While Pfizer’s German mRNA partner BioNTech has high hopes for its post-COVID future, the company continues to feel the squeeze from the changeover to a seasonal vaccine market.
Overall, BioNTech reported total revenues of €128.7 million for 2024’s second quarter, coming in below a consensus analyst estimate of €134.98 million ($148 million) cited by Investing.com. Notably, BioNTech also logged a net loss of €807.8 million (about $886 million) for the period. Over the same stretch in 2023, BioNTech posted a net loss of €190.4 million, according to a company press release.
The company’s shares were down more than 6% Monday amid a wider market selloff.
BioNTech blamed the year-over-year revenue slide on lower sales of its COVID-19 vaccine around the world, citing “the continued shift in demand from a pandemic to a seasonal endemic COVID-19 vaccine market.”
Despite the fickleness of the current COVID vaccine market, BioNTech is standing firm behind its previously stated guidance for the year. For the full 12-month period, the company expects to generate revenues in a range between €2.5 billion to €3.1 billion.
BioNTech currently has €18.5 billion ($20.3 billion) in cash and security investments on hand, according to the company’s release.
BioNTech plans to use its cash position to continue focusing on its long-term growth strategy, the company’s chief financial officer, Jens Holstein, said in a statement. Aside from growing its clinical pipeline, the mRNA specialist also aims to bulk up in manufacturing to support late-stage clinical trials and sales activities, Holstein added.
Back in May, when BioNTech reported its first-quarter earnings, the company laid out an ambition to have at least 10 potentially registrational trials underway by the end of 2024. Should that plan come to fruition, BioNTech says it hopes to make its market debut in oncology in 2026. By 2030, the company aims to have picked up 10 approved indications in cancer.
Following the initial success of its Pfizer-partnered COVID shot, BioNTech has sought to reposition itself as a next-generation immunotherapy company focused heavily on cancer. BioNTech is testing therapeutic approaches ranging from off-the-shelf mRNA candidates to bispecifics, antibody-drug conjugates and small molecules.
Earlier this year, BioNTech’s CFO Holstein predicted the company would recognize around 90% of its full-year revenue in the final months of 2024, citing the now-seasonal timing of COVID-19 inoculations.
In Monday's release, the company pointed out that it recently launched a variant-adapted version of its shot in the European Union and received approval for the same vaccine in the United Kingdom. Over in the United States, BioNTech has initiated a rolling review with the FDA for its retooled vaccine.