BioNTech earnings drop but forecast for vaccine income grows

A view of the logo of the BioNTech biotechnology building where production of the COVID-19 vaccine has started, in Marburg, Germany, Feb. 13, 2021. BioNTech, which teamed with Pfizer to develop a powerful COVID-19 vaccine, has reported that third-quarter earnings are close to half what they were a year earlier. The German pharmaceutical company still raised its expectations for vaccine revenue after rolling out updated shots targeting omicron strains in September. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

BERLIN (AP) — BioNTech, which teamed with Pfizer to develop a powerful COVID-19 vaccine, reported that its earnings in the third quarter were close to half what they were a year earlier, but the German pharmaceutical company still raised its expectations for vaccine revenue after rolling out updated shots targeting omicron strains.

The company said Monday that it made net profit of 1.8 billion euros ($1.8 billion) off revenue of 3.5 billion euros ($3.5 billion) in the three months to September, a drop from profit of 3.2 billion euros and revenue of 6.1 billion euros in the same period a year ago.

BioNTech said “the course of the pandemic remains dynamic and led to fluctuations" in earnings. Profit and revenue were largely flat in the first nine months of the year.

“Thanks to our strong execution in the third quarter of 2022, we updated our COVID-19 vaccine revenue guidance for the year 2022 to the upper end of the original range," said Jens Holstein, CFO of BioNTech. “We started shipments of our Omicron-adapted bivalent vaccines early in September, and we expect to carry on with our deliveries throughout the fourth quarter of 2022.”

Citing those updated vaccines, the company says it expects to make 16 billion to 17 billion euros in revenue from COVID-19 vaccines vs. the previous forecast of 13 billion to 17 billion euros.

The German company splits profits and costs to make and distribute the vaccines with New York-based Pfizer.

Pfizer said last week that its COVID-19 pill treatment Paxlovid helped it balance tumbling international sales for its coronavirus vaccine and top third-quarter expectations.

BioNTech said it’s sold about 300 million doses of the updated COVID-19 vaccines that target omicron strains as of mid-October.

The company says it and Pfizer have delivered a total of about 1.6 billion doses to low- and middle-income countries. Unlike Moderna, Pfizer and BioNTech have not yet agreed to a supply deal for their latest omicron-adapted shots with COVAX, the U.N.-backed program to ship vaccines to poor countries.