When Moderna entered into an agreement with the European Commission to postpone some shipments of its COVID-19 vaccine until 2023, they should have taken into consideration the effect of the news on their vaccine sales forecast figures. The situation has become more apparent after the third quarter financials were made public.
The company said that it will post $2 billion to $3 billion in vaccine sales by 2023. As a result, Moderna’s yearly sales prediction for Spikevax has been reduced from $21 billion to somewhere between $18 to $19 billion.
The third-quarter revenue figure of over $3 billion came as a surprise as it did not meet the expectations of Wall Street. The figure was down 35% from the third quarter of last year and 31% from the second quarter of this year.
The findings are especially disappointing for the firm given that Pfizer announced third-quarter sales of its COVID vaccination at $4.4 billion earlier this week, prompting the company to raise its annual sales prediction from $32 billion to $34 billion.
As per a comment made by the CEO Stephane Bancel:
“We had to deal with a very challenging third quarter in terms of manufacturing—manufacturing not one, but two products, we’ve got a number of problems, and many of those concerns are being addressed. There are numerous lessons to be learned that we are working on in order to be better prepared for 2023.”
The pharmaceutical company was running out of booster injections in September when COVID infections were on the rise. Millions of Moderna dosages were delayed at a Catalent factory in Indiana as the contract manufacturer resolved concerns discovered during an FDA investigation.
For the remainder of 2022, Moderna expects better sales numbers due to its omicron-adjusted booster.
“We expect product sales to be greater in the fourth quarter of 2022 than in the third quarter as we continue to deliver on our supply contracts for booster vaccinations,” said Jamey Mock, chief financial officer.
Moderna evaded a question about how much it wants to charge after the United States transitions to a commercial model for vaccinations, which is expected to happen in the first quarter of next year.
CiteLine spokesperson Sara LaFever stated that Pfizer is a developed company that is ready to manufacture and send its vaccines compared to Moderna, which is still in its early development stages.
In addition, the business announced a $333 million charge in the quarter for inventory write-downs linked to COVID products that had reached the end of their shelf life. This is a decrease from the $499 million write-down in the second quarter of this year.
As per the CMO of Moderna, Arpta Garay, a question has risen of what is the future of vaccine sales in the upcoming year, stated that the business is unable to provide a figure due to “a variety of circumstances.” Using signed contracts and supply deferrals from 2022 as a floor, Moderna predicts vaccine sales will be between $4.5 and $5.5 billion. There are additional options that may be exercised and future contracts that may appreciate the sum of sales revenue in the future.
