Strong quarterly figures: BioNTech posts billions in profit

The flourishing vaccine business catapulted BioNTech’s profit in the second quarter to just under 2.8 billion euros. Meanwhile, the Mainz-based company is also pushing cancer research.

The Mainz-based BioNTech group has benefited significantly from the rapid increase in global supply of its Covid-19 vaccine, which it developed together with Pfizer. According to preliminary figures, sales jumped in the second quarter of the year – to 5.3 billion euros after 41.7 million euros in the previous year.

The net profit shot up to almost 2.8 billion euros. In the same period of the previous year, high research and development costs had pushed the company, which is listed on the New York technology exchange Nasdaq, deeply into the red. The bottom line was that BioNTech posted a loss of 88.3 million euros at the time.

Milestone of one billion vaccine doses reached

By July 21, BioNTech and Pfizer had delivered around one billion doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, which is sold under the trade name “Comirnaty”, to more than 100 countries or regions worldwide. “We are proud to have reached this milestone in just six months and to have made a difference for people with our proprietary mRNA technology,” said Ugur Sahin, CEO and co-founder of BioNTech.

BioNTech and Pfizer expect to produce up to three billion cans by the end of the year. In the coming year, production capacities are expected to increase to up to four billion cans.

New study on the Delta variant

The company is currently also benefiting from the fact that third-party vaccinations with the vaccine are already starting in countries like Israel. BioNTech and Pfizer believe that “a booster or third dose of BNT162b2 has the potential to maintain the highest level of protection against all variants currently tested, including Delta.”

Nonetheless, the company is developing a version of its Covid-19 vaccine adapted to the new coronavirus variant, which targets the full spike protein of the Delta variant. The clinical studies are scheduled to begin this month – provided the authorities agree.

The necessity of such a third vaccination is, however, not without controversy: For example, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the World Health Organization (WHO) currently do not see a sufficient data basis for so-called “booster vaccinations”.

Advancing new cancer therapies

When the figures for the first quarter of 2021 were presented, BioNTech boss Sahin emphasized that he wanted to advance research in cancer therapy. In fact, BioNTech’s oncology pipeline has evolved since then: According to the company, there are currently 15 product candidates in 18 ongoing studies. Sahin expects to “bring a number of new product candidates onto the market in the coming years”.

The therapies are directed against malignant melanoma (“black skin cancer”). According to the German Cancer Society, malignant melanoma is the fifth most common solid tumor in men and the fourth most common in women.

But the potential applicability of mRNA technology is by no means exhausted. The company is also researching malaria therapies. In addition, a phase 1 study with a flu vaccine is to begin in the third quarter of 2021.

Positive course reaction

The fresh BioNTech numbers are well received on the stock market – albeit with a little delay. On the Tradegate trading platform, the shares recently gained 5.2 percent to EUR 348.50. However, they remained well below the record high they had reached just a few days ago.

Most recently, speculation in the New York Times, among others, about final US approval of the corona vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech, drove up the share prices of both companies in September. So far, in the USA – in contrast to the European Union – it has only been an emergency license.

The market value of BioNTech then temporarily exceeded the threshold of 100 billion dollars. At the beginning of August, BioNTech shares hit a record high at $ 433.90. For comparison: when the company went public in October 2019, BioNTech shares were issued at 15 euros.