TheraCode GmbH acquires JPT Peptide Technologies GmbH

Berlin/Germany, May 7, 2009. - TheraCode GmbH a wholly owned
subsidiary of BioNTech AG (Mainz, Germany), a biotech company
developing novel personalized immunotherapy approaches today
announced the acquisition of all shares of JPT Peptide Technologies
GmbH (JPT) from Jerini AG (Berlin, Germany).

JPT, formerly a fully owned subsidiary of Jerini AG, is an integrated
provider of innovative peptide based research tools and services for
biomarker discovery, immune monitoring and vaccine development. The
acquisition will enable JPT's accelerated expansion into a globally
leading, quality service provider for high-content peptide arrays,
peptide pools, and peptide libraries for all development phases of
novel vaccines. Under the direction of the former Managing Director
Dr. Holger Wenschuh, the unit will be continued as JPT Peptide
Technologies GmbH retaining all production facilities, employees and
contractual obligations of the former company. "The investment in JPT
not only provides us with access to its unique and proprietary
portfolio of peptide technologies, it will also accelerate JPT's
continued growth, increase its visibility and further improve its
well recognized services to an international client base" said Prof.
Dr. Ugur Sahin, CEO of BioNTech AG, adding, "our main focus will be
the creation of a globally acting innovative service provider for
value-added peptide tools in immunology, proteomics and signal
transduction". Helmut Jeggle, chair of the supervisory board of
BioNTech commented "The acquisition of JPT endows BioNTech with
complementary expertise of high synergistic potential, which will
strengthen its unique portfolio of proprietary targets and
technologies. This is an important step in our long-term strategy to
build an excellent and competitive company providing comprehensive
technology platforms for drug and biomarker development."

About BioNTech AG

BioNTech AG is a "spin-off"-company of the Johannes Gutenberg
University located in Mainz, Germany. The company, which is financed
by MIG Fonds and AT Impf GmbH (a wholly owned company of Dr. Andreas
& Dr. Thomas Strüngmann), owns four subsidiaries, Ribological,
UniCell, Tulip and TheraCode. BioNTech is dedicated to the
development of innovative molecular immunotherapies and biomarker
based diagnostic approaches for individualized treatment of cancer
and other severe human diseases.

About JPT Peptide Technologies GmbH

JPT Peptide Technologies GmbH is a leading provider of peptide-based
research tools for applications focusing on cellular and humoral
immune response monitoring, vaccine development, peptide biomarker
discovery, and enzyme profiling. Using its patented high-throughput
synthesis and screening platform, SPOTTM its peptide microarray
technology, PepStarTM, PepMixTM, a new approach for antigen specific
T-cell stimulation and PepTrackTM a novel approach to create peptide
libraries for specific use in T-cell assays, JPT has developed a
series of innovative products and services to facilitate the
development of novel immunotherapies and immune-monitoring tools.
JPT's ability to produce highly complex peptide libraries coupled
with its peptide array technology enables, for the first time, the
discovery and profiling of B- and T-cell epitopes on a proteome-wide
level. In addition, this capability facilitates the development of
tools to monitor the immune status of diverse patient populations
suffering from infectious and autoimmune diseases, allergies, and
cancer.

For further information please contact:

BioNTech AG
Prof. Dr. Ugur Sahin
CEO
BioNTech AG
Langenbeckstr. 8
D-55131 Mainz/Germany
Email: sahin@uni-mainz.de
Tel: +49 (0) 6131-3933456
FAX: +49 (0) 6131-3933343

JPT Peptide Technologies GmbH
Dr. Holger Wenschuh
Managing Director
Volmerstr. 5
D-12555 Berlin/Germany
Tel: +49 (0) 30-63927880
Fax: +49 (0) 30-63925501
E-mail: wenschuh@jpt.com
Web: www.jpt.com

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