Because vaccine deliveries only got going in the course of 2021, Biontech can show enormous growth when compared to the previous year’s figures.
(Photo: dpa)
Frankfurt Thanks to extensive deliveries of Covid vaccines, the Mainz-based biotech company Biontech was able to triple its sales and profits in the first quarter. Total revenues rose from 2.05 to 6.37 billion euros, net profit increased from 1.12 billion euros in the previous year to 3.7 billion euros in the first quarter of 2022, as the company announced on Monday.
For the year as a whole, however, Biontech is still assuming a decline in revenues to between 13 and 17 billion euros, compared to just under 19 billion euros in the previous year. Like its US partner Pfizer, the company has confirmed its previous forecast.
By the end of April 2022, both companies have signed supply agreements for approximately 2.4 billion vaccine doses for 2022, according to Biontech.
Company boss Ugur Sahin sees the company in a continued strong position – both in the Covid area and with a view to the ambitions in other therapy fields. “We have continued to expand our leadership position in the field of Covid-19 vaccines and have published encouraging data for our CAR-T therapy for the treatment of solid tumors.” Several new products are planned for long-term growth in the coming years the Biontech CEO.
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The major discrepancy between the growth rates in the first quarter and the annual forecast is mainly due to the fact that vaccine production and deliveries only started up over the course of the past year and the sales booked in the first quarter were therefore still comparatively low. For the following quarters, the comparison basis of the previous year will be significantly higher, the increases will be lower.
Biontech becomes the financially strongest biotech company in the world
Biontech and Pfizer share gross profit from the Covid vaccine business through their partnership, with Pfizer accounting for the lion’s share of outside sales. A good 4.6 billion euros of Biontech’s total sales in the first quarter were attributable to earnings to which the company is entitled from the partnership, a further 600 million euros to the delivery of vaccines to Pfizer and only around 1.1 billion euros to direct vaccine sales in Germany and Turkey.
>> Read about this: Choice of Covid vaccines is increasing – but the need is decreasing
As a result, the financial position of the Mainz-based company has continued to improve significantly. As of the end of March, Biontech reported cash and cash equivalents of almost 6.2 billion euros and trade accounts receivable of 12.7 billion euros, which should also lead to cash inflows over the course of the year. Alongside Moderna, Biontech is currently the financially strongest company in the global biotech industry.
The Biontech founder and CEO wants to invest more money in research.
(Photo: Reuters)
The company intends to use its extensive financial reserves to further expand its clinical research and possibly strengthen it through further acquisitions. Research spending is expected to increase to between 1.4 and 1.5 billion euros in 2022, compared to 950 million euros in the previous year.
Biontech does not rely solely on the mRNA technology used in its Covid vaccine. Rather, the aim, as company boss Ugur Sahin affirms, is to advance the expansion of Biontech with a “multi-platform strategy”. The founder also wants to improve the commercial infrastructure and thus make Biontech more globally present.
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