BioNTech, known worldwide for its Pfizer-partnered COVID-19 vaccine, is advancing several promising cancer programs.
As BioNTech progresses with its goal to grow into a “fully integrated immunotherapy powerhouse,” the German biotech is eying a 2025 regulatory filing for what could become its first approved cancer drug. But with tariffs raising uncertainties around global trade, the company is responding with plans to diversify its long-term supply for the drug. As it stands, BioNTech is “reliant on a China-based CDMO” for supply of BNT323, chief strategy officer Ryan Richardson said on the company’s first-quarter conference call Monday. BioNTech licensed the next-gen HER2-targeted antibody-drug conjugate from China’s DaulityBio in 2023, and now it’s plotting an FDA filing in second-line endometrial cancer later this year. The drug is being tested in a single-arm trial in second-line endometrial cancer, BioNTech chief medical officer, Özlem Türeci, M.D., said on Monday’s conference call. The study, part of a basket trial in multiple solid tumor indications, is testing the drug “across all HER2-positive scores,” Türeci said, adding that it’s a “broad” second-line endometrial cancer population. The company is already in discussions with regulatory authorities to “better understand expectations” for its approval filing, and those discussions are “progressing,” Türeci added. In BioNTech’s first-quarter earnings presentation (PDF), the company said it expects to submit a Biologics License Application for BNT323 before the end of the year. Amid the R&D and regulatory updates, BioNTech is also in the process of diversifying its supply base, Richardson said. Over the next few years, the company plans to add multiple BNT323 “supply nodes” to reduce its reliance on the supply coming out of China. The update comes as President Donald Trump’s announced tariffs—and threated pharma-specific levies—have prompted a wave of Big Pharma investment announcements in the U.S. BioNTech executives, for their part, believe the company is relatively well-positioned to navigate the situation based on the geographic footprint of the company’s manufacturing operations and its revenue base. “We don’t anticipate at the current time significant financial impact from the tariffs that have been announced,” Richardson stressed. For the company’s Pfizer-partnered COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty, the firms operate manufacturing facilities on “both sides of the Atlantic,” Richardson said. On Monday, BioNTech reported first-quarter sales of 183 million euros and a net loss of 416 million euros. The company is continuing to leverage the enviable financial situation afforded by its COVID-19 vaccine to advance numerous cancer programs. It had a cash pile of 15.9 billion euros as of March 31. Besides BNT323 and Comirnaty, BioNTech is spending much of its time lately focusing on two priority oncology programs, the PD-L1xVEGF bispecific antibody BNT327 and its mRNA cancer immunotherapy platform. Both of those programs have “disruptive potential,” BioNTech executives said several times on Monday. In another update Monday, the company said its CFO Jens Holstein would retire from the position at the end of June. BioNTech appointed Novartis executive Ramón Zapata-Gomez to serve as its CFO starting in July.