Moderna stock dips as Q4 earnings fall; reaffirms COVID vaccine sales outlook of $5B
Maddie Meyer

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) is trading lower premarket on Thursday after mixed Q4 results.
EPS declined -68% Y/Y to $3.61, and also missed analysts estimates.
Meanwhile, total revenue fell ~29% Y/Y to $5.08B, but surpassed estimates. The decline was mainly due to a fall in the sales of the company's COVID-19 vaccines.
In Q4 Product sales (COVID-19 vaccine) fell ~30% Y/Y to $4.86B. Moderna said the decline was mainly due to lower sales volume, compared to overall higher demand in the previous year and the related manufacturing ramp up in Q4 2021.
Other revenue in Q4 decreased ~18% to $225M.
Moderna reiterated that about $5B in COVID-19 sales have been contracted for delivery in 2023 and it also expects additional sales from key markets.
The company expects product sales in H1 2023 of about $2B.
Full year 2022 total revenue grew +4% Y/Y to $19.26B. Product sales for 2022 increased +4% Y/Y to $18.4B mainly due to a higher average selling price due to customer mix, according to the company.
"We are investing to scale Phase 3 manufacturing for personalized cancer vaccines so that we can run several Phase 3 studies simultaneously. With planned R&D investments of $4.5 billion for the year," said Moderna CEO StÃ©phane Bancel.
On Wednesday, the company and Merck (MRK) said that their personalized mRNA cancer vaccine mRNA-4157/V940, in combination with Keytruda, was granted breakthrough therapy designation by the FDA to treat certain patients with a type of skin cancer.
The combo had helped cut the risk of recurrence or death by 44%, versus Keytruda alone, in a phase 2b trial, dubbed KEYNOTE-942/mRNA-4157-P201. Full results from the study will be presented at an upcoming meeting.
Moderna added that it will file for regulatory approval for its RSV vaccine mRNA-1345 for older adults H1 2023.
Interim data from a phase 3 trial of the the company's flu vaccine mRNA-1010, which showed mixed results, is expected to be reviewed by an independent Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) before the end of the Q1, according to Moderna.
The company noted that in Q4, cost of sales was $1.9B, or 39% of product sales, including third-party royalties of $604M, of which $400M is related to a catch-up payment to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) for a new royalty-bearing license agreement signed in December.
Research and development expenses in Q4 increased by ~87% Y/Y to $1.21B.
Cash, cash equivalents and investments as of Dec. 31, 2022 were $18.2B, compared to $17.6B as of Dec. 31, 2021.
Moderna added that cash used for buyback of common stock was $3.3B for the full year 2022.
In addition, Moderna said that Juan Andres, currently president, Strategic Partnerships and Enterprise Expansion, will retire in May after more than six years at the company.
MRNA -2.16% to $154.75 premarket Feb. 23