© BioNTech SE
Back in 2019, BioNTech was far from a household name. Nowadays, however, the pharmaceutical company from Mainz is world-famous for developing and producing Comirnaty©, a COVID-19 vaccine. The company’s original aim was to develop personalized mRNA-based treatments to fight cancer – a goal that it continues to pursue to this day. Since 2016, a research team at the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Mathematics ITWM has collaborated with BioNTech to optimize the planning, management and documentation of their production processes. This work culminated in the development of two software platforms, one for vaccines and one for cancer treatments, which help organize and optimize the production processes at BioNTech today. These systems are in use and are continuously adapted and improved as situations and requirements change.