BIONTECH RISES ON BEST Q1 REPORT 📊

Shares of Biontech (BNTX.US), the company that co-developed revolutionary mRNA vaccines with Pfizer (PFE.US) during the pandemic, are up 5% as its Q1 report beat Wall Street analysts' estimates. The company beat expectations on both revenue and earnings. Year-over-year, of course, results deteriorated significantly, but not to the extent and at the pace Wall Street had estimated. Recently, analysts were also positively surprised by reports from Moderna (MRNA.US). Were investors "too brutal" to vaccine makers?

Revenues: €1.28 billion vs. €1.12 billion forecasts

Earnings per share (EPS): €2.05 vs. €0.69 forecasts

Operating profit: €654 million vs. 231.8 million forecasts

The company reiterated its €5 billion revenue forecast from covide vaccines and maintained its forecast for R&D spending in the range of €2.4 billion to €2.6 billion in 2023;

It plans to expand its line of vaccines against infectious diseases by launching the clinical phase of its first mRNA-based tuberculosis vaccine;

Biontech is also focusing on developing other next-generation products ahead of the autumn and winter season. Together with OncoC4, the company plans to initiate a Phase 3 clinical trial of the anti-CTLA-4 BNT316 antibody (ONC-392) in NSCLC patients;

The company plans to introduce a new class of precision therapies to its oncology portfolio. The Company will also present clinical data on BNT316 (ONC-392), its ADC candidate BNT323 (DB-1303) and its CAR-T candidate BNT211 at the American Society of Clinical Oncology 2023 conference;

Biontech is now looking to focus primarily on cancer and infectious disease treatments, but CEO Ugur Sahin indicated that Biontech is ready to continue developing covide vaccines;

Both Biontech and Moderna have little debt to "fuel" their businesses, and the huge amount of cash accumulated during the vaccine boom may feed into higher R&D spending (technological and possibly quality advances) and increasing their lead over smaller competitors.