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FRANKFURT: Germany’s BioNTech, Pfizer’s partner on COVID-19 vaccines, cut its drug development budget for this year after quarterly revenues were hurt by a plunge in pandemic-related demand.
Second-quarter revenue dropped to €167.7 million (US$184 million) from €3.2 billion a year earlier, as write-offs on Pfizer’s assets ate into profit share payments that BioNTech is entitled to receive from its US partner.
The quarterly net loss was €190 million, down from a COVID-19-fuelled profit of €1.67 billion a year earlier.
“With some uncertainty on the revenue line, we are also carefully watching our spending by revisiting our cost base,” said finance chief Jens Holstein, adding that BioNTech’s ambition to become a multi-product oncology and infectious disease company was unchanged.
The company said it cut its projected research and development (R&D) budget for this year to between €2 and €2.2 billion, down from between €2.4 and €2.6 billion previously forecast.
R&D expenditures were €1.54 billion last year.
In a bid to broaden its work on cancer treatments and vaccines against infections such as tuberculosis and shingles, the company has hired scientists, initiated more expensive late-stage trials and pursued a string of alliance deals.
BioNTech reaffirmed its outlook for COVID-19 vaccine revenues to reach about €5 billion in 2023, down from €17.2 billion last year, expecting a renewed sales boost from an inoculation campaign in the fall.
It said it plans to start deliveries of updated shots targeting the XBB.1.5 Omicron subvariant with partner Pfizer from September, provided they win regulatory approval.
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