BioNTech founder Ugur Sahin has specified the company's investment plans in Mainz.
When everything is implemented, BioNTech will have invested more than one billion euros in the Rhineland-Palatinate state capital, Sahin told the VRM Group newspapers.
The first section of the barracks area adjacent to the company's headquarters in Mainz will be received by BioNTech in around six weeks, at the beginning of 2022, said Sahin. “New laboratories and office space will be built there.” The remaining area of the Bundeswehr site will be free for the company at the beginning of 2023. "Then we will have twice as much space as we currently have," said Sahin. A total of ten new buildings are planned or already under construction across Mainz. A campus for science and a mini-campus for administration are to be created. "There is also a production facility for cancer therapies and office space that is spread across the city."
The BioNTech founder explained that production will continue to be expanded at the Marburg location. “The lion's share of commercial production will remain there.” In Marburg, BioNTech produces large quantities of the ready-to-fill Covid-19 vaccine. “There, too, we can imagine positioning ourselves more broadly,” said Sahin. A lot has also happened at the Idar-Oberstein production site, where BioNTech has just put new laboratories into operation.
According to Sahins, BioNTech currently has around 1,800 employees in Mainz and 2,800 worldwide.
In the next five to eight years, the number of employees in Mainz should grow to 3,000 to 4,000, said Sahin.
The Mayor of Mainz, Michael Ebling (SPD), recently said that he expected the company to invest a total of one billion euros in Mainz over the next ten years.