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BioNTech reports surprising COVID vaccine sales in Q3 but tempers expectations for annual sales

BioNTech reported surprisingly strong sales of its COVID-19 vaccine in the third quarter, which reached €1.24 billion ($1.35 billion) and more than doubled the consensus estimate of $652 million.

It was a 39% boost in revenue year over year. The German company credited early approvals in various areas where different vaccines have been created to account for regional strains. The quick adaption of new shots comes from “the flexibility of our mRNA technology,” Ozlem Tureci, BioNTech’s chief medical officer, said on a conference call.

Despite the sales success during the quarter, BioNTech said it expects annual revenue from the shot to come in at the low end of its guidance window for the year, which remains at €2.5 billion to €3.1 billion ($2.7 billion to $3.2 billion). The company cited inventory write-downs, anticipated revenues from its pandemic preparedness contract with Germany and other charges related to its COVID-19 vaccine partnership with Pfizer that “negatively influence” annual revenues.

“Q3 figures so far have been generated dominantly by revenues that we generated in high-income countries. We have seen though low demand and low pricing in some of the low- and middle-income countries within the Pfizer territory and therefore we specified our guidance to the low end,” Jens Holstein, BioNTech’s chief financial officer, said.

Last week, Pfizer reported third-quarter sales of Comirnaty at $1.4 billion, up 9% year over year. The company also said that early approvals, which led to early stocking, accounted for the higher-than-anticipated sales. Pfizer expects its Comirnaty sales to reach $5 billion this year.

COVID vaccine producer Moderna will provide its third-quarter report on Thursday.With the massive COVID sales BioNTech achieved during the pandemic, the company still has a stockpile of cash and cash equivalents equaling €17.8 billion ($19.4 billion), fueling its pipeline full of cancer and vaccine hopefuls. BioNTech has 10 products which are in phase 2 and phase 3 trials.

When asked about R&D funding, Holstein said that the company feels “comfortable” with the $2.4 billion to $2.6 billion it is currently spending annually.

“Our strong balance sheet allows us to invest in future value creation. Consequently, we will continue to invest in maintaining a leading cash-generative COVID-19 vaccine business,” Holstein said. “We will continue to assume go, no-go decision-making across all development stages as part of our portfolio prioritization strategy. This allows us to maintain our focus on materializing the value in our pipeline.”