BioNTech Announces Planned Retirement of Sean Marett
Mainz, Germany, March 7, 2024 (GLOBE
NEWSWIRE) – BioNTech SE (Nasdaq: BNTX, “BioNTech” or “the
Company”) announced today that Sean Marett, Chief Business and
Commercial Officer, will retire as planned from the Management
Board of BioNTech. As of July 1, 2024, Sean Marett will continue as
a specialist advisor to the Company at least until the end of the
year. A new Chief Commercial Officer will be announced by the end
of March 2024. Sean Marett’s responsibilities as Chief Business
Officer are beeing gradually transferred to James Ryan, Ph.D.,
Chief Legal Officer, who will also take on the role of Chief
Business Officer of BioNTech at the end of the transition phase and
upon Sean Marett’s retirement.
Sean Marett joined BioNTech as a member of the
Management Board in 2012. He has played a crucial role in the
Company’s growth and global expansion, overseeing two key areas:
business development and product commercialization. Sean Marett was
a key member of the team that ensured liquidity of over $1 billion
in funding as a private company. This comprised successful
financing rounds, including the Series A financing round in 2018,
which was one of the largest for a biotech company at that stage
worldwide, followed by a Series B financing in July 2019, and the
Company’s IPO in October 2019.
During his tenure, he has negotiated
revenue-generating research and development agreements with high
profile pharmaceutical companies, working to ensure that BioNTech
would retain control of the development of multiple product
candidates. He has also reached complex global licensing and
M&A transactions and strategic partnerships with multiple
governments, academic institutions, and charitable foundations.
Sean Marett led the negotiation of multiple supply agreements with
governments and drove the commercialization of the Pfizer-BioNTech
COVID-19 Vaccine in Germany and Türkiye. He has been honored with a
number of awards and recognitions, including the Companion of the
Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George awarded by Her
Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the monarch of the United Kingdom at
the time.
“Sean Marett’s contributions to BioNTech’s
business development, fund-raising and commercial activities have
been crucial to the Company’s transformation into a next-generation
immunotherapy company. He negotiated cost-profit sharing agreements
which funded BioNTech’s research and development activities in its
first decade while ensuring that BioNTech has maintained its
scientific freedom,” said Helmut Jeggle, Chairman of the
BioNTech Supervisory Board. “For me personally, Sean
Marett has been a trusted partner in the last ten years and I value
his special business acumen in the biotech sector. He will have a
lasting impact on the people and performance of BioNTech and will
leave a company which is well-positioned to foster the next wave of
innovations. On behalf of the Supervisory Board, I would like to
thank Sean Marett for his outstanding leadership, his numerous
contributions, and his unwavering dedication to the Company over
more than a decade.”
“Sean Marett is a strategic commercial
facilitator and outstanding negotiator. Together with his teams, he
closed highly complex agreements. Without his determination, drive,
and experience in aligning all stakeholders towards a common goal,
BioNTech would not be the innovative company it is today,” said
Prof. Ugur Sahin, M.D., CEO and Co-Founder of
BioNTech. “I am delighted that Sean will be supporting the
Company’s endeavors in a specialist advisory role.”
“It has been my pleasure to contribute to the
transformation of BioNTech from a small, private biotech into an
international leader in the field of next-generation
immunotherapies and one of the largest global biotechnology
companies. But none of this would have been possible if we had not
had a burning passion for science that continues to excite and
motivate us today,” said Sean Marett, Chief Business and
Commercial Officer of BioNTech. “As BioNTech prepares for
a new chapter in the Company’s trajectory with the planned launch
of multiple oncology products in the coming years, it is the right
time for me to hand over my responsibilities as Board member and
continue to support the Company in a specialist advisory role.”
About BioNTech
Biopharmaceutical New Technologies (BioNTech) is a next generation
immunotherapy company pioneering novel therapies for cancer and
other serious diseases. The Company exploits a wide array of
computational discovery and therapeutic drug platforms for the
rapid development of novel biopharmaceuticals. Its broad portfolio
of oncology product candidates includes individualized and
off-the-shelf mRNA-based therapies, innovative chimeric antigen
receptor T cells, bispecific immune checkpoint modulators, targeted
cancer antibodies and antibody-drug conjugate (“ADC”) therapeutics,
and small molecules. Based on its deep expertise in mRNA vaccine
development and in-house manufacturing capabilities, BioNTech is
developing multiple mRNA vaccine candidates for evaluation for a
range of infectious diseases alongside its diverse oncology
pipeline, either on its own or together with collaborators.
BioNTech has established a broad set of relationships with multiple
global pharmaceutical collaborators, including DualityBio, Fosun
Pharma, Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, Genevant, Genmab,
OncoC4, Regeneron and Pfizer.
For more information, please visit
www.BioNTech.com
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the
meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as
amended, including, but not be limited to, statements concerning:
expected changes to BioNTech’s leadership; BioNTech’s research and
development programs; BioNTech’s focus on building commercial
capabilities for potential market launches; and BioNTech’s
expectations regarding the timing of, and planned readiness for,
such launches. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be
identified by terminology such as “will,” “may,” “should,”
“expects,” “intends,” “plans,” “aims,” “anticipates,” “believes,”
“estimates,” “predicts,” “potential,” “continue,” or the negative
of these terms or other comparable terminology, although not all
forward-looking statements contain these words. The forward-looking
statements in this press release are neither promises nor
guarantees, and you should not place undue reliance on these
forward-looking statements because they involve known and unknown
risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which are beyond
BioNTech’s control and which could cause actual results to differ
materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking
statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not
limited to: discussions with regulatory agencies regarding timing
and requirements for additional clinical trials; the ability to
produce comparable clinical results in future clinical trials;
competition related to BioNTech’s product candidates, including
those with different mechanisms of action and different
manufacturing and distribution constraints, on the basis of, among
other things, efficacy, cost, convenience of storage and
distribution, breadth of approved use, side-effect profile and
durability of immune response; the timing of and BioNTech’s ability
to obtain and maintain regulatory approval for BioNTech's product
candidates; BioNTech’s and its counterparties’ ability to manage
and source necessary resources; BioNTech’s ability to identify
research opportunities and discover and develop investigational
medicines; the ability and willingness of BioNTech’s third-party
collaborators to continue research and development activities
relating to BioNTech’s development candidates and investigational
medicines; BioNTech’s and its collaborators’ ability to
commercialize and market its product candidates, if approved;
BioNTech’s ability to manage its development and expansion;
regulatory developments in the United States and other countries;
BioNTech’s ability to effectively scale its production capabilities
and manufacture its product candidates; and other factors not known
to BioNTech at this time.
You should review the risks and uncertainties
described under the heading “Risk Factors” in BioNTech's Report on
Form 6-K for the period ended September 30, 2023, and in subsequent
filings made by BioNTech with the SEC, which are available on the
SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. Except as required by law, BioNTech
disclaims any intention or responsibility for updating or revising
any forward-looking statements contained in this press release in
the event of new information, future developments or otherwise.
These forward-looking statements are based on BioNTech’s current
expectations and speak only as of the date hereof.
CONTACTS
Investor Relations
Victoria Meissner, M.D.
+1 617 528 8293
Investors@biontech.de
Media Relations
Jasmina Alatovic
+49 (0)6131 9084 1513
Media@biontech.de
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