Here’s what Moderna reported for the first quarter compared with Wall Street expectations, based on a survey of LSEG analysts:
- Loss per share: Expected loss of $3.07 vs $3.58
- Income: $167 million vs. $97.5 million expected
“On the (operating expense) side of the company, we’ve made a lot of progress,” Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said about cost-cutting on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Thursday. He said the biotech company’s team “has done a great job in reshaping the company.”
The biotech company reported first-quarter sales of $167 million, with revenue from its Covid shot down nearly 90% from the same period a year earlier. Moderna reported revenue of $1.86 billion in the year-ago period.
About $100 million came from the U.S., while $67 million came from international markets, primarily in Latin America, Moderna CFO Jamie Mock told CNBC in an interview.
The company said the revenue decline was due to an expected transition in the seasonal COVID vaccine market, where patients typically get vaccinated in the fall and winter.
Moderna reported a net loss of $1.18 billion, or $3.07 per share, in the first quarter. That compares with net income of $79 million, or 19 cents per share, reported for the year-ago period.
The company reiterated its full-year 2024 sales guidance of approximately $4 billion, which includes revenue from its RSV vaccine. Specifically, the company expects only $300 million in sales to come during the first half of the year because respiratory virus season typically occurs in the latter half of the year.
Moderna has said it expects to return to sales growth in 2025 with the launch of new products and break even by 2026.
Mock said the company is “more encouraged by what we’re seeing from a productivity perspective” than by higher sales of its COVID vaccine for the first quarter.
Cost of sales in the fourth quarter was $96 million, down 88% from the same period a year earlier. This includes $30 million in write-downs of unused doses of Covid vaccine and $27 million in charges related to the company’s efforts to reduce its manufacturing footprint, among other costs.
Research and development spending for the first quarter declined 6% to $1.1 billion compared with the same period in 2023. The decline was primarily due to lower payments to partners in 2024 and lower clinical development and manufacturing expenses, including lower spending on clinical trials. The company’s COVID, RSV and seasonal flu shots.
Meanwhile, selling, general and administrative expenses for the period fell 10% to $274 million compared to the first quarter of 2023. SG&A expenses typically include the costs of promoting, selling, and distributing a company’s products and services.
The company said the cuts are partly due to its investment in “digital commercial capabilities” and an increased focus on the use of AI technologies to streamline operations.
Last month, Moderna announced a partnership with AI heavyweight OpenAI, which aims to automate nearly every business process at a biotechnology company.
Mock told CNBC that Moderna has been working with OpenAI for the past year. He said that 60% to 70% of the company’s people currently use AI chatbots to do their work.
Moderna has so far managed to strengthen investor sentiments about its path forward post-Covid. The company’s shares have risen more than 10% this year, driven by growing confidence in its pipeline and its messenger RNA platform, which is the technology used in its Covid shot.
Moderna currently has 45 products in development, several of which are in late-stage trials. These include Moderna’s combination shot targeting Covid and flu, which could be approved as early as 2025.
Moderna is also developing a standalone flu shot, a personalized cancer vaccine with Merck and shots for latent viruses, among other products.
