Bancel says Moderna is ‘not a Covid-19 company’ but an mRNA platform
Moderna returned to profitability in the recent quarter and lifted its full-year revenue forecast, defying Wall Street expectations of continued losses as international demand for its Covid-19 shots stabilized.
The company reported a third-quarter profit of $162 million, compared with a loss of $200 million a year earlier. Quarterly earnings came out to 38 cents a share. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected a loss of $1.10 a share.
Total revenue jumped 29% to $1.31 billion, topping Wall Street estimates for $890.3 million. Moderna attributed the gain in part to higher Covid-19 vaccine sales in international markets.
Looking ahead, Moderna now expects total revenue growth of 15% to 25% for the year, up from a previous outlook for up to 10% growth. It continues to expect roughly half of its revenue to come from the U.S. and half from international markets.
The higher outlook follows U.S. approval of mFLUSIVA, the company’s mRNA-based influenza vaccine.
At the same time, Moderna is pushing beyond its pandemic-era identity to become an oncology and broad mRNA developer. The company is preparing regulatory submissions with partner Merck for intismeran, its personalized melanoma vaccine, following late-stage study results that showed the vaccine reduced the risk of the cancer spreading or returning.
Bancel said the company’s financial turnaround and manufacturing scale are paving the way to expand its cancer treatments into multiple types of tumors.
“Moderna, unlike what most people thought a year ago, is not a Covid-19 company,” Bancel said. “It’s a broad mRNA platform company that happens to have its first product being a Covid-19 vaccine.”
The Cambridge, Mass., biotech is armed with $8 billion in cash, which it says will primarily fund research and development as it works with Merck to study intismeran across other tumor types.
“We think now is the time to invest,” Bancel said.
Shares climbed 2.4%, to $246, in premarket trading.