Pumitamig

iStock, nukrist After advancing in lockstep through the pandemic, the fortunes of the biotechs have diverged as their use of COVID-19 windfalls has taken shape. BioNTech and Moderna were two of the big winners of the COVID-19 pandemic. Having gone into 2020 as leaders in the promising but unproven mRNA space, the biotechs quickly made vaccines that validated the modality, generated billions of dollars and further extended their leads over rivals such as CureVac. Both companies looked set for bright futures. A few years later, their fortunes have diverged, with BioNTech building an expansive pipeline beyond mRNA as Moderna has grappled with challenges. BioNTech commands a market cap north of $20 billion, making the company more than twice as valuable as Moderna. The valuations reflect Moderna’s decline over the past two years, with the company shedding value as BioNTech has held steady. Before the recent shift, Moderna and BioNTech followed seemingly similar trajectories. Equipped with mRNA platforms, the companies attracted mega-rounds and partnerships with top pharma companies before seeing their valuations skyrocket as they changed the course of the pandemic. Yet the similarities masked differences that sowed the seeds of the recent divergence in the biotechs’ fortunes. BioNTech Buys Bumper Pipeline While mRNA put BioNTech on the map, even early in the company’s history the modality was just one of a range of technologies at its disposal. This is a core difference between the companies. BioNTech applied an array of modalities to one therapeutic area, with some exceptions that took the company beyond its focus on cancer. Moderna applied one modality, mRNA, to a wide range of therapeutic areas. That difference has shaped the post-pandemic trajectories of BioNTech and Moderna. Flush with money from its Pfizer-partnered COVID-19 shot, BioNTech doubled down on its multi-modality cancer strategy. BioNTech supported its in-house mRNA pipeline with deals for assets including the anti-CTLA-4 antibody gotistobart , HER2-directed antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) BNT323 and PD-L1xVEGF-A bispecific BNT327 . The pipeline’s potential has analysts excited. “All eyes are now on whether BioNTech can move fast and execute on this impressive pipeline in a way that drives value, as they are playing in competitive spaces,” TD Cowen analysts said in a note to investors. “There is a lot here to drive interest, but we note that the company has historically had some slippage of timelines ... or outright attrition for pipeline assets.” Vaccines Pesky ‘Macro Factors’—aka RFK Jr.—Come for Vaccine Pharmas’ Wallets Following restricted vaccine approvals and changes to CDC immunization schedules, Merck, Pfizer, GSK and Sanofi are all suffering revenue hits to their vaccine programs. November 7, 2025 · 4 min read · Annalee Armstrong Read More BNT327, now known as pumitamig, is the main event. BioNTech secured rights to the asset before the surge in interest in PD-1/L1xVEGF bispecifics, allowing it to acquire the program for a relatively small sum. Bristol Myers Squibb paid BioNTech $3.5 billion to co-develop the asset, reflecting pumitamig’s potential to replace Keytruda as the backbone of immuno-oncology combinations. Pumitamig is one of several BioNTech assets that are in Phase III trials. BioNTech is on course to report Phase III results for gotistobart, pumitamig and BNT323, plus mRNA vaccine BNT113, next year. While pumitamig has the highest sales ceiling, TD Cowen analysts said gotistobart is “a nice commercial opportunity.” The analysts were writing after seeing non-pivotal Phase III data. Moderna’s mRNA Moves Miss the Mark The deal-driven creation of a pipeline stacked with promising late-phase cancer candidates has enabled BioNTech to move beyond the COVID-19 vaccine that transformed its fortunes. Phase III failures could cause the strategy to unravel but to date BioNTech has performed better than Moderna with investors in the post-pandemic era. As BioNTech diversified, Moderna bet big on its internal pipeline, seeking to replicate its COVID-19 success by developing mRNA vaccines against an array of respiratory diseases. The biotech’s R&D budget rose from $2 billion in 2021 to $4.8 billion in 2023 . With a broad late-phase push planned, Moderna told investors in its 2023 annual report that it aimed to launch up to 15 products in five years. Multiple factors derailed Moderna’s plans. The contraction of the COVID-19 market and loss of share to Pfizer and BioNTech caused the company’s product sales to fall from $18.4 billion in 2022 to $3.1 billion in 2024 . Moderna responded by cutting costs and dropping R&D programs in a push for profitability. At the same time, the biotech’s efforts to ease reliance on its COVID-19 vaccines suffered setbacks. The FDA approved Moderna’s RSV vaccine mRESVIA in 2024. The timing meant Moderna missed out on the bumper first