Pfizer looks to sell stake in pandemic vaccine partner BioNTech

Pfizer is looking to sell its remaining stake in Covid-19 vaccine partner BioNTech, a remnant from one of the pandemic’s most lucrative collaborations.

The US drugmaker is offering about 4.55 million American depositary receipts via an overnight block trade marketed between US$108 to US$111.70 per share, according to people familiar with the matter. At the high end of the price range, the stake sale would be worth about US$508 million for Pfizer.

The two companies teamed up in 2020 to develop a Covid-19 vaccine that went on to generate billions of dollars worldwide and supply deals with the US and European governments at the height of the pandemic.

Pfizer’s equity investment in BioNTech was part of the deal. The companies continue to work together on Covid-19 vaccine formulations, which are based on BioNTech’s proprietary mRNA technology, and share profits.

The pharma giant last week agreed to buy the obesity startup Metsera after a tumultuous bidding war that raised the cost of the deal to US$10 billion, in part to replace dwindling sales from its Covid business with a weight-loss blockbuster.

Pfizer and BioNTech didn’t immediately reply to requests for comment.

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With the pandemic over, BioNTech has returned to its original focus of developing cancer treatments, using the cash it amassed to fund research. It also clinched a deal worth as much as US$11.1 billion with Bristol-Myers Squibb. The stock has dropped almost 2 per cent this year as the company spends more to push its medicines through clinical trials. BLOOMBERG

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