Thomas Struengmann and twin brother Andreas were early backers of German firm BioNTech, which partnered with Pfizer to make a vaccine for Covid-19. The brothers cofounded generic drugmaker Hexal in 1986 and sold it to Novartis in 2005 for some $7 billion. The brothers invest in biotech, pharma, life sciences and healthcare companies through their Zug, Switzerland-based investment firm, Santo Holding. In 2008, they established a neuroscience research center in Frankfurt named after their father, Ernst Struengmann.