Uğur Sahin and Özlem Türeci, married couple and co-founders of BioNTech, are leaving the Covid-19 vaccine maker. They started a new company focused on mRNA technology. BioNTech is known for developing a vaccine against the coronavirus in collaboration with Pfizer. The couple originally conducted research to boost the immune response against cancer. During the pandemic, they adapted their knowledge to a vaccine against Covid-19. The vaccine was first approved in the EU on 21 December and vaccinations in Germany started on 27 December. The goal is to increase production to 1.3 billion doses. The German president awarded them the Federal Cross of Merit for their contribution in the fight against the pandemic.