Six years ago, a little-known German pharmaceutical company developed the first approved mRNA COVID-19 vaccine and changed the course of a global pandemic. BioNTech, which had spent over a decade developing mRNA for cancer with little commercial interest, partnered with Pfizer to roll out its Comirnaty coronavirus vaccine in record time, propelling the company and its founders to global fame.
Today, however, the Mainz-based biotech firm is facing a harsh reckoning. The firm announced Tuesday it was closing production sites in Germany and Singapore, cutting costs after a €532 million ($627 million) net quarterly loss and bracing for the departure of its visionary founders, Ugur Sahin and Özlem Türeci. Overall, around 1,860 jobs are expected to be on the line.
The company that once rolled out billions of vaccine doses, credited with averting millions of COVID deaths and allowing locked-down economies to reopen, now risks being remembered as a one-trick pony. Financial analysts say that BioNTech's problems stem from the predictable end of a temporary COVID windfall, which provided tens of billions of euros in revenue since late 2020. This, combined with the high-risk nature of R&D in biotechnology and Germany's current economic woes — high labor and energy costs along with red tape — has revealed how risky it is to rely on a single blockbuster product.
Demand for BioNTech's COVID vaccine Comirnaty evaporated faster than expected, with first-quarter 2026 revenues dropping to €118 million, down 35% from the same quarter last year. Analysts say the company built too much production capacity during the boom and now faces idle plants. As a result, BioNTech says it will shift all COVID manufacturing to Pfizer.
The firm also courted controversy over the $1.25-billion acquisition of rival CureVac in December 2025. CureVac had developed its own COVID vaccine candidate, which showed low efficacy and was abandoned. But that did not stop it from suing BioNTech and Pfizer in 2022, claiming the Comirnaty vaccine infringed several of its mRNA patents. By buying its rival — and its patents — BioNTech was able to end all litigation and avoid potential multibillion-euro damages.
But in a further insult, when BioNTech announced restructuring and closures this week, the former CureVac plant in Tübingen, near Stuttgart, was one of the ones on the chopping block. Tübingen's Mayor Boris Palmer accused the firm of adopting a "buy first, then kill" strategy, adding that the plant closure was a "heavy blow" for the "many highly qualified employees who have carried CureVac for years." The move was labeled a "planned slash-and-burn approach" by the IG BCE trade union.
Sahin and Türeci, who in March announced their departures by the end of the year to launch an ambitious new biotech venture, were not just the founders of BioNTech, they were the driving force behind the company's success. In a sign of their pivotal role, shares in BioNTech plunged by around 18% upon the announcement, with Leerink Partners, a Boston-based investment bank focused on healthcare, asking whether the firm can maintain its innovative edge without them.
BioNTech is now shifting focus to late-stage mRNA treatments for cancer, including new therapies being developed with Bristol Myers Squibb for breast, lung and other cancers. In its latest quarterly update, the company said it expects to have 15 make-or-break Phase 3 cancer trials running by the end of the year. By handing COVID vaccine production to Pfizer and closing some plants, BioNTech aims to save around €500 million per year by 2029.
Source: www.dw.com