By Adria Calatayud

BioNTech plans to shrink its workforce and manufacturing network, as the German biotech company seeks to cut costs and downsize its footprint after demand for Covid-19 vaccines waned.

The move means the company is set to hand full responsibility over the supply of its Covid shot to partner Pfizer, BioNTech Chief Financial Officer Ramon Zapata said Tuesday, after both companies teamed up to bring the vaccine to the market during the pandemic.

BioNTech is looking to pivot to cancer therapies and earlier this year said its co-founders would leave the company by the end of the year to form a new startup focused on messenger RNA technology.

The company said it would exit some manufacturing plants in Germany and Singapore, as well as sites it acquired as part of its CureVac takeover. As many as 1,860 roles will be affected by the plan, it added. This would represent roughly 22% of the company's workforce.

BioNTech has a global headcount of about 8,400 people, according to a company spokeswoman.

A plant in Marburg, Germany, which BioNTech previously called one of the largest mRNA vaccine manufacturing sites globally, is among the facilities the company is exiting. The company said it was exploring partial or total sales for each of the sites.

The company said the plan sought to consolidate its manufacturing network where it expected excess capacity and align its footprint with supply needs, acquisitions, the capacity of its partners and the completion of contracts.

BioNTech projected the move would lead to potentially 500 million euros ($584.6 million) in recurring annual savings in 2029, which it intends to deploy to move its oncology pipeline toward commercialization.

The company is testing several cancer-drug candidates in late-stage clinical trials and has projected research-and-development expenses to outstrip revenue this year, an outlook it reiterated.

For the first quarter, BioNTech's revenue declined to 118.1 million euros from 182.8 million euros for the same period last year. Zapata said the result reflected seasonal demand for Covid vaccines and was in line with the company's expectations.

Its net loss widened to 531.9 million euros from a loss of 415.8 million euros.

Write to Adria Calatayud at adria.calatayud@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 05, 2026 11:05 ET (15:05 GMT)

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