HQ Team
March 27, 2023: BioNTech, a Germany-based biotechnology company, is expected to spend between 2.4 million euros and 2.6 million euros on research this year compared with 1.5 million euros last year.
The company headquartered in Mainz also expects to authorize a share repurchase program of up to $500 billion during 2023.
BioNTech’s research and development expenses were 509.8 million euros for the three months ended December 31, 2022, compared to 271.5 million euros, for the same period last year.
For the year ended December 31, 2022, research and development expenses were 1.537 million euros, compared to 949.2 million euros for the year-ago period.
The increase was mainly due to expenses related to the development and production of BioNTech’s and Pfizer’s Omicron-adapted bivalent COVID-19 vaccines.
Pipeline candidates
Clinical studies for BioNTech’s pipeline candidates also contributed to the rise. A higher headcount further drove the increase in the R&D area and expenses incurred under BioNTech’s “share-based-payment arrangements,” according to a company statement on its website.
Fourth-quarter revenue stood at 4.3 billion euros; for the entire year, it was 17.3 billion euros. Full-year net profit was 9.4 billion euros.
The company had a cash balance of 13.9 billion euros. “The contractual settlement of the gross profit share under the COVID-19 collaboration with Pfizer has a temporal offset of more than one calendar quarter.”
The company expects revenue from COVID-19 vaccine sales to be about five billion euros in 2023.
COVID-19 sublineages
Revenue guidance was based on assumptions including the expected transition from an advanced purchase agreement environment to commercial market ordering starting in 2023.
It took into consideration a regulatory recommendation to adapt the COVID-19 vaccines to address newly circulating variants or sublineages of SARS-CoV-2, according to the BioNTech statement.
“We made significant progress in 2022 by advancing our pipeline and launching the world’s first Omicron BA.4/BA.5 adapted bivalent COVID-19 vaccine,” said Prof Augur Sahin, CEO and co-founder of BioNTech.
“We progressed nine new programs into clinical trials,” he said. The company will continue to invest in building commercial capabilities in oncology and registration trials.
“Our mid-term goal is to seek approval for multiple oncology products in cancer indications with high unmet medical need.”
“As we look to 2023 and beyond, we plan to continue investing in our transformation with a focus on building commercial capabilities in oncology and working towards registrational trials.”
Herpes, malaria
Trials are ongoing on new COVID-19 vaccine programmes for new variants and others to treat influenza, herpes, malaria, shingles, cancer and solid tumours.
In November 2022, the second tranche of BioNTech’s share repurchase program of American Depositary Shares (ADSs) was authorized, with a value of up to $500 billion, commencing on December 7, 2022, and ending on March 17, 2023.
Both tranches of the share repurchase program earned the company about $1.3 billion. BioNTech “expects to authorize a share repurchase program of up to $0.5 billion during the remainder of 2023.”
“As a science and innovation-driven company, we plan to continue to invest heavily in R&D and are willing to invest in mergers and acquisitions as well as collaborations to create future growth for the company,” Jens Holstein, CFO of BioNTech, said.
BioNTech and its collaborators are developing multiple mRNA vaccine candidates for various infectious diseases alongside its diverse oncology pipeline.
BioNTech has relationships with multiple global pharmaceutical collaborators, including Genmab, Sanofi, Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, Regeneron, Genevant, Fosun Pharma and Pfizer.
