The pharmaceutical company Biontech increased its sales in the first half of the year by 30.1 percent to 9.57 billion euros compared to the first half of 2021. Net profit increased by 37.2 percent to 5.37 billion euros, as the company announced on Monday in Mainz.
Looking at the second quarter alone, however, there was a decline in both sales (down 39.8 percent to 3.20 billion) and profit (down 40.0 percent to 1.67 billion) compared to the same period last year.
The corona vaccine manufacturer attributed this to the fact that the dynamic development of the pandemic “resulted in a postponement of orders and thus to fluctuations in quarterly sales”. The company confirmed its forecast for the full year 2022 with Covid-19 vaccine sales of 13 to 17 billion euros.
Meanwhile, Biontech is preparing for the market launch of two adapted Omikron vaccines. Delivery of the vaccine could begin as early as October 2022, subject to official approvals, as Biontech announced on Monday. Both vaccines could thus be available in time to support the booster campaigns in autumn.
“Our Covid-19 product pipeline includes variant-adapted vaccine candidates as well as next-generation vaccine candidates aimed at longer and broader protection,” said Biontech CEO Ugur Sahin. The company therefore expects an increase in demand in its key markets in the fourth quarter.
For one of the two boosters – a combination of the existing vaccine Comirnaty with a vaccine candidate that addresses the spike protein of the omicron variant BA.1 – Biontech and its US partner Pfizer recently completed the submission of the marketing authorization application to the European Medicines Agency (EMA). The doses of this vaccine have been available since March/April and are still pending approval.
Approval for this booster is not planned in the USA. According to the recommendations of the health authority FDA, the companies there are concentrating on a booster which, in addition to the wild type of the virus, is directed against the predominant variants BA.4/5 and with which a clinical study is to begin this month. The first doses could also be delivered from October, and approval is also planned in the EU.
Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD) is convinced that a newly adapted vaccine should be based on the currently dominant omicron subtype BA.4/5 – and not on the original variant BA.1 as previously planned. “In Germany, we assume that BA.4/5 is the better vaccine composition for the current variant,” Lauterbach told Spiegel magazine.
In addition to Biontech, Moderna also reportedly developed an adapted Omicron booster based on the BA.1 variant that was circulating at the time in the spring and also pre-produced plenty of cans. Approval pending. According to Lauterbach, he has ensured “that the companies are now also developing the BA.4/5 very quickly for the EU, getting it approved and delivered,” as he told the “Spiegel”.
Politically, it would be difficult to explain why a more up-to-date booster is being used in the USA than in Germany. “The FDA has enforced a different strategy,” Lauterbach said.