An increase of about 16% in BioNTech shares was recorded last Monday after the company documented its COVID-19 vaccine earnings. Meanwhile, the company also gears for a possible rise in vaccine demand.
The company’s partnership with Pfizer Inc. contributed to as much as 50% of the country’s gross domestic product, according to a professor of International Economics at HTW Berlin. The German biotech company’s stocks reached about $452 and have been in a hurry as the new Delta variant resurges and overall high demand for vaccines continuously rises.
Becoming a global immunotherapy powerhouse
According to the BioNTech Ceo Uğur Şahin, the company wants to maximise vaccine supplies worldwide to more than 100 countries and regions to face the upcoming surge of the new Delta variant. The company manufactures about 1 billion doses per year, with some processes done at Pfizer factories.
The CEO also added that the young company would further mature to deliver multiple products and sets its sights on becoming a global immunotherapy powerhouse.
Because of BioNTech’s exponential income growth, the revenues in the second quarter of 2021 rose 127 times higher than from the previous year, 2020. As a result, the company profited as much as €2.8 billion this year compared to last year’s net loss.
BioNTech also aims to expand to Asia after setting up subsidiaries in Germany and Turkey. In addition, the company plans to build a regional headquarter in Southeast Asia, mainly in Singapore, in collaboration will improve the number of mRNA vaccines manufactured. Furthermore, the regional headquarter will serve as an additional supply network when a new pandemic threatens the world in the future, said BioNTech’s chief strategy officer Ryan Richards.
Aside from BioNTech’s new site in Singapore, the company will also venture to China through Fosun Pharma, which caters to the mRNA manufacturing facility for Chinese residents.
New partnerships seen
The company also announced that they have signed contracts alongside partner Pfizer Inc. to provide more than 2.2 billion doses of two-dose vaccines this year. This is expected to garner €15.9 billion in revenue as predicted from a report of €12.4 billion in revenue in May 2021. Europe is its biggest customer, with vaccine orders reaching 1.8 billion vaccine doses up to 2023.
There is also a significantly slow vaccination process from developing countries and less advanced economies because of low vaccine reserve. Inadequate vaccine doses in developing countries are the main problem of low-income countries. About 30% of the world had already received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Only 1% of vaccines reached low-income countries.
Hastened by the newfound income, BioNTech will also venture into oncology, its primary focus before the pandemic hit the world.
There are plans for three registration-enabling phase 2 trials in 2021, including mRNA vaccines BNT111 and BNT113. BNT111 with Regeneron and Sanofi’s Libtayo will be used for PD-1-pretreated melanoma, while BNT113 with Merck’s Keytruda is used for HPV16-positive head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.
