Biontech, the vaccine manufacturer from Mainz The 2024 financial year began with losses. The final result was a net loss of 315.1 million euros in the first quarter, after a profit of 502.2 million in the same period last year, as the company announced on Monday in Mainz. Sales plummeted from €1.27 billion in the first quarter of 2023 to €187.6 million.

After a temporary drop, the stock price recovered again in the afternoon.

Biontech justified this with the reduction in income derived from the Covid-19 vaccine, which had made the company world famous. According to its own information, the company is currently working on another Covid-19 vaccine adapted for the upcoming 2024/25 vaccination season. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) have made their adjustment recommendations, Biontech also announced. They want to present this to the authorities at the end of this month.

For the entire year 2024, the Mainz company continues to expect sales of between 2.5 billion and 3.1 billion euros. However, they assume that around 90 percent of this will be achieved in the final months of this year.

Biontech wants to launch a cancer drug on the market in 2026

Biontech wants to launch its first anti-cancer drug on the market in 2026. There are currently two studies in the last phase 3: a study on a candidate drug against lung cancer has been carried out since June of last year and at the beginning of this year it was added another about a possible drug against breast cancer. Another phase 3 study on an active ingredient against recurrent cervical cancer will begin soon.

Throughout this year, the development and commercialization of the adapted vaccine against Covid-19, as well as the development of anti-cancer agents, should be promoted, the company's director and co-founder, Ugur Sahin, said in a statement. “Biontech aims to become a company that commercially operates drugs against cancer and infectious diseases.” In the field of infectious diseases, Biontech began clinical trials of vaccine candidates against malaria, tuberculosis and Mpox last year. The latter was previously called monkeypox.

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