BioNTech has lowered its full-year sales guidance by €400 million ($461 million) in response to falling demand for its COVID-19 vaccine, according to an Aug. 4 earnings report.
The German biotech, which developed the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty with Pfizer, initially forecast full-year sales of €2 billion ($2.31 billion) to €2.3 billion ($2.65 billion) going into the second quarter. Developments during the quarter led BioNTech to revise its outlook, and it now expects full-year sales of €1.6 billion ($1.84 billion) to €1.9 billion ($2.19 billion). Achieving the midpoint of this new range would represent a 40% drop in sales from the €2.9 billion ($3.34 billion) reported last year and would mark BioNTech’s lowest annual sales since 2020.
Chief Financial Officer Ramón Zapata said on the company’s second-quarter earnings call that BioNTech expects lower demand for its COVID-19 vaccines across every market, reflecting ongoing monitoring of evolving market conditions for vaccines.
Zapata highlighted pressures in Germany, where previously manufactured vaccine doses will be used in the upcoming vaccination season for the first time—a decision he said could significantly reduce BioNTech’s domestic sales due to direct management of operations there. Zapata also cited a European Medicines Agency recommendation from May that allowed "the use of the previous year’s vaccine formula as an alternative to the newly recommended XFG variant-adapted vaccines," as another factor impacting sales.
Deteriorating prospects for COVID-19 vaccines accounted for about 80% of BioNTech's reduced outlook, while a delayed milestone payment from an outlicensed research and development program accounted for most of the remaining reduction.
In addition, falling U.S. demand caused second-quarter revenues to drop to $106 million from $261 million one year ago; however, Comirnaty partner Pfizer exceeded consensus estimates by 14%, according to BMO Capital Markets analysts' note cited in investor communications.
Looking ahead, BioNTech is advancing a broad pipeline of oncology assets that may offset declining COVID-19 revenue over time under incoming CEO Guido Oelkers, who was announced Monday as taking over leadership responsibilities following CEO Ugur Sahin and Chief Medical Officer Özlem Türeci's departure to start a new mRNA biotech company.
