FRANKFURT (Reuters) – COVID-19 vaccine maker BioNTech on Monday raised the lower bound of its 2022 COVID-19 vaccine revenue guidance for the full year, citing demand for its adapted shots and higher prices.
The German biotech firm, the vaccines partner of U.S. pharma giant Pfizer, said in a statement that it is now targeting 16 to 17 billion euros ($16-$17 billion) in vaccine sales, compared with a previous range of 13-17 billion but down from 19 billion euros reported for last year.
“The updated guidance reflects the shipment of the Omicron adapted bivalent vaccine boosters, which started early in September and is expected to continue throughout the fourth quarter of 2022 as well as higher prices and a positive foreign currency effect,” the company said.
About 300 million doses of the variant-adapted vaccines have been invoiced as of mid-October 2022, it added.
Partner Pfizer last week raised its forecast for its 2022 sales of the COVID-19 vaccine by $2 billion to $34 billion.
BioNTech’s quarterly results, however, were well below the year-earlier quarter, when primary immunisation campaigns were in full swing. Sales during the July-to-September quarter dropped 43% to 3.46 billion euros while net profit fell 44% to 1.78 billion euros.
“As expected, the course of the pandemic remains dynamic and led to fluctuations in quarterly revenues,” said BioNTech.
Sales of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID vaccine are down from pandemic highs as many countries have neared the end of their primary vaccination campaigns. There are also concerns about soft demand for newly updated booster shots.
($1 = 1.0016 euros)
(Reporting by Ludwig Burger, Editing by Miranda Murray)
