Status: 01/14/2022 1:53 p.m.
One company made a particularly large contribution to the upturn in the German economy last year: the Mainz-based vaccine manufacturer BioNTech. Economic experts have now calculated this effect more precisely.
The vaccine producer BioNTech is likely to have made a decisive contribution to the growth in gross domestic product (GDP) last year. Both the institute for macroeconomics and business cycle research (IMK), which is close to the union, and the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW) appreciate this.
“There is a clear BioNTech effect,” said the Scientific Director of the IMK, Sebastian Dullien. “The official annual GDP result now includes license income from the vaccine developer, which was due at the end of the year. They alone are likely to be responsible for around 0.5 percent of Germany’s total economic output,” confirms Nils Jannsen, head of the Economics Germany department at the IfW . The effect is reflected in higher service exports.
Up to 17 billion euros turnover
The Federal Statistical Office confirmed that the effect of the Mainz company is noticeable, but did not want to quantify the exact contribution of BioNTech. IMK and IfW calculate that without BioNTech’s success, GDP would only have grown by 2.2 percent. “I can’t remember that a single German company has ever contributed so much to growth,” said the IMK expert.
According to its own statements, the vaccine manufacturer earned between 16 and 17 billion euros with its vaccine last year. In 2020, sales were still less than half a billion. “This is a massive increase that affects the entire German economic growth,” said Dullien.
“Almost pure added value domestically”
In addition, BioNTech obtains comparatively few preliminary products from abroad, which would have to be deducted when calculating German GDP. “So that’s almost purely domestic value creation,” said Dullien. “This has a direct positive effect on economic growth.”
BioNTech has the vaccine based on the new mRNA technology produced in Marburg, for example, and also collects billions in fees from its US partner Pfizer. The impressive success of the company shows that there is an excellent research landscape in Germany, said Dullien.