Last checked at 
(Adds rationale on third shot)
By Ludwig Burger
FRANKFURT, Aug 9 (Reuters) - BioNTech said that
repeat shots of its COVID-19 vaccine, of which more than a
billion doses have now been supplied worldwide, was a better
strategy than tailoring the product it developed with Pfizer
to new variants.
The German biotech firm said that offering a third dose of
its established two-shot vaccine remained the best response to
concerns over waning immune protection in the face of the highly
contagious Delta variant, as worse strains may emerge.
BioNTech said the more than one billion supply tally as per
July 21 was up from 700 million-plus doses it announced in June.
This compares with AstraZeneca saying last month
that it and manufacturing partner Serum Institute of India had
supplied a billion doses of its vaccine globally.
Based on delivery contracts signed for more than 2.2 billion
doses so far, BioNTech said in a statement detailing its second
quarter earnings that it expects to accrue 15.9 billion euros
($18.7 billion) in revenue from the vaccine this year, up from a
May forecast of 12.4 billion euros.
That includes sales, milestone payments and a share of gross
profit in its partners' territories, BioNTech added.
Pfizer late last month raised its forecast for its share of
2021 vaccine sales to $33.5 billion and said at the time it
believes people will need a third dose of the shot.
Pfizer and BioNTech's decision in early July to seek
authorization for a third dose drew criticism from U.S. health
regulators, who said there was not yet enough data to show
booster shots are needed.
U.S. health agencies have since discussed additional doses
for people with compromised immune systems, while Germany and
France said they would roll out a third dose for the most
vulnerable from September.
That jars with a call by the World Health Organization to
use doses instead to jump-start vaccination campaigns in poorer
nations which have so far been left behind.
BioNTech Chief Executive Ugur Sahin said that although work
was ongoing to adjust the vaccine to variants it was not clear
whether yet another version of the pathogen would supplant the
now prevalent Delta variant.
"Making a decision at the moment might turn out to be wrong
in three or six months if another variant is dominating," Sahin
said during an analyst call.
Chief Medical Officer Oezlem Tuereci said lab experiments
had shown that a third shot of the established product generated
neutralising antibodies against a range of strains and that the
antibody boost was above the one following a second dose.
Still, the company reiterated plans to start testing a
vaccine adjusted to the Delta variant on humans this month, part
of a "comprehensive strategy to address variants".
($1 = 0.8509 euros)
(Reporting by Ludwig Burger
Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Alexander Smith)
