BioNTech Hands Roche Its PDAC Tab as a One-Off Accounting Swing Masks a Thinner Quarter
Published on 11/04/2026 at 04:31 | Editorial boerse-global.de
BioNTech has opted to exercise an option within its alliance with Roche/Genentech, a move that shifts the future research and development bill for the affected program onto its partner starting January 1, 2027. The German biotech keeps a stake in any eventual upside: should the program reach the market, it remains entitled to royalty payments. The PDAC study, the company said, will carry on as planned.
The disclosure came a day before BioNTech reported third-quarter 2026 results that cut two ways. On the headline, the company swung to an IFRS net profit of €184.5 million from a loss of €28.7 million a year earlier. Reuters attributed the reversal chiefly to the absence of hefty one-off charges tied to legal disputes — a comparison effect rather than proof of a stronger underlying business.
Adjusted earnings tell the starker story
Strip out those items and the picture dims. Adjusted net profit fell to €440.9 million from €752.5 million in the prior-year quarter, weighed down by softer vaccine demand and rising research spending. Adjusted earnings per share came in at €1.76, which still cleared analyst forecasts. Beating expectations, in other words, is not the same as growing.
Revenue for the quarter reached €1.29 billion, ahead of the most recently cited consensus of €1.05 billion but down 15% year over year. BioNTech pinned the decline on weaker demand for COVID-19 shots. Media reports noted that €613 million of the top line stemmed from the collaboration with Bristol Myers Squibb. Nine months into 2026, the company remained in the red, posting a net loss of €1,168.2 million against €831.1 million a year earlier.
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Research costs, meanwhile, kept climbing. IFRS R&D expense rose to €748.1 million from €564.8 million, or €578.5 million on an adjusted basis. The build-out into a broader company is not cheap, and management is steering the spending toward prioritized oncology assets.
Guidance nudged, not overhauled
BioNTech now expects full-year 2026 revenue of €1.7 billion to €1.9 billion, lifting the floor from €1.6 billion while leaving the ceiling untouched. Finance chief Ramón Zapata said the quarterly results had pushed the annual expectation toward the upper end of the previously guided range. Forecasts for adjusted R&D and adjusted sales and administrative costs were left as they were, with the adjusted R&D outlook steady at €2.0 billion to €2.3 billion. As of September 30, the company held cash and securities of €16.2 billion — ample runway for the pipeline.
That pipeline delivered a mixed October. On the 25th, BioNTech and Bristol Myers Squibb unveiled first data for pumitamig combined with docetaxel from the Phase 2 ROSETTA Lung-107 trial, which enrolls patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer after immunotherapy and chemotherapy. The confirmed objective response rate was 36.7%, with a preliminary median progression-free survival of 6.9 months.
Separately, the company reported that gotistobart nearly doubled median overall survival versus chemotherapy in previously treated squamous NSCLC — a result that underpins the oncology strategy even if it does not yet translate into durable product revenue.
Breast cancer data published roughly a week earlier came with caveats. Trastuzumab pamirtecan, developed with DualityBio, improved progression-free survival with statistical significance, though the partners characterized the benefit as moderate. Overall survival data were not yet mature. Interstitial lung disease appeared more often than in earlier studies, including severe and fatal cases in a small slice of patients. The companies plan to review the findings and map out next steps.
The balance sheet, then, reads in two directions at once: BioNTech is beating expectations and raising the bottom of its revenue range, while a thinner adjusted profit and a wider nine-month loss show the earnings turnaround is not yet locked in.
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