JPM23: BioNTech not giving up on fighting symptomatic COVID as oncology ambitions spread

BioNTech, like its COVID vaccine rival Moderna, has seen gargantuan growth in the last two years thanks to sales of its Pfizer-partnered shot. The new money resulted in more employees, more facilities and more goals as the company’s R&D machine expands beyond just mRNA vaccines.

But that doesn’t mean the company is settling with what appears to be a growing status quo that the best use of the COVID vaccines is to stave off severe illness. At the 2023 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference Tuesday, CEO Ugur Sahin, M.D., disclosed that the company was working on a modified COVID vaccine that combined the spike protein seen in past versions with T-cell enhancers. 

“At best, we have about 99% conservation of T-cell epitopes in all strains, and we believe this combination of a spike protein vaccine with a T-cell vaccine can even further improve the quality of the response that we are getting from vaccination,” he said. 

This upgraded shot is evidence of a point Sahin elaborated on later in the company’s presentation when asked about the future revenue stream of the COVID shots. 

“I believe one plan will be still, not only focused on severe infection, but think about how can we develop vaccines and approaches that prevent infections or symptomatic disease,” Sahin said. 

Even as Sahin and BioNTech tout potential COVID updates, the company is diverting significant resources elsewhere, particularly to its growing oncology pipeline consisting of cancer therapeutics and cell therapies. The company has 19 oncology programs across 22 clinical trials, including two bispecific antibodies being developed with Genentech.

The company said more data from expanded cohorts in ongoing clinical trials testing the antibodies are expected in 2023. BioNTech’s fully owned phase 1 cell therapy BNT211 is also nearing an additional readout with a phase 2 trial slated for later this year.