BioNTech SE’s stock rose more than 5% early Monday after the company posted a surprise profit for the third quarter and revenue that beat estimates, even as it was hit by lower COVID-19 vaccine revenue.
The Mainz, Germany-based company
BNTX,
+4.42%
said it had net profit of 160.6 million euros ($172.7 million), or 67 cents a share, down from EUR1.785 billion, or EUR6.98 a share, in the year-earlier period.
Revenue fell to EUR895.3 million from EUR3.461 billion a year ago.
The FactSet consensus was for a loss of 59 cents and revenue of EUR851.0 million.
The company said inventory writedowns by its partner Pfizer Inc.
PFE,
-0.58%
shaved EUR507.9 million off revenue for the period.
Pfizer shocked investors in October with a late-Friday announcement that it was cutting $9 billion from its full-year sales outlook due to a slump in demand for its COVID treatment Paxlovid and COVID vaccine Cormirnaty, which it co-developed with BioNTech. Pfizer said it would take a $5.5 billion charge for overall COVID product inventory writedowns.
BioNTech is now expecting full-year COVID revenues to total EUR4 billion, down from prior guidance of EUR5 billion. It also lowered guidance for R&D spend and sales, general and administration costs.
Like other vaccine makers, including Moderna Inc.
MRNA,
-6.90%
and Novavax Inc.
NVAX,
-2.34%,
BioNTech is looking for combination vaccines to help drive future growth. BioNTech plans to advance its experimental COVID and flu combination vaccine, which it is developing in collaboration with Pfizer, to a phase 3 trial in the coming months, chief strategy officer Ryan Richardson said on a call with analysts Monday.
There’s “substantial potential” for combination vaccines to improve uptake of the COVID shot, Richardson said on the call, and if successful, such vaccines could have an impact from 2025 onwards. BioNTech has not yet disclosed the financial details of its collaboration with Pfizer on the combination vaccines, but “we plan to do that in the near future,” Richardson said.
Looking beyond COVID, BioNTech is also following the pattern established by other vaccine makers in seeking to emphasize other pipeline products, including in other infectious diseases and oncology.
The company highlighted positive clinical data updates across drug classes including antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) candidates BNT323/DB-1303 and BNT325/DB-1305, CAR-T candidate BNT211, T cell therapy candidate BNT221 and mRNA cancer vaccine candidate BNT116, in the quarter. An update on the cancer vaccine candidate is “just around the corner,” Richardson said on the call Monday.
BioNTech will hold an Innovation Series Day on Tuesday in Boston to offer analysts an update on its pipeline.
The stock has fallen 36% in the year to date, while the S&P 500
SPX,
+0.18%
has gained 13.5%.
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