(Reuters) – Moderna said on Thursday it was targeting annual revenue at the lower end of its forecast range to reflect weaker demand for COVID-19 vaccines, but the company expects to return to growth in 2025 and to break even the following year.
The American pharmaceutical group now expects a turnover of at least 6 billion dollars (5.6 billion euros), compared to 6 to 8 billion dollars previously.
Furthermore, the group reported a net loss of $3.6 billion in the third quarter, linked to charges.
On Wall Street, Moderna shares fell 8.10% to $70.03 at 1:43 p.m. GMT.
The new revenue forecast is based on the assumption that at least 50 million COVID-19 vaccines will be administered this year in the United States.
“We thought the high end was too high and the implied fourth-quarter COVID vaccine sales after today’s positive result appear reasonable,” Michael Yee, an analyst at Jefferies, said in a note.
Moderna, whose COVID-19 vaccine is its only currently marketed product, posted third-quarter sales of $1.8 billion, beating analysts’ estimates of $1.32 billion, according to data from the LSEG.
About $900 million of its quarterly sales come from the United States and $800 million from internationally.
The Cambridge, Mass.-based company said it expects revenue of $4 billion in 2024 from sales of Spikevax and the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) drug, which has not yet been approved but is expected to launch in 2024 based on positive data from a late-stage trial.
“We think 2024 is the lowest point… We’re going to launch two or three more new products in 2025, and VRS will come out in 2024, and growth will continue after that,” Jamey Mock said. , chief financial officer of Moderna, during an interview.
Pfizer, a competitor to Moderna, posted a quarterly loss earlier this week due to charges of $5.6 billion related to its COVID-19 products.
(Reporting Patrick Wingrove in New York and Leroy Leo in Bangalore, French version Stéphanie Hamel, editing by Kate Entringer)
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