BioNTech (BNTX +8.36%) announced its third-quarter results on Nov. 9. In this Motley Fool Live video recorded on Nov. 10, 2021, Motley Fool contributors Keith Speights and Brian Orelli discuss those results.
Keith Speights: Well, Brian, we talked about earlier, we're still in the thick of earnings season, and BioNTech announced its Q3 results on Tuesday. What did you think about BioNTech's performance in the quarter, and what do those prospects look like for next year?
Brian Orelli: I mean, Pfizer (PFE +0.52%) had already reported, and so they largely spilled the beans about the sales of Comirnaty. Revenue for BioNTech was 6.1 billion euros, which works out to about $7 billion. Then, net profit was 3.2 billion euros.
And then they have cash of 2.4 billion euros, which is $2.8 billion. But they haven't actually gotten all the cash that Pfizer owes them. So the quarter ends, but then Pfizer is going to pay them for the third quarter the cash that they owe them in the fourth quarter. They book the sales because that's the way accounting works, but they haven't actually gotten the cash from Pfizer yet -- or [rather], they hadn't as of the end of the third quarter, when they closed their books.
Then on the clinical trial side, they started a phase 1 clinical trial with a quadrivalent mRNA vaccine for the flu. They are working on that with Pfizer. They started a phase 2 trial of BMT122 in colorectal cancer. This is a personalized cancer vaccine that they're working on with Roche on their 15 product candidates and 19 ongoing clinical trials. Most of those are in early stages, but they do have four phase 2 clinical trials ongoing.
I think the company has a lot of potential at a $55 billion market cap. It still has quite a bit of vaccine sales built into it, considering how early-stage its pipeline is.
Speights: When anyone tries to compare, say BioNTech to Moderna, I think one of the things you really have to look at is that BioNTech has an earlier-stage pipeline. Moderna does have a CMV vaccine that's about to go into phase 3 testing. So they at least have another late-stage candidate, or soon will, whereas BioNTech doesn't. Its most advanced pipeline candidates are in phase 2.
But on the other hand, BioNTech's market cap is roughly half of what Moderna's is. You do have to consider valuation as well.
