Ingmar Hoerr, a founder of Curevac, has leveled severe accusations against Biontech. Speaking to “Der Spiegel”, Hoerr suggested that the takeover of Curevac was fundamentally deceptive towards the shareholders. He argued that if the documentation had stated clearly that the company intended to close down and merely acquire patents cheaply, no one would have approved the transaction, labeling the move “selling short”.
Hoerr expressed deep concern regarding Biontech’s planned restructuring, which involved closing production facilities in Marburg, Idar-Oberstein, and Singapore, alongside the headquarters of the acquired subsidiary in Tübingen, by the end of 2027. He warned that the resulting dissipation of knowledge, built up over more than two decades, cannot simply be replicated.
The pioneer of mRNA vaccine research criticized the company’s simultaneous policies of job cuts and large-scale share buybacks. According to Hoerr, it was inappropriate for the company to publicly stress the need for urgent savings while concurrently engaging in aggressive stock buybacks, calling this action “brazen”.
He asserted that Biontech’s primary motivation for acquiring Curevac was the company’s patent portfolio and the desire to settle an ongoing patent dispute. Hoerr suggested that based on Biontech’s pandemic-era revenues, the potential value of the transactions could have amounted to “billions”.
Shifting focus, Hoerr provided his perspective on why the Biontech founders, Ugur Sahin and Özlem Türeci, were not awarded the Nobel Prize. In his view, they lacked “the clear in-house scientific core performance typically associated with a Nobel Prize”.
Finally, when questioned about Biontech’s prospects over the next two to three years, Hoerr issued a stark warning, stating that if the company’s success does not materialize, it is possible that Biontech itself could eventually become an acquisition target.