-
The pharmaceutical company announces record revenues thanks to continued demand for its vaccines, exceeding initial forecasts.
Editorial / CHANGE 22
Moderna announced surprising third-quarter earnings on Thursday, driven by cost reductions and higher-than-expected sales of its Covid-19 vaccine, even with low revenue from its new respiratory syncytial virus vaccine.
Shares of the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company rose nearly 5% to $54.22 in early trading.
Moderna posted a profit of $13 million, or 3 cents a share, for the quarter, compared with a loss of $3.6 billion a year ago. Analysts had expected a loss of $753 million, or $1.90 per share, according to LSEG data.
Its Spikevax Covid vaccine generated sales of $1.8 billion, up 3.5% from a year ago and comfortably beating analysts’ average expectations of $1.38 billion. The company said it benefited from higher sales in the United States following an earlier rollout of its Covid vaccine this year.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved updated versions of Spikevax and Pfizer and BioNTech’s rival Comirnaty vaccine nearly three weeks ahead of 2023.
“We shipped more in the first few days and were able to ensure that all healthcare providers had access to Covid vaccines”Chief Financial Officer James Mock said in an interview.
However, Moderna still expects to earn less on Covid vaccine sales this year than in 2023, and reaffirmed its 2024 sales forecast of $3 billion to $3.5 billion. The company recorded sales of almost 7 billion in 2023.
“This guidance appears more than achievable based on anticipated sales of Covid vaccines in the fourth quarter”TD Cowen analyst Tyler Van Buren said in a note.
Mock said during an investor call that Moderna expected between $200 million and $500 million in total sales next quarter, assuming Covid vaccination rates remain stable or drop up to 10% compared to last year.
He added that the company expected to reach the lower end of this sales range if Moderna’s market share for Covid vaccines remained the same and there was no rebound in sales of its RSV vaccine.
Sales of Moderna’s new RSV vaccine, mRESVIA, were $10 million, well below the $135 million analysts were expecting, according to data compiled by LSEG.
“We couldn’t compete during the heart of the hiring season because (mRESVIA) was approved in May”Mock said. “Many of the contracts were already in place, as well as a substantial amount of inventory with customers already.”.
Moderna awaits approval of its combined vaccine against Covid and influenza
Spikevax sales outside the US were lower than the same period in 2023, when it benefited from deferred 2022 orders, according to Moderna.
The company said expenses for the quarter were $1.93 billion, which was nearly 50% lower than a year earlier, driven in part by lower unused manufacturing capacity and fewer inventory write-downs.
Moderna has been betting on revenue from new mRNA vaccines, including mRESVIA and an experimental combination flu and Covid vaccine, to offset declining post-pandemic demand for Covid products.
Spikevax’s market share in the United States was 40%, up from 45% in the third quarter of 2023, Moderna said.
Mock said about 7.5 million patients had received Spikevax this year. Nearly 11 million people have received Pfizer’s Covid vaccine in the same period, according to IQVIA data shared by an analyst.
Moderna confirmed that CEO Stephane Bancel will step down from his additional role as the company’s chief commercial officer and that President Stephen Hoge will take charge of sales as well as medical and research affairs.
The company said its executives Jacqueline Miller and Rose Loughlin had been promoted to the positions of chief medical officer and executive vice president of research, respectively.
Moderna said it is still on track to apply for approval this year for its combination Covid-19 and flu vaccine, the RSV vaccine for high-risk adults ages 18 to 59, and its Covid vaccine. -19 next generation.
The company said it planned to use priority review vouchers to expedite FDA applications for its Covid-19 and RSV vaccines, but not for the combination vaccine.
Source: Forbes
GAVC / MORE
