COVID-19 Vaccine Creators Take on Cancer in National Geographic Documentary
Naman Ramachandran The creators of the Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine will take on cancer in National Geographic documentary “The Cancer Vaccine” (working title). The documentary will follow Uğur Şahin and Özlem Türeci – the husband-and-wife team who built German biotechnology giant BioNTech – as they and their team race competitors, skeptics, governments and cancer itself to create an entirely new class of medicines that use the body’s own defenses to defeat cancer. The documentary posits a world where a cancer diagnosis – even the most aggressive kind – no longer means brutal chemotherapy or a death sentence and a world where every individual cancer patient gets a bespoke drug, individually tailored to the unique genetics of their tumor, which could keep patients cancer-free for the rest of their lives. It aims to take viewers to the frontlines of breakthrough science alongside the scientists, researchers and patients at the heart of this endeavor.