BioNTech says has supplied over 1 bln vaccines

BioNTech and its partner Pfizer have supplied more than one billion doses of their COVID-19 vaccine.

That's according to the German biotech group Monday (August 9).

The supply tally is up from more than 700 million doses announced by BioNTech in June.

The company said in a statement it expects to make just under $19 billion in revenue from the vaccine this year - up from a previous forecast in May.

That's based on delivery contracts for more than 2.2 billion doses so far.

BioNTech's optimism comes after Pfizer last month also raised its forecast for its share of 2021 vaccine sales to $33.5 billion.

BioNTech added that it and Pfizer believe a third dose of its vaccine 'has the potential to preserve the highest levels of protection against all currently tested variants of the virus - that includes the highly infectious Delta variant.

It does, though, plan to start testing a vaccine adjusted to Delta on humans this month.