Moderna (MRNA) earnings Q3 2024

Moderna on Thursday posted a surprise profit for the third quarter, smashing Wall Street estimates, as its cost-cutting efforts took hold and sales of its Covid vaccine got here in higher than expected. 

The biotech company posted net income of $13 million, or 3 cents per share. That compares with a net lack of $3.63 billion, or $9.53 cents per share, reported for the year-ago period.

Shares of Moderna were flat Thursday.

Moderna is slashing expenses, with a recently announced goal of achieving $1.1 billion in savings by 2027, because it tries to get well from the rapid decline of its Covid business. It’s the primary quarter that features sales of Moderna’s vaccine against respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, its second-ever commercially available product. 

Before year-end, the corporate plans to file for approval of its experimental “next-generation” Covid vaccine and combination shot targeting Covid and the flu. Moderna this yr also expects to use for expanded approval of its RSV vaccine, targeting high-risk adults ages 18 to 59. 

Moderna said Thursday its newest Covid vaccine saw advantages after winning approval within the U.S. three weeks sooner than the last iteration of the shot did in 2023, which allowed the biotech company to “meet demand more effectively.” The corporate was capable of ship out doses to pharmacies and health-care providers and reach the arms of more patients sooner. 

“I believe the sooner launch and a steeper ramp drove a much higher sales number” for the Covid vaccine, Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said in an interview. Throughout the first week of the vaccine’s launch, the corporate shipped twice as many products globally than it did in 2023, Bancel noted. 

He added that “this was a giant cost reduction quarter, and we will proceed to try this.” 

Here’s what Moderna reported for the third quarter compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

• Earnings per share: 3 cents vs. an expected lack of $1.90
• Revenue: $1.86 billion vs. $1.25 billion expected

Moderna booked third-quarter sales of $1.86 billion, only barely higher than the $1.83 billion in revenue it recorded in the course of the same period a yr ago. The overwhelming majority of that total got here from its Covid shot, including $1.2 billion in U.S. sales and roughly $600 million from international markets. 

The corporate’s third-quarter revenue also included $10 million in U.S. sales of its RSV shot, which won approval in May. Moderna said that sales of that shot were lower than expected because it was approved and beneficial by regulators later within the contracting season, when many vaccine distributors had already accomplished their orders. 

Analysts had expected sales of $132 million for the RSV vaccine, based on estimates compiled by StreetAccount. Moderna’s RSV shot is up to now approved within the U.S., European Union, Norway, Iceland and Qatar. 

The corporate reiterated its full-year 2024 product sales guidance of roughly $3 billion to $3.5 billion. Last quarter, Moderna slashed its outlook on lower expected sales in Europe, a “competitive environment” for respiratory vaccines within the U.S. and the potential for deferred international revenue into 2025. 

Shares of Moderna are down almost 50% this yr as investors mull over its path forward after Covid. The corporate is betting on a pipeline built around its messenger RNA platform, which is the technology utilized in its Covid vaccine and RSV shot. 

The biotech company currently has 45 products in development, and expects to bring 10 of them to the market over the subsequent three years. 

Moderna is developing a stand-alone flu shot, a customized cancer vaccine with Merck and shots for latent viruses, amongst other products.

Cost of sales for the third quarter was $514 million, down 77% from the identical period a yr ago. That features $214 million in write-downs of unused doses of the Covid vaccine and $27 million in charges related to the corporate’s efforts to reduce its manufacturing footprint, amongst other costs. 

Research and development expenses decreased by 2% to $1.1 billion compared with the identical period in 2023. Moderna said that decline was primarily resulting from lower clinical development and manufacturing expenses, citing decreased spending on clinical trials, amongst other aspects.

Meanwhile, selling, general and administrative expenses for the period fell by 36% to $281 million compared with the third quarter of 2023. SG&A expenses normally include the prices of promoting, selling and delivering an organization’s services.