(Bloomberg) -- Sartorius AG shares plunged after the German maker of lab equipment for drugmakers cut its earnings forecast as demand weakens following the Covid-19 pandemic.

The stock fell as much as 15% in Frankfurt early Monday to a one-year low, cutting the company’s market value to about €20.8 billion ($23 billion).

Sartorius said late Friday revenue will probably drop by a low-to-mid-teens percentage this year. The German company supplied four out of five developers of Covid-19 vaccines with products like bioreactors that prepare samples and materials to make tests for the disease.

Customers have been hesitant to invest and they’re relying on lower amounts of equipment, Sartorius said. The company cut its forecast for its Ebitda margin to about 30% from about 33.8% previously.

The warning from Sartorius also hit other providers of components for Covid tests and vaccines, with Merck KGaA shares falling as much as 5.8%. The German company said in May it expects lower profit this year due to the loss of sales from Covid products and a slower-than-expected recovery in the semiconductor industry.

The French unit of the Sartorius, Sartorius Stedim Biotech, agreed to buy Polyplus, a maker of components for cell and gene therapies, for about €2.4 billion from a group of private investors in March. SSB shares also slumped, declining 14%.

Naresh Chouhan, an analyst at Intron Health, said rising debt raises the question of whether Stedim will need to do a rights issue to fund the Polyplus acquisition.

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