Co-founder: BioNTech 'very happy' to help Turkey

German company BioNTech is "very happy" to be able to help Turkey, the firm's Turkish-origin co-founder said Saturday after a recent procurement deal for novel coronavirus vaccines.

"Turkey is our homeland. We're very happy to be able to help people in Turkey," Dr. Ugur Sahin told Anadolu Agency in an exclusive interview a day after Turkish authorities announced a deal with BioNTech early on Friday.

"We have discussions with TUBITAK [...] We also want to open a place of BioNTech company in Turkey," he said, referring to Turkey's Scientific and Technological Research Council.

According to the agreement, the firm will send Turkey an initial 550,000 doses of its COVID-19 shot by the end of the year or early 2021 at the latest.

Sahin also underlined that people should not fear other vaccines against COVID-19 that Turkey has procured based on their origin.

*Writing by Merve Berker