While the overall theme of Moderna’s quarterly earnings presentation on Thursday was that the company is moving away from its coronavirus vaccine and onto a host of other mRNA products in development, the company still reported positive numbers on the performance of its COVID-19 shot Spikevax.
In the fall vaccination season, Moderna captured 48% of the COVID-19 retail market in the United States versus a 37% showing in 2022, closing the gap on Pfizer’s Comirnaty. Spikevax revenue for the quarter came to $2.8 billion, topping the analyst expectation of $2.5 billion.
For the year, Spikevax sales reached $6.7 billion, compared to $11.2 for Comirnaty. While it was a decline of more than 60% for both companies compared with 2022 sales, Moderna’s fall wasn’t as sharp. During their heyday in 2021 and 2022, Pfizer’s vaccine outsold Moderna’s by slightly more than 2 to 1, with Comirnaty generating $78 billion in sales versus $36 billion for Spikevax.
While Pfizer projects sales of Comirnaty to reach $5 billion in 2024, Moderna reaffirmed its $4 billion sales guidance for the year, “which we think will be a low point,” chief financial officer Jamey Mock, said on a conference call.
Much of the call was focused on Moderna’s respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine, which is lined up for an FDA decision in May. The company appears poised to join a market competition with GSK’s Arexvy and Pfizer’s Abrysvo, which achieved 2023 sales of $1.5 billion and $890 million, respectively, in their first year on the market for people ages 60 and older.
The company sees the RSV market booming to $10 billion, with sales of between $6 billion to $8 billion in the older adult population.
Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel characterized 2024 as an important year of “execution,” and one that will set the stage for the company’s future.
“I believe 2024 will be a year where many observers of Moderna go from thinking of us as a COVID vaccine company to seeing Moderna as an mRNA platform company with several products approved and more approvals on the way,” Bancel said.
Moderna also surprised investors by turning a profit in the fourth quarter, with net income of $217 million, which came to $0.55 per share, versus the loss of $0.97 per share that analysts pegged.
“We applaud Moderna’s actions to reposition Spikevax, as the company transitioned to a seasonal endemic market, resized its manufacturing footprint and flattened its commercial structure,” Lee Brown, global sector lead for healthcare at Third Bridge, wrote. “We view these efforts positively to allow for greater investment toward other promising growth drivers.”