year of the market. Moderna has struggled to win market share from GSK and Pfizer, with a Guggenheim Securities review of prescriptions for the week ended November 21 putting its stake at just 2%. Earnings BioNTech Commits to Infectious Diseases Amid Questions Over Vaccine Demand The company expects that the U.S. COVID-19 vaccination rate will be “maybe a couple of points lower” than the prior level of around 20% but that pricing and Comirnaty’s market share will hold steady. August 4, 2025 · 2 min read · Nick Paul Taylor Read More Moderna’s plans to launch a third product were delayed when the FDA requested efficacy data from a Phase III trial of its flu vaccine. The request prompted Moderna to withdraw a request for FDA approval of its flu/COVID combination vaccine. Moderna now sees the flu shot as a growth driver for 2027 onward and the combination vaccine as a product that will start to move the needle in 2028. A norovirus shot, which Moderna sees as a growth driver for 2028 onward, rounds out the biotech’s near-term seasonal vaccine strategy. The oncology candidates intismeran and mRNA-4359, plus the rare disease prospect mRNA-3927, give Moderna more shots on goal that could add to growth in the coming years. One concern is how the candidates, all of which are based on mRNA, will be received by regulators and patients. Piper Sandler analyst Ted Tenthoff said at an event with Moderna in December 2025 that “under the FDA and [Health Secretary] RFK Jr., it really feels like they’ve declared war on mRNA vaccines.” Moderna has now bowed to that pressure , with CEO Stéphane Bancel announcing at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last month that the famed biotech would scale down investment in late-stage vaccines as the U.S. market snaps shut. “You cannot make a return on investment if you don’t have access to the U.S. market,” Bancel said, according to a report from Bloomberg . Bancel’s remarks were vague, and the company has yet to clarify the future direction of the vaccine programs, and whether the shift will apply to just the infectious disease portfolio or all. Nevertheless, investors were happy with a change in direction. The company’s shares have risen 50% since the year began—but BioNTech’s are climbing too. Moderna will continue to face the challenge of executing its late-phase strategy while contending with an FDA that recently linked the deaths of children to COVID-19 vaccines and vowed to tighten regulations. Having moved beyond mRNA vaccines, BioNTech’s headaches are largely limited to the R&D uncertainties and operational challenges that are common to all drug development. .responsive-container { display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; border: 1px solid #ededed; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Sans-Serif; padding: 20px 20px 10px 20px; } .column-left { flex: 1; max-width: 45%; padding: 20px 20px 10px 20px; } .column-right { flex: 2; padding: 20px 20px 10px 20px; } @media (max-width: 768px) { .column-left, .column-right { max-width: 100%; flex: 100%; padding: 10px 0; } } Subscribe to BioPharm Executive! 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iStock, f11photo Biopharma companies—including AstraZeneca, BioNTech and Agios—peered farther into the future on the second day of JPM, setting both revenue and R&D targets through the end of the decade. The J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference is widely known as an annual starting gun for the biopharma industry, giving companies a platform to lay out their strategies for the coming year. On day two, however, companies looked farther afield, giving near-term roadmaps for their businesses and setting sales and clinical targets through the end of the decade. Some takeaways: AstraZeneca Doubles Down on 2030 $80B Goal At JPM, AstraZeneca’s Chief Financial Officer Aradhana Sarin said the company’s goal of hitting $80 billion in total revenue by 2030 is “very much within reach.” To get there, the pharma expects to launch a clutch of high-value products in the near term, including its hypertension drug baxdrostat, for which a new drug application was accepted last month. AstraZeneca’s breast cancer candidate camizestrant and myasthenia gravis drug gefurulimab are also approaching the market. Meanwhile, the pharma also draws confidence from its pipeline, particularly in cancer, for which it is testing eight wholly-owned clinical-stage antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), as well as two cell therapies with potentially $5 billion in peak revenues. Read more about AstraZeneca at JPM 2026 here . BioNTech Continues Pivot From COVID to Cancer, With PD-1/VEGF at the Core BioNTech continues to move away from COVID-19 and return to its cancer roots. At a company event on Tuesday, the pharma laid out its strategic goals for this year: accelerate its late-stage pipeline, focus on combination therapies and move from