The BioNTech approach: How to build a business for innovation

This Vital Topics lecture will be given by Sean Marett, Chief Business and Commercial Officer, BioNTech.

The BioNTech approach: How to build a business for innovation

As we mark three years since the start of the COVID-19 crisis, this Vital Topics lecture will provide a fascinating insight into the huge opportunities and challenges faced by what became one of the leading global players in the fight against the virus.

Alumnus Sean Marett, who took an MBA at AMBS early in his career, will talk about his key role at the helm of German biotechnology company BioNTech as it developed the first ever approved mRNA-based COVID -19 vaccine, in partnership with Pfizer. This was the fastest vaccine development in medical history which was rolled out to more than a billion people in more than 160 countries and regions in its first full year on the market. Today, more than 4 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses have been shipped to more than 180 countries and regions of the world (Status: 13 November, 2022).

Sean will talk candidly about the challenges the business faced along the way as it grew from a biotech start-up to a world leading immunotherapy company and how it managed to rapidly scale up during the pandemic and deal with governments across the world that were desperate to obtain vaccine supplies. He will also discuss how his own MBA studies equipped him with the financial knowledge he needed to scale a business, how it gave him clarity of thought and the belief to take risks as well as explain how it helped him negotiate with global governments.

Looking ahead, Sean will provide an outlook about the potential future application areas and possibilities of mRNA technologies, and particularly how it could revolutionise the way we treat cancer.

Sean Marett

Sean joined BioNTech in 2012. Prior to that, he worked in global strategic and regional marketing and sales roles at GlaxoSmithKline in the United States and Pfizer in Europe, before taking business development executive roles at Evotec and Lorantis, the latter of which he helped to successfully sell to Celldex Therapeutics, Inc. He has successfully executed complex licensing transactions with large pharmaceutical companies, negotiated M&A transactions and raised finance from investors. He holds a BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry from Kings College London.

There will be refreshments served with an opportunity for networking before the lecture from 4:45pm.

The discussion will be facilitated by Silvia Massini, Professor of Economic and Management of Innovation at AMBS.

Vital Topics is Alliance MBS' series of prestigious business lectures, bringing powerful ideas and original thinking to audiences from the Manchester city-region and beyond.

Find out more about Vital Topics here.