Moderna Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:MRNA) stock started Thursday sharply lower as the COVID vaccine maker reported earnings that fell short of market expectations.
As demand for COVID shots has dropped the cost of production is on the up, as the drug manufacturer is left with spare capacity.
Having sold some US$18.4bn worth of vaccines last year Moderna so far booked only US$5bn of orders for 2023.
In terms of financials, Moderna reported a 68% drop in fourth-quarter earnings down to US$3.61 per share, which was a long way short of Wall Street expectations pitched at US$4.68.
At US$5.1bn, Moderna’s revenue for the fourth quarter was down 30% compared to the same three months in the prior year. At the same time, costs increased by around 25% in the quarter versus last year’s comparative.
Moderna’s only revenue-generating product is its COVID vaccine, though the company highlighted in its results that it intends to apply to the US Food and Drug Administration in the first half of 2023 to get approval for a vaccine product targeting respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in older people, following a successful recent trial.
Approval for the RSV treatment could come in late 2023 or early 2024, according to Moderna.
It comes after GSK earlier this month unveiled plans which it believes will see it become the first to market with a drug for RSV, a cold-like condition that can be deadly.