Developing a COVID-19 Vaccine to Save the World

The containment of the human and health disaster of the COVID-19 pandemic progressed from a priority to an imperative for global politics in the early 2020s. It became fast clear that the development and global rollout of Sars-CoV-2 vaccines with high efficacy might be the most promising strategy to vanquish the coronavirus. Firms like BioNTech or Moderna developed in record time, based on their novel mRNA technology, such vaccines with outstanding efficacies. The mRNA approach is thereby a poster boy of knowledge-based platforms. The starting point of this chapter is the comparison of the different biotechnology approaches and contenders addressing COVID-19. Thereafter, BioNTech’s and their co-operation partner Pfizer’s 10C Business Designs will be decoded, as the two partners developed the first approved vaccine to combat COVID-19. Based on the understanding of the working mechanisms of the mRNA Business Design, the platform strength of mRNA approaches will be evaluated along the eight platform value drivers, as developed within Chap. 1 . The platform strength evaluation includes also a detour on how mRNA approaches might offer platform-bridging approaches like for immuno-oncology. Finally, the financial valuation of BioNTech is derived by applying the Reverse DCF concept embedded in a “jo-jo deceleration” picture-of-the-future scenario.