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The stock market rally led by the promising results of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine trial has boosted the fortunes of many investors, but nothing compared to that experienced by brothers Andreas and Thomas Struengmann from Germany.
Together, the twins have increased their fortunes by $ 8 billion this year thanks to their participation in BioNTech, Pfizer’s partner in vaccine development. BioNTech’s ADRs (stocks that correspond to New York-listed shares) appreciated last week after the US pharmaceutical company revealed that the developing vaccine prevented 90% of symptomatic infections in tens of thousands of volunteers .
At $ 22 billion, twins have one of the largest healthcare fortunes in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The 70-year-old brothers formed their empire by reinvesting the profits from the family’s generic drug business.
They “reshaped their fortune simply by believing in science,” said Paul Westall, co-founder of Agreus, a company that recruits family office consultants. The Struengmann brothers did not respond to requests for comment.
Athos service
The brothers established their Athos Service “family office” shortly after Novartis announced the purchase of its pharmaceutical company Hexal in 2005, along with their stake in subsidiary EON Labs for a total of € 5.7 billion.
Thomas Struengmann said in an interview with the German newspaper Handelsblatt in December that the brothers had initially promised each other that they would not invest more than € 1 billion in the biotech sector, due to the risks and the necessary patience. They ended up crossing that line after seeing promising signs.
“You want to see your plants continue to grow,” he said.
The twins’ bet on BioNTech sums up the ambition to finance transformational drugs. They helped provide BioNTech with € 150 million in seed capital in 2008 and now own around half of the company.
The stock surge also pushed BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin’s fortune to over $ 4 billion, according to the Bloomberg Index, and now the executive is closer to joining the club of the world’s 500 richest people. . world.
The Struengmanns also backed Ugur Sahin’s earlier bet on Ganymed Pharmaceuticals, a cancer treatment company the Turkish-born scientist founded with his wife in Ozlem Tureci. A year after the couple turned their attention to covid-19, preliminary test results validate the new type of drug the couple have spent their career trying to develop.
“It could pave the way in the pharmaceutical industry for a new type of molecule,” Sahin said in an interview.
“Big elephants”
After taking control of the family pharmacist Durachemie in 1979, who belonged to their father Ernst, the twins sold the company seven years later and used the outlet to create Hexal. A company formed with just over 20 employees in an apartment near Munich, which later became the fourth largest generic drug manufacturer in the world.
“Our strength is speed and flexibility,” said Thomas, who holds a PhD in business management, in an interview in 2004. “While the big elephants are making their decisions, we have already taken action.”
BioNTech’s initial public offering (IPO) in the United States last year was the culmination of a challenging decade for the twins.
Since 2010, they have invested with EQT AB in the Siemens hearing aid business, sold German bank Suedwestbank for more than double the price paid in 2004, and bought stakes in a number of biotech companies, including Immatics NV, which recently merged with Arya Sciences Acquisition.
Not all bets paid off.
The stock price of Immatics NV has fallen by about a third since they were admitted to trading on the Nasdaq in July. 4SC AG, which develops anticancer drugs and of which the twins are the largest shareholder, depreciates more than 20% this year. BioNTech had a bad start on the stock exchange, with shares sold below the predefined range, but have since risen 580%.
“For us, the most important thing is not the return,” said Thomas in the interview with Handelsblatt. It is a question “above all of producing innovative and highly effective drugs”.
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