a platform-centered to a tumor-driven approach. In a note to investors Tuesday evening, analysts at BMO Capital Markets said that pumitamig, BioNTech’s PD-1/VEGF bispecific antibody, “is at the heart” of the company’s 2026 strategy. Indeed, pumitamig is being studied both as a monotherapy—for breast cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, colorectal cancer and different types of lung cancers—and as part of a combination regimen with ADCs. BioNTech is expecting a host of early- and late-stage readouts across its pumitamig program this year, as per a Monday release . Among the potential pumitamig indications, “focus remains on the near-term Ph 3 1L [triple-negative breast cancer] China readout,” BMO said. Data from this trial, the analysts added, will help determine if pumitamig could become “a next-generation IO backbone.” For BioNTech, a lot is riding on pumitamig’s success. The drug is under a June 2025 partnership with Bristol Myers Squibb, which has promised up to $7.6 billion in milestones. The PD-1/VEGF space is quickly filling up with rivals, including AbbVie, which put nearly $5 billion on the line this week for ex-China rights to a candidate from RemeGen. As for BioNTech, “With 8 pivotal studies across oncology indications, we could see the company shift into a commercial oncology company within the decade,” BMO said. Cancer AbbVie Bets Nearly $5B on RemeGen To Vie for Position in Hot Bispecific Market The deal, which sees AbbVie paying RemeGen $650 million upfront, gives the pharma ex-China rights to the biotech’s PD-1/VEGF bispecific antibody—a modality being targeted by companies including BMS, Merck and Pfizer. January 12, 2026 · 2 min read · Nick Paul Taylor Agios Eyes $10B Market Potential By 2030 Like AstraZeneca, Agios Pharmaceuticals announced a market target for itself: Unlock a market opportunity of more than $10 billion by 2030. Unlike the big pharma, however, Agios will build toward that opportunity by “evolving from an ultra-rare focus into a broader rare disease portfolio,” analysts at Truist Securities said in a Tuesday note. Indeed, during its company presentation , Agios named its early-stage assets AG-181 for phenylketonuria and AG-236 polycythemia vera as key to hitting its 2030 goal, with each contributing upwards of $1 billion in estimated sales. “Future growth will be driven by assets like AG-236, which extend the core concept of iron dysregulation and hepcidin feedback loops into larger disease populations,” Truist said. The biotech is also working on sickle cell disease, a $3 billion opportunity for which it is developing its pyruvate kinase activators mitapivat and tebapivat. Additionally, Agios is trialing tebapivat for lower-risk myelodyplastic syndromes, which it anticipates will open a $4.5 billion opportunity. This year, Agios will focus its efforts on setting itself up to hit its 2030 target. Key priorities for 2026 include launching its thalassemia drug Aqvesme, approved last month , as well as advancing its early-stage portfolio. Acadia Looks Beyond Analyst Expectations, Stands Against MFN Also looking ahead to the future is Acadia Pharmaceuticals, which announced that by 2028, it expects to report around $1 billion in sales for its antipsychotic Nuplazid and $700 million for the Rett syndrome drug Daybue. Such guidance far outstrips what analysts have forecast for these drugs, according to BMO Capital Markets, which highlighted the “disconnect between Street and internal expectations” in a note on Tuesday. Analysts were expecting $834 million in Nuplazid revenue and $621 million for Daybue. Helping the biotech reach its projected goal is the planned launch of the newly approved STIX formulation of Daybue, an oral solution that is free of dyes and preservatives. The company expects to make Daybue STIX available “on a limited basis” in the first quarter, followed by a broader market debut in the second quarter. Acadia is also planning to expand its Daybue franchise globally—a move that BMO said “may take time,” but will also be “one of the greatest drivers of long-term revenue growth.” Also at JPM, Acadia CEO Catherine Owen Adams said she has formed a group with other small biotechs to lobby for exemptions from the Trump administration’s Most Favored Nation pricing scheme and similar policies that could arise down the line. “I don’t think the administration is out to target small pharma or small biotech particularly. And what we’re trying to do is make sure that they understand that a peanut butter blanket approach to MFN probably would not be the best for U.S. innovation,” Owen Adams told BioSpace . Policy Acadia CEO Bands With Peers To Lobby Against MFN Drug Pricing for Small Biotech Acadia Pharma’s Catherine Owen Adams has formed a group of small- to mid-cap biotechs to advocate against a ‘peanut butter blanket’ approach to drug pricing for small companies. January 13, 2026 · 3 min read · Annalee Armstrong