Covid vaccine sales boost Moderna’s quarterly profit

US pharmaceutical company Moderna said first-quarter net profit tripled as its revenue rose on the back of sales of its Covid-19 vaccine.

The Massachusetts-based company’s net income climbed to about $3.7 billion in the three months through to the end of March, compared with $1.2bn during the same period a year earlier.

Total revenue reached $6.1bn, compared with $1.9 billion during the same period last year. The amount included $5.9bn from sales of the company’s Covid-19 vaccine, compared with $1.7bn in the first quarter of last year.

Moderna said prevailing market dynamics will result in

Covid-19 vaccine sales “slightly larger in the second half of 2022 than in the first half”.

“The Moderna team delivered a strong first-quarter performance and I am thankful for the progress our team continues to make as we advance our pipeline of mRNA medicine,” said chief executive Stephane Bancel. “Today, we are reiterating our signed advanced purchase agreements for 2022 of $21bn.” While traditional vaccines deliver a weakened or inactive virus to prompt antibody production, mRNA vaccines instruct cells to start producing a protein that starts an immune response.

The pharmaceutical company spent about $554m on research and development in the first quarter, an increase of more than 38 per cent on an annual basis, mainly due to increases in “personnel-related costs, clinical trial expenses, technology and facility-related costs, and consulting and outside services”, it said.

Full-year R&D expenses are expected to be about $4bn.

Last month, Moderna also submitted a request for emergency-use authorisation in the US for its Covid-19 vaccine for babies as young as six months and children under 6. Infants younger than six months are the only group yet to be eligible for the Covid vaccine in the US and in most countries – a source of concern for some parents.

In the current quarter ending on June 30, Moderna expects to have four programmes in late-stage studies, including an Omicron-containing bivalent Covid booster candidate, Mr Bancel said.

“Beginning in the fall of 2022, our robust phase-three pipeline could lead to three respiratory commercial launches over the next two to three years … mRNA has changed the future of medicine and I look forward to continuing our impact on human health. This is just the beginning,” he said.

Cash and cash equivalents stood at $19.3bn as of March 31. Meanwhile, the net cash provided by operating activities was $2.8bn for the three months that ended on March 31, compared with $3bn for the same period last year.

Earnings per share rose by 202 per cent annually to $8.6 in the first quarter. The company expects its total capital investment for this year to be in the range of $600m to $800m.

Moderna, which did not conduct share repurchases before the fourth quarter of last year, said it spent $623m in the past quarter on repurchases of common stock.

Over the past two quarters, it has repurchased about seven million shares, reducing the number of common shares outstanding to about 400 million.

Moderna expects Covid vaccine sales in the second half of this year to be slightly larger than in the first half