After the University of Pennsylvania and the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) separately pressed BioNTech for royalties on its Pfizer-partnered COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty, the German drugmaker has agreed to pay up to resolve the disputes.
BioNTech will pay the NIH $791.5 million, according to a securities filing (PDF). Of the sum, $750 million stems from claimed royalties on the vaccine from 2020 to 2023, while the remaining $41.5 million accounts for entry into an amended license agreement.
The deal also stipulates that the government agency will withdraw the “notice of default” it had issued the company back in March on funds it allegedly owed under the prior licensing agreement.
As for Penn, the university will get up to $467 million from BioNTech, the company revealed in a separate filing (PDF). That sum includes $400 million in royalties for 2020 to 2023, plus up to $15 million for a three-year extension of a research alliance and $52 million for an R&D investment fund that will be jointly managed by BioNTech and Penn.
Penn previously sublicensed its patented mRNA technologies to BioNTech and later sued the company for allegedly skimping out on royalty payments.
The NIH, meanwhile, inked a licensing deal with BioNTech in 2020 after receiving a “significant amount of interest” from companies looking to incorporate its research into their COVID-19 vaccine development efforts, according to a 2021 report (PDF).
Through the settlements, the company agreed to separately give both the NIH and Penn low single-digit percentage royalties on Comirnaty net sales going forward. Pfizer reimbursed BioNTech in part for both of the royalty settlements, contributing $364.5 million to the NIH agreement and $170 million for the Penn deal.
BioNTech noted in the filings that it “expressly denies” any allegations raised by the two parties and that the agreements do not constitute an admission of liability.
Comirnaty sales totaled €1.24 billion ($1.35 billion) for BioNTech during the third quarter of 2024, more than doubling analysts' consensus estimate of $652 million. The company expects annual revenue from the shot to come in at the low end of its guidance window for the year of €2.5 billion to €3.1 billion ($2.7 billion to $3.2 billion) and, as of the third quarter, had a stash of €17.8 billion ($19.4 billion) in cash and cash equivalents to fund its pipeline.