BioNTech profits down as company invests more in cancer drug research

German vaccine manufacturer BioNTech saw profits fall dramatically in 2023, as revenue from Covid-19 vaccines dropped sharply and the company invested in research on new cancer drugs, reported dpa.

BioNTech, based in the western German city of Mainz, reported net profits in 2023 of €930.3 million ($1.01 billion) on Wednesday. That was a major drop from the €9.4 billion in profits the company reported in 2022.

BioNTech plans to launch its first cancer drug on the market in 2026, chief executive Uğur Şahin announced on Wednesday during a presentation of the company's financial results.

He said that the company had reached agreements on several partnerships for cancer medicine and achieved numerous clinical advances with research aimed at developing the drug.

The company hopes to receive regulatory approval of the drug to treat 10 indications - a symptom that leads to a recommendation of treatment or further tests - by 2030, Şahin said.

Research and development costs for the company increased in 2023. According to BioNTech, it spent a total of around €1.8 billion on research and development in 2023, compared to €1.5 billion in the previous year.

In 2024, BioNTech plans to increase research and development expenditure further to between €2.4 and €2.6 billion.

BioNTech's turnover in 2023 amounted to €3.8 billion, down from €17.3 billion in the previous year. Among other things, BioNTech referred to write-downs on vaccine inventories by its partner for the Covid-19 vaccines, US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer.

For the current year 2024, the Mainz-based company expects sales of between €2.5 and €3.1 billion.

In total, BioNTech and Pfizer delivered more than 400 million Covid-19 vaccine doses worldwide in the 2023 financial year. In comparison, around 2 billion doses were invoiced in 2022 and 2.6 billion in 2021.