biotechnology
Biontech reaps billions in profits
It’s running at Biontech. Photo: Sebastian Gollnow / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
The success of its corona vaccine continues to ensure brilliant business figures for the Mainz-based company. The capital of Rhineland-Palatinate is also delighted about this: tax revenues are gushing up there.
The corona vaccine manufacturer Biontech posted a net profit of around 3.2 billion euros in the third quarter. A year ago there was a loss of around 210 million euros.
The turnover, which is mainly due to the vaccine produced jointly with the US partner Pfizer, rose between July and September to almost 6.1 billion euros after 67.5 million euros in the same period last year, as the company announced on Tuesday.
For the entire fiscal year, Biontech expects vaccine sales between 16 and 17 billion euros. That is slightly above the forecast of 15.9 billion euros presented three months ago.
Biontech and Pfizer expect to produce between 2.7 billion to 3 billion doses of vaccine by the end of this year. For next year, the two companies anticipate that they will have production capacities of up to four billion cans. According to their own information, the two partners have so far delivered over two billion doses of their corona vaccine to more than 152 countries or regions worldwide (as of November 2). According to Biontech, talks are currently being held about additional vaccine deliveries for next year and beyond.
The sales forecast was received positively by investors. The Biontech share traded on the New York Nasdaq rose shortly after the announcement of the new business figures by around 20 dollars to meanwhile just over 260 dollars, but gave up its price gain in the further course of trading. On Monday she had jumped twelve percent in the course. Before that, the papers had collapsed by more than a quarter within two days because of a cut sales target by US competitor Moderna, which also produces an mRNA vaccine, and the prospect of an effective corona pill from Pfizer.
Biontech boss Ugur Sahin described the prospect of an effective corona drug on Tuesday as very good news. What effects this will have on the demand for vaccines cannot be estimated at the moment, as this also depends, among other things, on how much of the drug will be available in the next year. In any case, he does not assume that this will have a “huge impact” on the vaccinations.
The economic success of the pharmaceutical company brings the city of Mainz a rain of money. Instead of the planned minus of 36 million euros, the Rhineland-Palatinate state capital will probably record a surplus of 1.09 billion euros by the end of the year, announced Finance Director Günter Beck (Greens) on Tuesday in Mainz. For 2022 an annual surplus of 490.8 million euros is expected. This means that the state capital will be considered debt-free by the end of next year. Biontech is headquartered in Mainz; How much trade tax the company pays was initially open, also for reasons of tax secrecy.