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Biontech founder Özlem Türeci, Ugur Şahin (2021)
Photo: Bernd von Jutrczenka / dpa
The vaccine manufacturer Biontech made a net profit of around 10.3 billion euros last year.
Sales were almost 19 billion euros, as the Mainz-based company announced.
When presenting its business figures for 2021, Biontech confirmed the sales forecast for its Covid 19 vaccine of 13 to 17 billion euros in the current year.
As the company announced, around 2.6 billion doses of the corona vaccine Comirnaty were shipped to more than 165 countries and regions worldwide in 2021.
Company boss Ugur Sahin said that Biontech had “a significant impact on health and the global economy with the first approved vaccine based on our mRNA technology”.
Biontech CFO Jens Holstein emphasized that vaccine sales were "significantly influenced by the extraordinary circumstances of the ongoing pandemic".
"The financial success in 2021 allows us to make significant investments in our research and development in the years to come," he said.
The company plans a share buyback program of up to $1.5 billion over the next two years and a special dividend of two euros per share.
Shares rose slightly in premarket US trading.
billion in research and development
Additional money, up to 1.5 billion euros, is to flow into research and development.
Sahin announced that Biontech now wants to "rapidly develop several programs," including mRNA-based immunotherapies and cell therapies.
The vaccine candidates against flu and shingles are also to be promoted.
For a vaccine tailored to the Omicron variant, the company expects to publish the first data from the clinical study on safety, tolerability and efficacy in April, which should support possible applications for approval.
Other vaccine candidates are also to be tested.
hba/dpa/AFP
