(AOF) – Vaccine maker Moderna has lowered its 2022 sales forecast for its Covid-19 vaccine due to short-term supply constraints. They are expected between 18 and 19 billion dollars, compared with 21 billion dollars previously. Those sales are shifted to 2023. In the third quarter, net income fell 69% to $1 billion, or $2.53 per share. The FactSet consensus was $3.30 per share. Its revenues fell from $32.3 billion to $3.36 billion while the market was targeting $3.5 billion.
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An inevitable race for new blockbusters
The patent for Merck’s star product, the cancer drug Keytruda, which accounts for more than 35% of its sales, expires in 2028. Despite the loss, since 2019, of the patents for its three star products (Avastin, Herceptine, Rituxan) Roche was able to renew its portfolio by bringing new molecules to market. However, the discovery and launch of new drugs are increasingly expensive. AstraZeneca spends about $6 billion a year on R&D in a pharmaceutical industry where the life of a patent only lasts ten to fifteen years. This leads laboratories to withdraw from certain activities. Thus J&J, Pfizer, GSK and, no doubt, Novartis soon prefer to refocus on specialty drugs and abandon any ancillary activity.