Frankfurt The Mainz biotech climber Biontech closed the year 2021 with a turnover of 19 billion euros and a record profit of almost 10.3 billion euros after taxes. The net profit is still around a tenth above the previous analyst estimates.
Biontech intends to use the high earnings to significantly advance its research program in the areas of cancer drugs and vaccines. In addition, the company is planning a $1.5 billion share buyback program. A special dividend of two euros per share is also to be paid out to shareholders. This corresponds to a volume of 486 million euros.
For 2022, the company confirmed its sales forecast of 13 to 17 billion euros. By mid-March, supply agreements for around 2.4 billion vaccine doses in 2022 had been signed. Of these, 650 million cans are to be delivered to the EU.
Company boss Ugur Sahin wants to further expand the pioneering role of the Mainz-based company. To this end, a whole range of other research programs is to be promoted in clinical trials. In addition to other vaccine products, the main focus is on various mRNA-based immunotherapies, cell therapies and biospecific antibodies against cancer.
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In the field of infectious diseases, Biontech is working with US partner Pfizer on new vaccine variants against Covid-19 and on vaccine candidates against flu and shingles.
Research expenditures are to increase by 500 million euros
In addition, the company intends to invest in the fields of regenerative medicine and autoimmune diseases in order to develop further therapeutic innovations for diseases with high unmet medical needs, said Sahin. “Our vision remains the foundation for all our activities: we use the potential of the immune system to improve the health and life of billions of people worldwide,” says the Biontech boss.
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Research expenditures are expected to rise to between 1.4 and 1.5 billion euros in the current year, compared to 942 million euros in the previous year. CFO Jens Holstein announced that the company intends to further increase spending in the coming years. Biontech is extremely well positioned for a research expansion of this magnitude thanks to its successful Covid vaccine.
Thanks to the high proceeds from the business with the Covid vaccine, the Mainz-based biotech company has risen in one fell swoop to become the top-selling and most profitable company in the German pharmaceutical industry. It is now ahead of Bayer and Boehringer Ingelheim.
Biontech is one of the ten most profitable companies in the pharmaceutical industry worldwide. In the previous year, the biotech company reported sales of just EUR 482 million and net profit of EUR 15 million. Because the marketing of the Covid vaccine only started in December 2020.
The US partner Pfizer, which generated around 36.8 billion dollars in revenue for 2021 with the Covid vaccine Comirnaty developed by Biontech, accounts for the majority of sales in the market.
Biontech’s revenues only result from direct sales of vaccines in its own sales areas of Germany and Turkey in the amount of three billion euros. 14.3 billion euros are attributable to earnings shares within the framework of the partnership with Pfizer, a further 1.4 billion euros to other success bonuses and deliveries of preliminary products to the sales partners.
This constellation results in the company’s extremely high operating margin of around 80 percent. With a turnover of almost 19 billion euros, Biontech reports an operating profit of 15.3 billion euros and a pre-tax profit of 15 billion euros. The tax expense is reported at a good 4.7 billion euros and should almost entirely benefit the German tax authorities. Biontech is likely to have risen to become the largest taxpayer in Germany.
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