Better Health for All

BioNTech's core business delivers transformative health benefits, with its first mRNA vaccine (Comirnaty) having shipped over 4.9 billion doses globally.

The company has no products with significant negative health impacts, with no market recalls, clinical trial terminations due to violations, or FDA warning letters in 2023 and 2024. BioNTech demonstrates exceptional transparency in clinical trials, publicly posting outcomes on clinicaltrials.gov within 12 months and submitting for academic publication within 30 months. The company invests significantly in health innovation, with CEPI committing up to $145 million to expand its Kigali facility for mRNA vaccine R&D and manufacturing. BioNTech also focuses on preventative health, developing prophylactic mRNA vaccines for diseases like tuberculosis, malaria, HIV, and mpox, and established a Global Health Office in 2023 to address unmet public health needs. The company has comprehensive data privacy systems and a dedicated process for data breach reporting. During the COVID-19 pandemic, BioNTech distributed approximately 180 million vaccine doses in 2024 and maintains manufacturing capacities on standby for the German government. BioNTech offers employee assistance programs and well-being benefits. The company provides medical, scientific, and educational grants to support healthcare professionals and patient advocacy. However, BioNTech's pricing strategy for Comirnaty includes significant profit margins for high-income countries, with an estimated 400% profit on doses sold to Taiwan compared to the cost for the African Union, representing a price over 5 times production cost. Furthermore, BioNTech delivered only 1% of its COVID-19 vaccine doses to low-income countries and 14% to lower-middle-income countries by the end of 2021, with 64% going to high-income countries. The company has also refused to join C-TAP or cooperate with the WHO's mRNA technical transfer hub in South Africa, indicating limited patent flexibility.

Fair Money & Economic Opportunity

BioNTech is a biotechnology company focused on developing and commercializing immunotherapies and vaccines.

The company does not offer lending, insurance, or deposit services to consumers, nor does it manage customer finance data or provide consumer credit products. Therefore, all KPIs related to financial services, such as underserved client share, pricing fairness, exploitative fee exposure, inclusion initiatives (financial), data accessibility, fair lending compliance, wealth building outcomes, profit reinvestment (in community finance), financial literacy initiatives, debt burden ratio, geographic inclusion (of financial access points), and product simplicity (of financial products), are not applicable to its core business model.

Fair Pay & Worker Respect

BioNTech reported a Lost Time Accident Rate (LTAR) of 0.23 in 2024, 0.32 in 2023, and 0.90 in 2022, with zero fatalities and zero high-consequence work-related injuries for all three years.

The company maintained a voluntary turnover rate of approximately 7.0% globally in 2024 (6.2% in 2023). In 2024, 790 employees were temporary and 97 were on non-guaranteed hours, out of a total of 6,464 permanent employees. The global unadjusted gender pay gap was 3.4% in 2024 (6.0% in 2023), while the adjusted gender pay gap in Europe was 4.0% in 2024 (2.3% in 2023). Employee survey data from Glassdoor shows an average rating of 3.1 out of 5 stars, with 44% of employees recommending working there and 52% approving of the CEO. The company reported no significant labor law infractions in the past two years.

Fair Trade & Ethical Sourcing

BioNTech reported no substantiated forced or child labor incidents in 2023, and its 2024 Sustainability Report states no incidents were reported.

The company prohibits child labor and forced labor in its operations and supply chain, and conducts annual human rights and environmental risk analyses. BioNTech's Supplier Code of Conduct defines human rights and environmental expectations for its suppliers, and these principles are reflected in the agreements concluded with business partners. However, the percentage of suppliers whose contracts include enforceable ethical-sourcing clauses is not explicitly stated, nor is the share of tier-1 spend covered by fair-trade certifications, the average months between on-site audits for tier-1 suppliers, the percentage of tier 1-3 suppliers with traceable provenance data, the median days to close corrective action plans, the share of spend on high-risk materials, or the percentage of procurement budget directed to diverse suppliers.

Honest & Fair Business

BioNTech has established a BioNTech Hotline for anonymous whistleblowing, accessible online or via email.

The company also has Codes of Conduct, a Code of Ethics & Business Integrity, and a Supplier Code of Conduct. BioNTech complies with the US Sunshine Act (2010) by disclosing transfers of value to healthcare professionals and organizations on the US CMS Open Payments platform.

Kind to Animals

BioNTech states it is committed to limiting animal testing and supports the substitution with alternatives wherever feasible, using in vitro test systems, patient material, and computer models in planning and preparation processes.

The company conducts animal studies in state-of-the-art facilities in the EU that comply with FELASA guidelines and Directive 2010/63/EU, and outside the EU, it uses AAALAC accredited laboratories or expects partners to adhere to AAALAC standards. BioNTech began conducting audits at disposal facilities in 2023, completing audits of two primary waste disposal providers for its Mainz location in 2024, with plans for further audits. BioNTech's animal welfare policy is guided by the 3R principles (Replacement, Reduction, Refinement) plus a fourth dimension, Responsibility, and requires business partners to comply with its Supplier Code of Conduct. Preclinical studies for BNT162b2 involved non-human primates and mice. The company states that animal testing remains a small yet important part of drug research and development, but does not provide specific annual animal testing volumes.

Planet-Friendly Business

BioNTech's near-term Scope 1 and 2 emissions reduction target of 42% by 2030 from a 2021 base year has been validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) and is aligned with the Paris Agreement.

The company aims for 72% of its suppliers to have SBTi-aligned targets by 2027. However, BioNTech has not explicitly stated a net-zero target year.

Respect for Cultures & Communities

BioNTech has reported no cultural appropriation incidents in its 2024 Sustainability Report.

The company employs 37 people from 8 different African countries at its Rwanda site as of December 31, 2024, out of a total global workforce of 7,254 in 2024. Formal grievance mechanisms, including a 24/7 Ethics Contact Point and whistleblower channels, are available to the public worldwide. The Navajo Nation Human Research Review Board (NNHRRB) approved the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial on August 27, 2020. In 2024, BioNTech donated EUR 195,473 in total, which includes sponsorships for Christopher Street Day and Mainzer Fastnacht e.G foundation, against total revenues of EUR 2.8 billion. The company's package leaflets are available in country-specific languages.

Safe & Smart Tech

BioNTech SE's individual systems were not breached during the cyberattack on the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in December 2020, where data related to the COVID-19 vaccine was unlawfully accessed.

This indicates no documented data breaches of the company's own systems for over four years (December 2020 to July 2025), despite being a high-value target. The company's data privacy statement, updated March 2025, confirms the use of SSL/TLS encryption for website traffic. It also states that no usage profiles linking metadata and personal data are created, and that data processing is based on legal obligations, legitimate interests, and contract fulfillment under GDPR. The statement outlines user rights, including access, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, data portability, withdrawal of consent, and objection to processing, as well as the right not to be subject to automated decision-making. Data retention periods vary based on legal requirements, such as 6-10 years for commercial/tax records and 7 days for website logs. The company also has data processing agreements with service providers as per Art. 28 GDPR.

Zero Waste & Sustainable Products

The company has not reported any specific regulatory actions, violations, fines, or compliance issues related to waste disposal.

Information regarding waste diversion rates, product recyclability, packaging sustainability, recycled content, single-use plastic reduction, take-back programs, circular design principles, waste reduction initiatives, hazardous waste management, product durability, repairability, waste audit frequency, zero-waste certifications, material efficiency, packaging-to-product ratios, waste reduction targets, supplier waste requirements, or customer waste education is not provided.