By Asmau Ahmad
German vaccine developer BioNTech said on Monday that it was working on therapies to cure cancer.
The company reported its revenue of 17.3 billion pounds (18.6 billion dollars) for 2022 from its headquarters in the western city of Mainz.
The company, which gained international renown for developing a vaccine against COVID-19 based on its novel mRNA (messenger ribonucleic acid) technology, said the figure was down from the almost 19 billion Euros recorded in 2021.
It said that the net profits came in at 9.4 billion Euros, down from 10.3 billion Euros posted in 2021.
Looking ahead, the company predicted turnover of around 5 billion Euros from its COVID-19 vaccine over 2023.
During 2021, BioNTech and its U.S. partner Pfizer supplied more than 2.6 billion doses of the vaccine. That figure fell to around 2 billion in 2023.
Apart from vaccines against the coronavirus, BioNTech is developing approaches in immunotherapy based on mRNA to combat infectious and autoimmune diseases, as well as cancer.
It planned to set up a marketing organisation in the United States, the European Union and other regions this year and next for future products in treating cancer.
Total investment in research and development this year is expected to be between 2.4 billion Euros and 2.6 billion Euros.
Profits would also be used in a share buyback programme, with BioNTech seeking permission for up to half a billion Euros up to the end of this year.
