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Modern (NASDAQ: MRNA) saw its stock surge on Thursday despite mounting losses, after the COVID-19 vaccine maker reported more than double the earnings forecast by Wall Street. Moderna missed BPA expectations with revenue far exceeding analysts’ forecasts as the company began to recognize revenue from sales of its COVID-19 vaccine in December 2020. The loss was simply the result of a major investment to increase production of its COVID-19 vaccine.
The company has spent the past two months producing and shipping its long-awaited coronavirus vaccine, but its fourth quarter is just the surface of its vaccine success. In 2021, Moderna plans to manufacture 600-700 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine but is expected to be able to expand its capacity to 1.4 billion doses in 2022 due to heavy capital investments, all of which are expected. translate into massive profits.
Q4 and FY 2020
For the fourth quarter ended December 31, Moderna reported a quarterly loss of $ 0.69 per share, which was lower than Zacks’ consensus estimate of $ 0.25. Moderna achieved $ 570.75 billion in sales. That crushed the average estimate of analysts polled by FactSet to $ 279.4 million and surpassed Zacks’ consensus estimate by 74.76%. Just a year ago, revenue was $ 14.06 million, but until its mRNA-1273 coronavirus vaccine, the company had never put an approved drug on the market.
Losses fell to 69 cents per share after losing 37% per share last year, when analysts expected a loss of 34 cents. While a large portion of the revenue still comes from the grant received from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority to advance its COVID vaccine, for the first time Moderna achieved product sales and stood at $ 199.87 million. dollars as the company began to recognize COVID vaccine sales in December. Although losses widened in 2020, Moderna’s sales skyrocketed to $ 803.4 million.
Possible threat
One of the biggest risks ahead for all vaccine manufacturers is the prevalence of new coronavirus variants. To solve this problem, Moderna is studying two improvements. The first is actually a third dose of vaccine that would increase the levels of neutralizing antibodies to better repel new strains. The second is an improved strain-specific version that was moved to preclinical and phase 1 trials from the end of January. Moderna designs it to target the. If successful, the company should be able to adapt it quickly to protect against future strains, although it is designed to target the South African variation.
Teenagers
In early December, Moderna began a Phase 2/3 trial of its COVID vaccine in young adults aged 12 to 17. The data will be communicated in the spring and should result in an emergency use authorization just in time for the start of the school year in September. But last month Moderna didn’t have enough teenage volunteers.
Adolescents are not the most at risk for serious complications from COVID-19, but they do play a role in transmitting the virus, so their vaccinations are another important part of containing the pandemic.
2021
The company expects $ 18.4 billion in sales of its COVID vaccine for the year 2021. The figure is based on advance purchase agreements already signed, but further discussions are underway for 2021 and 2022. That outlook shattered forecasts, with analysts forecasting $ 11 billion. Additionally, the company said it plans to manufacture 700 million doses of its vaccine this year, while working to increase that capacity to 1 billion. In 2022, Moderna hopes to be able to produce 1.4 billion doses.
CEO Stephane Bancel called 2020 a historic year for the company as it lagged behind Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) and BioNTech (NASDAQ: BNTX) for a week in the United States by obtaining emergency use authorization. The vaccine is Moderna’s first commercial product with 32 million doses delivered in the United States to millions of people around the world.
In 2020, Moderna went from knowing that mRNA vaccines can be very effective, he went to a cash-generating trading company that is helping save the world from the clutches of an invisible enemy. The last reported quarter closed a pivotal year for the biotech company. 2020 was a year when the world turned dark, but the pandemic helped Moderna shine as it provided us with a glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel. Since the start of 2021, its stocks have gained 38.6%, well outpacing the S&P 500’s 4.5% gain.
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The Moderna post falls short of expectations But Things Are More Than Fine first appeared on IAM Newswire.
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