Vaccine bubble lifts Moderna to most profitable quarter in history

The bulging bubble from Covid-19 vaccines production has lifted Moderna to the largest profitable quarter ever recorded in its 10-year history.

The US biotechnology company leading messenger RNA technology posted $1.9 billion in total revenue for 2021 first quarters compared to $8 million for the same period in 2020, according to a statement released Thursday.

The revenue leap came on the heels of a full quarter of commercial sales of Covid-19 vaccine in the U.S. and an initial ramp up of international sales.

A total of 102 million doses were recognized as revenue as product sales hit $1.7 billion for the three months ended in March.

There was also an increase in grant revenue of $190 million mainly driven by revenue rise from BARDA related to the Company’s COVID-19 vaccine development.

“In the first quarter, the Moderna team delivered on its supply commitments to many governments and helped protect more than 100 million people. This accomplishment translated into our first profitable quarter in the company’s history, after 10 years of scientific innovation and several billion dollars invested to make our mRNA platform a reality” said Stéphane Bancel, chief executive officer of Moderna.

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In November 2020, Moderna began to push for U.S. and European emergency authorization of its COVID-19 vaccine on Monday following results from a late-stage study showing its vaccine was 100 percent effective in preventing severe cases and 94.1 percent on the regular.

Based on the feat and its current manufacturing scale-up trajectory, the company has again increased its 2021 supply forecast to between 800 million and 1 billion doses as it projects a global supply of up to 3 billion doses by 2022.

Moderna vaccine is one of the mRNA-based vaccines leading the fight against the pandemic. Governments around the world including the US and UK have inoculated millions of people relying on 94 percent efficacy and variant boosters to boost.

The company is in talks and agreements for 2022 with all of the governments supplied for 2021 and secured new partnerships, with COVAX for up to 466 million doses in 2022.

There are also discussions with new governments in Asia, Middle East, Africa, and Latin America likely to push its total advance purchase agreements for 2022 higher than 2021

Costs of sales for the quarter in focus were $193 million or 11 percent of product sales, including third-party royalties of $84 million.

A portion of the inventory costs associated with the company’s products sales for the three months ended March was expensed as pre-launch inventory costs in 2020.

If inventory sold in the three months ended March 31, 2021 was valued at cost, the company’s cost of sales for the quarter would have been $377 million or 22 percent of product sales.

Also, the financials put research and development expenses at $401 million compared to $115 million for the same period in 2020. The growth in spending was mainly due to increases in clinical trial expenses, manufacturing expenses, personnel-related costs, and consulting and outside services, largely driven by mRNA-1273 clinical development and increased headcount.