BioNTech's Race Against Cancer: First Drug Targeted for 2026

The ambitious goals of BioNTech AG highlight the company's dedication to being a trailblazer in cancer research. CEO Ugur Sahin expressed optimism about the plans to bring the company's first cancer drug to market by the year 2026 and to achieve approvals in ten additional indication areas by 2030. Sahin announced this during the presentation of the results for the fiscal year 2023. Despite the outstanding news, BioNTech was unable to reach the profit peak of the previous year. In 2023, the net profit of the vaccine developer was 930.3 million euros – a significant decline compared to the 9.4 billion euros of the year before. Experts attribute this development to a diminishing segment in the Covid-19 business. BioNTech's revenue in 2023 was at 3.8 billion euros, well below the 17.3 billion of the previous fiscal year. Here, the write-downs of vaccine inventories from the American partner Pfizer played a part. The forecast window for 2024 projects revenues between 2.5 and 3.1 billion euros, which indicates a stabilization of the business figures. Despite reduced revenues and profits, the company remained generous in terms of research and development. About 1.8 billion euros were invested in the R&D sector in 2023, compared to 1.5 billion in the previous year. The tendency will continue in 2024, with planned expenditures between 2.4 and 2.6 billion euros for research and product development. The shift in focus from the previous Covid-19 vaccine business, in which over 400 million doses were delivered worldwide in 2023, to cutting-edge cancer therapy, marks a new era for BioNTech. This could be a strategic turn, considering that in 2022 approximately 2 billion doses and in 2021 even 2.6 billion doses of the vaccine were distributed.