COVID vaccine developer BioNTech sees profits rise

BERLIN (AP) - German pharmaceutical company BioNTech, which partnered with Pfizer to develop the first widely used COVID-19 vaccine, said Tuesday that its earnings grew again in the third quarter.

BioNTech, which is based in Mainz, reported a net profit of more than 3.2 billion euros ($3.7 billion) for the July-September period. That compares with the company's loss of 210 million euros ($243 million) in the same period a year earlier and a second-quarter profit of almost 2.8 billion euros ($3.2 billion). Vaccinations with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine started started in December.

BioNTech reported revenue of nearly 6.1 billion euros ($7.1 billion), up from 67.5 million euros ($78 million) in the third quarter of 2020. It said that more than 2 billion doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, marketed as Comirnaty, had been delivered this year as of Nov. 2.

Based on an expected total of up to 2.5 billion doses, BioNTech said it predicts revenue from the coronavirus vaccine for the full year to add up to 16 to 17 billion euros ($18.5 billion to $19.7 billion).

The company has said the windfall from its mRNA-based coronavirus vaccine will help it to develop drugs against cancer and other diseases.

BioNTech's net profit for the year's first nine months was over 7.1 billion euros ($8.2 billion), compared with a loss of 351.7 million euros ($407 million) in the same period a year earlier.

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