (Reuters) - German biotech company BioNTech
 22UAy.F , which has approval for human trials of potential
coronavirus vaccines, has lately received several approaches
about a possible takeover but has rejected them, a newspaper
reported on Saturday.
    BioNTech chief Ugur Sahin said the company had been
approached by several players in the industry, Welt am Sonntag
newspaper quoted him as saying, without identifying any of the
potential interested parties.
    "Takeovers are out of the question for the majority
shareholders and for us anyway. Our vision is to build a
biopharmaceutical company that addresses the medical needs of
the 21st century," Sahin told the newspaper.
    A BioNTech spokeswoman confirmed the content of the
interview.
    Earlier this week, shares in BioNTech soared after Germany
gave the green light for human trials of potential coronavirus
vaccines it is developing with Pfizer  PFE.N .  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2CA00H
    BioNTech said it was developing four vaccine candidates
under a programme with Pfizer named BNT162 in what is the fourth
trial worldwide of a vaccine targeting the virus. 

 (Reporting by Emma Thomasson
Editing by David Holmes)
 ((+49 30 2888 5081; Reuters Messaging:
emma.thomasson.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))