[ad_1]
accident On Thursday, it blew past estimates for first-quarter earnings and revenue, posting a surprising quarterly profit, despite declining demand for Covid vaccines, its only marketable product.
The biotech company reported first-quarter sales of $1.9 billion, driven by deferred Covid shot revenue from 2022. That’s more than 30% less than the $6.1 billion it posted in the same period last year amid a resurgence of Covid cases.
Related investment news
Moderna reported a net profit of $79 million, or 19 cents per share, for the quarter. This compares to the $3.66 billion in net income, or $8.58 per share, reported during the same quarter last year.
This is what reported modern Compared to Wall Street expectations, based on a poll of analysts conducted by Refinitiv:
- Earnings per share: 19 cents per share for a loss of $1.77 per share
- he won: $1.86 billion versus the expected $1.18 billion
Shares of the Massachusetts-based company rose in premarket trading Thursday. Shares are down more than 27% in the year to Wednesday’s close, which puts the company’s market value at about $50 billion.
Moderna maintained its full-year guidance of about $5 billion in revenue from the Covid vaccine, which will come from government contracts signed for the dose.
CEO Stéphane Bancel said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that he believes the company is “on track to deliver on that goal.”
The company is also in discussions about new contracts with customers in Europe, Japan and the United States, and Bancel noted that the company is in active discussions with US government agencies, pharmacy chains and hospital chains about those contracts.
The company is set to roll out more boosters after the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month authorized additional vaccines targeting the Omicron variant for the elderly and people with compromised immune systems.
The FDA is also preparing for a vaccine meeting in June where outside advisers will choose which strains of Covid the new vaccines will target when they are rolled out in the fall.
Moderna predicts that the United States will need 100 million vaccine doses annually.
But demand for the Covid shot is still falling as the pandemic subsides and the US shifts to an annual vaccination schedule rather than frequent booster doses. That left Moderna and the rival drugmaker behind Pfizer They’re scrambling to get away from the Covid jabs, which made both companies household names during the height of the pandemic.
“It’s going to be a transition year,” Bancel told CNBC. He added that Moderna is “investing aggressively to grow the company”.
This means strengthening Moderna’s RNA-based drug pipeline.
The company’s products use messenger RNA technology, which teaches human cells to produce a protein that initiates an immune response against a specific disease.
Bancel highlighted Moderna’s efforts to create vaccines that target more than one respiratory disease in a single dose.
He said the company hopes to launch a combination vaccine targeting Covid and influenza by 2025. These vaccines will be adapted to the prevailing and circulating Covid strains of influenza.
“So you can go to your pharmacy and get one shot and get ready for winter,” he told CNBC.
Moderna said in April that it hopes to offer a new set of life-saving vaccines targeting cancer, heart disease and other conditions by 2030.
This group includes an experimental Moderna vaccine that targets respiratory syncytial virus. The company expects to file for full approval of the shot for adults 60 and older this quarter.
It also includes the cancer vaccine for Mordura, a highly prospective mRNA vaccine co-developed with it merck To target different types of tumors. Moderna is also developing a flu vaccine, but the company said it was a shot did not meet Criteria for early success in a late-stage clinical trial.
[ad_2]
