BioNTech Strengthens Its Position

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  Christian Ingerl
  Redaktor

There has been nothing to gain from BioNTech shares over the past three years. On the contrary: during this period, the former corona high-flyer lost around a third of its market value. But now the biotech company could be opening a new chapter. The company has announced an extremely lucrative partnership with the US healthcare giant Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS). This involves a drug based on the antibody BNT327. Although this is not yet on the market, money is already flowing in.

Deals worth billions

One after the other: BioNTech secured access to BNT327 by acquiring the Chinese company Biotheus for just under USD 1 billion at the beginning of the year. Just a few months later, the company brought BMS on board in order to develop a drug more quickly and bring it to market. This requires an extensive clinical development program. The active ingredient is currently being tested as a first-line therapy for advanced-stage lung cancer. However, BioNTech is testing the antibody in several studies, including for the treatment of breast cancer, lung cancer and solid tumors. BNT327 is designed to both activate the patient’s immune system and interrupt the tumor’s blood supply. According to BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin, BNT327 has the potential to become a key therapy that could be extended to several solid tumor indications.

As part of the cooperation with Bristol Myers Squibb, the US company will initially make an upfront payment of USD 1.5 billion – and this will already be made in the current quarter. Further milestone payments of up to USD 2 billion could follow by 2028. But that’s not all: the mRNA specialist could receive up to USD 7.6 billion in further milestone payments for development, approvals and marketing. This makes the deal worth up to USD 11 billion. The companies will ultimately not only share the development and manufacturing costs, but the profits and losses will also be split 50:50.

The competition never sleeps

BMS has no doubt that the partnership will be a success. “We are impressed with the innovation BioNTech has achieved to date and look forward to the partnership to accelerate existing clinical trials and time to market while expanding the number of potential indications,” said Chris Boerner, Chief Executive Officer of Bristol Myers Squibb. Among other things, the company will contribute global clinical development and manufacturing networks to the partnership. Ultimately, the two partners want to set a new treatment standard in the cancer market segment, which is currently dominated by so-called checkpoint inhibitors such as “Keytruda” from Merck & Co. The drug has annual sales of a whopping USD 29.5 billion.

However, BioNTech and BMS are not the only pharmaceutical giants conducting research in this area. Pfizer has recently joined forces with the Chinese company 3SBio, Instil Bio has ImmuneOnco from China at its side and Summit Therapeutics is working with Akeso, also from China, on a drug candidate called “Ivonescimab”.

Trend reversal

Analysts at BMO Capital Markets welcomed the partnership between BioNTech and BMS and see it as a vote of confidence from the industry in the differentiation of this novel mechanism. Investor confidence is also on the rise again. BioNTech shares shot up by around 20% within two days. The 100-day and 200-day moving averages were exceeded. The BMS share also rose slightly.

Even more experts reacted positively to the deal. Berenberg Bank, for example, raised its price target for BioNTech from USD 130 to USD 150 and recommended the share as a “buy”. The analysts also raised their earnings forecasts for 2026 and 2027. Deutsche Bank left its rating at “Buy” with a price target of USD 140. Analyst Emmanuel Papadakis considers the cancer antibody BNT327 to be increasingly important for the investment story.

Investment solutions

Risk-tolerant investors can play the turnaround at BioNTech. With the mini future long LBNFJB from Julius Baer, further movements in the share can be leveraged with a multiplier of 4.6. The stop-loss level is USD 81.0097, just under a fifth away. The identical product MBNBKT from Leonteq with a leverage of 8.8 has a little more kick. The stop threshold at USD 92.9727 is only around 8% away.

For conservative investors, sideways speculation also seems interesting. The Barrier Reverse Convertible RBNAGV issued by Bank Vontobel in February would be ideal for this. The security promises a maximum profit opportunity of 22.47% or 33.08% p.a. The product also has a risk buffer of 28.96%.

A stabilization of the share can also be bet on with BMS. The BRC RBMABV from Bank Vontobel converts a bottoming out into an annual return of 8.83%. In order to achieve this safely, the structure allows the underlying to reach the barrier at USD 30.78, a distance of 38.5%.