GERMANY’S BIONTECH POSTS 1B EURO PROFIT FOR 1ST QUARTER

German vaccine pioneer BioNTech posted a net profit of 1.13 billion euros ($1.37 billion) in the first quarter, as demand for its COVID-19 jab continued to grow worldwide, Michael Bauer and Robin Powell reported for Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa).

Total revenues were more than 70 times last year's figure for the same quarter, surpassing 2 billion euros compared to 27.7 million a year ago.

"BioNTech has continued to execute the delivery of our COVID-19 vaccine globally to more than 90 countries and territories. Through our continued innovation, we are expanding access to new populations and geographies, and addressing emerging variants,” said Chief Executive Officer, Ugur Sahin.

Some 450 million doses of the vaccine it co-developed with US pharma giant Pfizer had been delivered as of May 6, the firm said.

The Mainz-based company's press release highlighted that the vaccine performed well even against the many recent mutations of the Sars-Cov-2 virus.

"To date, there is no evidence that an adaptation of BioNTech’s current Covid-19 vaccine against key identified emerging variants is necessary," it said.

In the fourth quarter, BioNTech - based in Mainz near Frankfurt - booked a net profit of 366.9 million euros, compared to a net loss of 58.2 million euros during the same quarter in the previous year.

The success of BioNTech's vaccine project - which was led by the husband and wife team of CEO Ugur Sahin and chief medical officer Ozlem Tureci - was underscored by a new longer-term contract agreed with the European Union (EU) on Saturday.

The European Commission agreed to buy up to 1.8 billion additional doses for the next few years, President Ursula von der Leyen announced. The deal, covering 2021-23, allows EU states to buy an initial 900 million doses, with a further option for 900 million more.

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