Moderna Inc.’s stock
MRNA,
rallied 5.5% in premarket trade Thursday, after the COVID vaccine market posted a narrower-than-expected second-quarter loss and revenue that was far below last year’s but still topped consensus estimates.
The company had a net loss of $1.38 billion, or $3.62 a share, for the quarter, after income of $2.197 billion, or $5.24 a share, in the year-earlier period.
Revenue fell sharply to $344 million from $4.749 billion a year ago, when demand for COVID vaccines remained strong.
The FactSet consensus was for a loss of $3.93 and revenue of $308 million.
Sales of the company’s COVID vaccine came to $300 million for the quarter, and are expected to total $6 billion to $8 billion for all of 2023, depending on U.S. vaccination rates.
The vaccine is Moderna’s first and for now only FDA-approved product although it has several products in the pipeline, including an RSV vaccine that it hopes will win approval and be launched in 2024.
“Our late-stage clinical pipeline is firing on all cylinders with four infectious disease vaccines in Phase 3, including RSV which was recently submitted to regulators for approval,” Chief Executive Stéphane Bancel said in a statement.
“Our individualized neoantigen therapy is now in Phase 3 for melanoma and our lead rare disease program for PA is in dose confirmation. We believe that all these products should launch in 2024, 2025 or 2026, and we are continuing to invest in scaling Moderna to bring forward an unprecedented number of innovative mRNA medicines for patients.”
The stock has fallen 39% in the year to date, while the S&P 500
SPX,
has gained 18%.
