BioNTech reveals plans to spend about €1bn more on research and development this year

BioNTech has said it plans to spend up to €2.6bn on research and development this year, up from €1.54bn in 2022.

The company also expects to authorise a share repurchase programme of up to $500m during the remainder of 2023, having already spent $1.3bn on own shares from last December to March this year.

The plans come after BioNTech ended 2022 with a cash balance of €13.9bn plus receivables, largely attributed to its COVID-19 vaccine market lead with partner Pfizer.

In December 2022, the companies announced that approximately two billion doses of Comirnaty were invoiced globally that year, including around 550 million doses of the Original/Omicron BA.4-5-adapted bivalent COVID-19 vaccine.

Professor Ugur Sahin, chief executive officer and co-founder of BioNTech, said: “We made significant progress in 2022 by advancing our pipeline and launching the world’s first Omicron BA.4/BA.5 adapted bivalent COVID-19 vaccine. In addition, multiple new modalities achieved encouraging clinical data and we progressed nine new programmes into clinical trials.”

The company has already started clinical trials of four new infectious disease vaccines over the past few months, including a COVID-19/influenza combination candidate, as well as individual vaccines against herpes, malaria and shingles. It will also continue with its focus on oncology.

“As we look to 2023 and beyond, we plan to continue investing in our transformation with a focus on building commercial capabilities in oncology and working towards registrational trials. Our mid-term goal is to seek approval for multiple oncology products in cancer indications with high unmet medical need.”

The company has announced a series of deals this year, including an agreement to acquire its long-standing strategic collaboration partner InstaDeep in January.

The transaction includes an upfront payment of £362m in a mix of cash and BioNTech shares, with InstaDeep shareholders also eligible to receive additional performance-based future milestone payments up to approximately £200m.

BioNTech also entered into an exclusive worldwide licensing agreement with OncoC4 this month, aimed at developing and commercialising an anti-CTLA-4 monoclonal antibody as monotherapy or combination therapy in various cancer indications.

“The announced acquisition of InstaDeep and the recent licence and collaboration agreement with OncoC4, which adds a clinical programme to our existing portfolio, aim to create future value for BioNTech mid- to long-term,” said Jens Holstein, chief financial officer of BioNTech.