Talk:BioNTech/Archive 1

Archive 1

Turkish-German?

Why should Biontech should be a Turkish-German company? Because some of the founders are of Turkish descent? How many companies then would change their "nationality"? The headquarters are in Germany and there is no evidence which would justify the appendix Turkish.

Remember to sign and date your talk page comments by using four tildes. I tend to agree, although it's "slightly Turkish": cofounder and CEO, Uğur Şahin, is Turkish-German, as is his cofounder and wife, Dr. Özlem Türeci, chief medical officer. Turkish founders and leadership in a wholly-German developed company (founded in Mainz, 2008) and its technologies. Zefr (talk) 18:55, 10 November 2020 (UTC)

The company was founded in Germany and resides in Germany. Wherever the heads of the companies come from is irrelevant, AFAIK. Am I wrong? --FunkyMartian (talk) 18:58, 10 November 2020 (UTC)

Bbc, Times and many international newspapers say BioNtech is a Turkish-German company. [1] Sametscofield (talk) 23:24, 10 November 2020 (UTC)

The BBC article does not say that, and I could find no major news source confirming the term for the company. This article is about the company which was founded in Mainz in 2008 and has always been operated as a German firm. The "Turkish-German" term describes the wife-husband cofounders and executives. The Local, a German news site, and Deutsche Welle, here explain it clearly: no mention of the company as "Turkish-German". Although a BLP issue, this discussion about Uğur Şahin is relevant for avoiding the term in the company context. Sametscofield has reached WP:3RR, indicating no further edits before being blocked, and the Turkish-German term should be removed from the lede statement. Sametscofield should self-revert. Zefr (talk) 00:29, 11 November 2020 (UTC)

ALL Founders (German article)

BioNTech was founded in 2008 in Mainz, Germany based on research by Uğur Şahin, Prof. Dr. med. Christoph Huber and Özlem Türeci. It has since been supported by a scientific advisory board under the direction of Nobel laureate Rolf M. Zinkernagel. The brothers Andreas und Thomas Strüngmann from Hexal AG in Holzkirchen, Upper Bavaria provided the seed capital of 180 million US-Dollars, co-founders were also Michael Motschmann und Helmut Jeggle, both members of the supervisory board of BioNTech SE. 2003:F3:2707:3C1B:4DE3:75C5:3BC1:B53D (talk) 00:29, 12 November 2020 (UTC)

Expansion

While this article is read by a large audience, it is still a stub. In order to help expanding it, I have provided a translation of the German Wikipedia article, while adding proper disclosure of my COI on my user page, this talk page, and the page itself. I hope this appropriate, and I will refrain from any further large edits here. Independent community feedback is highly appreciated. Thanks, J at BioNTech (talk) 15:48, 29 November 2020 (UTC)

Excessive promotion in excess of encyclopedic content. Violation of WP:PROMO, WP:NOT, including WP:NOTEVERYTHING. Also probably a username violation, WP:ORGNAME. Reported to admin. Zefr (talk) 16:05, 29 November 2020 (UTC)

@Zefr: Sorry, we didn't mean to upset anyone here, really. The article contained a maintenance note which explicitly called for expansion. We understand that our proposal was not good and therefore moved it to a userspace draft. It would be great if the community could check and partially adopt content that is considered helpful. Thanks, J at BioNTech (talk) 16:00, 30 November 2020 (UTC)

J at BioNTech - first, your username was reviewed by admin and accepted, although implicit at Wikipedia is the neutral view that you should not edit articles about your own place of work without using secondary sources published independently, WP:SCIRS reviews, in this case. Review WP:COI and WP:NPOV for further background. Also, please don't use sources in the German language, as there are plentiful sources in English about BioNTech. The company website is not a WP:SECONDARY source, and should be used only for specific information not otherwise available in the public. Concerning content, it's best to add a little at a time, then wait to allow other editors to review and revise, and the content should be concise and only about core company facts. Your extensive edit on 29 Nov was too broad to itemize here. You can use the article talk page to open discussion on various possible topics to include. Zefr (talk) 16:28, 30 November 2020 (UTC)

Pronunciation of company's name

Although the pronunciation of the company's name given in the article agrees with what I have heard, it appears to me to be untenable, and if so, should be rejected or suppressed in the article.

My basic issue is what I'd call the Humpty Dumpty rule: " 'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean--neither more nor less.' " Charles L. Dodgson (as Lewis Carroll), Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865). It seems widely accepted that this approach to words' meanings is untenable for clear and convenient communication. And so it should be with words' pronunciations: the old idea that people (presumably, or companies) can pronounce their names however they want is likewise untenable. Names should be pronounced according to how they are written, as that written form should be pronounced under the normal rules of pronunciation for the language in which the name arose, or into which it is (first) interjected. Obviously there are names with identical spellings but different pronunciations in different languages, but at least there is a limited and fixed universe of acceptable alternatives.

The capitalization of the N in BioNTech certainly appears to be an cutesy attempt at a shorthand for the German "und" and/or the English "and" in the context of "Biologie und Technik" (German) and/or "Biology and Technology" (English), or something like that. If that is correct, then from a pronunciation standpoint, seemingly the N must have a pronunciation as part of a syllable distinct from the "Bio" that proceeds it. Is that not also the basic approach in German? N'Awlins Contrarian 03:08, 6 November 2021 (UTC)