Shares of BioNTech Inc fell more than 6% on Monday trading morning after the German drugmaker shared a gloomy 2023 sales forecast for its developed COVID-19 vaccines in collaboration with Pfizer.
It comes after BioNTech reported strong quarterly earnings early in the morning that beat expectations, but said revenue was down slightly from a year ago on lower demand for the company’s COVID-19 vaccine, l ‘only product marketed. The pharmaceutical company expects demand to decline further questyear, with vaccine revenues to reach €5 billion ($5.4 billion). This represents a sharp decline from the €17.3 billion, or more than $18 billion, in 2022.
Shares initially fell 6.4% to their lowest during the day at $119.98, before rebounding in recent trading and making up for nearly all of their losses in extended trading, but shares are still trading near the level. lowest recorded since last October at 118 euros.
BioNTech said in earnings release that its efforts to tailor the COVID-19 vaccine to new strains of the virus should drive demand for the product quest’year. Last fall, the company launched the world’s first Omicron Corona-compatible COVID booster with Pfizer and sold nearly 550 million doses as of mid-December.
But the company added that it expects fewer initial series vaccines and fewer booster doses quest’year. BioNTech also said it was renegotiating its supply contract with the EU executive body, which could result in vaccine deliveries being spread out over multiple years and volume shrinking.
The company’s dismal outlook did not weigh on Pfizer stock, which closed in red, albeit with a marginal variation.
BioNTech is the latest company to expect a drop in demand for Covid products as the world emerges from the pandemic. Its partner, Pfizer, told investors in January it expected sales of the Covid vaccine to fall 64% questyear and sales of the Covid antiviral treatment known as ‘Paxlovid’ fell 58%.
BioNTech and Pfizer have become household names during the pandemic after creating one of the first globally available vaccines using a technology known as messenger RNA. BioNTech hopes to advance its pharmaceutical innovation chain and identify efforts to use mRNA technology to treat cancer and other diseases.
“As we look to 2023 and beyond, we expect to continue investing in our transformation, focusing on building commercial capabilities in oncology and working for the prove of registration,” the company said in its earnings release. BioNTech added that its “medium-term goal” for questyear is to get approval for several cancer treatment products.
