For the year as a whole, the company should be heading for a net profit of more than nine billion euros.
(Photo: dpa)
Frankfurt A week after the US company Pfizer, Mainz-based Biontech also raised its vaccine sales forecasts, albeit not as much as some observers expected. The company is now anticipating revenues of 16 to 17 billion euros for its Covid vaccine Comirnaty, compared to the previously forecast 15.9 billion euros.
The forecast is based on expected sales of 2.5 billion cans in the current year. Biontech is reckoning with 2.7 to three billion cans in terms of total production.
In the third quarter, Biontech increased its sales to almost 6.1 billion euros compared to 67 million euros in the previous year, and operating profit to 4.7 billion euros, after a loss of 184 million euros in the previous year.
In the first nine months, the biotech company increased its revenues by a factor of 100 to 13.4 billion euros thanks to its extensive Covid business. The operating result for the period is reported at 10.6 billion euros, the net profit at 7.1 billion euros.
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After only nine months, Biontech is by far the most profitable pharmaceutical company in Germany. For the year as a whole, the company should be heading for a net profit of more than nine billion euros.
The US partner Pfizer, which booked the lion’s share of sales with Comirnaty, had raised its sales forecast for the business from 33.5 to 36 billion dollars last week. Against this background, many experts at Biontech had expected a stronger increase in forecasts. However, the relationship between the two companies is complex.
Biontech’s sales result only to a small extent from the company’s direct vaccine sales in Germany and Turkey. Instead, the lion’s share of the proceeds consists of the earnings shares and bonuses that Pfizer pays to Biontech as part of the alliance.
In the first nine months, this item alone accounted for around 9.8 of 13.4 billion euros in sales. As part of the partnership, the two companies share the gross income from the Comirnaty business.
Since the earnings shares paid by Pfizer at Biontech are not offset by any costs, the return on sales of the Mainz company is far higher than that of the US company. With direct sales of vaccines in Germany and Turkey, the Mainz-based company only achieved sales of around 2.6 billion euros in the first nine months.
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