BioNTech expects COVID-19 vaccine sales to fall

German vaccine maker BioNTech has said it expects sales of its COVID-19 vaccine to fall to around 5 billion euros (5.4 billion U.S. dollars) in 2023, the company said Monday.

In 2022, BioNTech recorded sales of 17.3 billion euros, with a net profit of 9.4 billion euros.

An existing supply contract with the European Commission (EC) is currently being renegotiated, "with the potential for a rephasing of deliveries of doses across multiple years and/or a volume reduction," BioNTech said.

Together with U.S. partner Pfizer, the company launched a first vaccine adapted to the Omicron subvariants BA.4/BA.5 last year. "We made significant progress in 2022," BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin said.

Before developing its mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine, the company was already researching a cancer vaccine based on the same approach. This year, the company is looking to spend up to 2.6 billion euros in this field.

At the beginning of the year, BioNTech announced a collaboration with the UK Department of Health, which includes treatment of up to 10,000 cancer patients by 2030.

"As we look to 2023 and beyond, we plan to continue investing in our transformation with a focus on building commercial capabilities in oncology, and working towards registrational trials," Sahin added. (1 euro = 1.08 U.S. dollar)