Post by Lucie Ellis-Taitt

BioNTech SE's plan to enter oncology is to treat its first launches as warm-ups. The logic, from a sharp In Vivo interview with commercial chief Annemarie Hanekamp: launch the HER2 ADC and the CTLA-4 inhibitor first to "run water through the pipes," building execution muscle so the real bet — pumitamig, the BMS-partnered VEGF×PD-L1 bispecific — doesn't have to learn on the go. Deliberately right-sized investment. Stepping stones. But there are no rehearsal launches in oncology. The HER2 ADC enters a market Enhertu already owns; gotistobart goes into second-line squamous lung. Also, execution has to carry the weight because the molecule may not. Jefferies and Bernstein both see no clear efficacy or safety differentiation across the VEGF×PD-(L)1 field. When a class commoditizes before it reaches the West, execution and combination strategy become the whole contest. Hanekamp's plan is a rational read of that reality. The stepping-stone strategy assumes the early launches are the lower-stakes ones. In a field this crowded, they may be the only stakes BioNTech fully controls. The full interview with Norstella's Mary Jo Laffler is in the comments. #Oncology #PharmaCommercial #DrugLaunch #BioNTech