Stefan Oelrich Bayer Executive: COVID mRNA Vaccine Was Gene Therapy (Oct 2021)

A speech made last year by a Bayer executive mentioning that messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines are gene therapy is gaining traction on social media for the second time since it was initially posted online in October 2021. Stefan Oelrich, a member of the Board of Management of Bayer and head of the Pharmaceuticals Division, gave a speech at the World Health Summit focused on biotechnological innovation. He said his company is “really taking that leap … in cell and gene therapy.” “Ultimately, the mRNA vaccines are an example for that cell and gene therapy,” Oelrich said at the event’s opening in Berlin. “I always like to say, if we had surveyed two years ago in the public—‘would you be willing to take gene or cell therapy and inject it into your body?’—we probably would have had a 95 percent refusal rate,” he added. The pandemic has given the pharmaceutical industry innovation opportunities that may have not been possible before, Oelrich said. “I think this pandemic has also opened many people’s eyes to innovation in the way that was maybe not possible before,” the Bayer executive said. “But it’s not just the industry that has to innovate, it’s across all the value chains starting with the academia and university, and again, the World Health Summit.”
https://www.ntd.com/bayer-executive-says-mrna-vaccines-are-gene-therapy_748446.html