BioNTech Raises COVID Vaccine Revenue Guidance Despite Dip in Q3 Results

By Scott Kanowsky 

Investing.com -- BioNTech SE (ETR:22UAy) has raised its guidance for annual revenues from COVID-19 vaccines, citing continued shipments of Omicron booster shots, higher prices and positive foreign currency effects.

The German drugmaker said it now expects sales from the vaccines to come in at between €16 billion - €17 billion (€1 = $0.9983) in 2022. That return would be at the upper end of its original range of €13B - €17B, it added.

"We started shipments of our Omicron-adapted bivalent vaccines early in September and we expect to carry on with our deliveries throughout the fourth quarter of 2022,” said chief financial officer Jens Holstein in a statement.

“We believe in the potential of our COVID-19 franchise and plan to build on our leading position with ongoing innovations in this field."

Approximately 300 million doses of the Omicron-adapted vaccine have been invoiced as of mid-October, BioNTech added. It expects 2.1 billion doses will be invoiced this year.

Despite the optimistic outlook, revenue in the third quarter dropped by 43% year-on-year to €3.46B, while net profit slumped by 44% to €1.78B. The firm said these declines stemmed from higher comparison figures in the July to September period in 2021, when COVID-19 vaccine distributions were in full flight.

Frankfurt-listed shares in BioNTech were lower in volatile late afternoon trading on Monday.