The Moderna sign will be seen outside its headquarters in Cambridge, MA on March 11, 2021.
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Moderna shares fell more than 13% Thursday after lowering their forecast for Covid-19 vaccine sales for the year and missing third-quarter earnings and sales expectations.
The company said some doses have been postponed for delivery this year due to production issues until early 2022 and deliveries to low-income countries will be prioritized through COVAX, the UN-backed coronavirus vaccine sharing initiative. It now expects Covid vaccine sales between $ 15 billion and $ 18 billion, up from $ 20 billion this year.
When it released its third quarter results, Moderna said it now expects between 700 million and 800 million doses this year, less than its previous expectations of between 800 million and 1 billion doses. The company also expects sales of $ 17 billion to $ 22 billion in 2022.
For comparison, Pfizer expects Covid vaccine sales of $ 36 billion this year and $ 29 billion in 2022.
Here’s how Moderna fared compared to Wall Street’s expectations, according to Refinitiv’s average estimates:
- EPS: $ 7.70 per share versus $ 9.05 per share expected
- Revenue: $ 4.97 billion versus $ 6.21 billion expected
“We are honored to have helped hundreds of millions of people around the world with our COVID-19 vaccine and yet we know our work is not done yet,” said Stephane Bancel, CEO of Moderna, in a statement .
He said the company is working to ensure the vaccine is available in low-income countries at around 10% of its volume in 2021 and “significantly more” next year.
Speaking on the phone with investors after the outcome, Bancel said the company’s supply chain had become “more complex,” affecting international shipments of its vaccine.
“We have increased shipments to many countries around the world,” he said. “At the beginning of the year we only delivered to a few large countries.”
David Meline, Moderna’s chief financial officer, said the company is continuing to expand its manufacturing network and “is working on quarter-over-quarter growth from the fourth quarter”.
Moderna’s Covid vaccine is the company’s only commercialized product. The results report comes two weeks after the Food and Drug Administration approved the booster of Moderna’s vaccine to tens of millions of Americans.
The company said Thursday it anticipates sales in the commercial booster market could reach $ 2 billion in 2022.
