German pharmaceutical company BioNTech, which partnered with U.S. giant Pfizer to bring one of the world’s first coronavirus vaccines to market, has increased its turnover in the first half of the year.

The increase was by 30.1 per cent to 9.57 billion euros (9.74 billion dollars) compared to the first half of 2021.

The net profit increased by 37.2 per cent to 5.37 billion euros, the company announced in Mainz on Monday.

Looking at the second quarter alone, however, there was a decline in both sales (down 39.8 per cent to 3.2 billion euros) and profits (down 40 per cent to 1.67 billion euros) compared to the same period last year.

The vaccine manufacturer attributed this to the fact that the development of the pandemic led to a shift in orders and thus to fluctuations in quarterly sales.

The company reaffirmed its full-year 2022 forecast for COVID-19 vaccine sales of between 13 billion euros and 17 billion euros.

BioNTech said a clinical trial of a vaccine adapted to two Omicron sub variants would begin this month.

If approved by the relevant authorities, the first doses could be delivered in October. 

(dpa/NAN)