Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine Sales Drop 91%

Moderna, a pharmaceutical and biotechnology company founded in 2010, reported $167 million in Q1 sales from its only product — the COVID-19 vaccine — marking a 91% decline from the $1.9 billion in sales it reported in Q1 2023 and a net loss of $1.18 billion.

Fortune reports that this sharp decline in sales is unsurprising because demand for the vaccine has been on the downswing since 2021. Indeed, the Massachusetts-based company stated that its sales decline “aligns with the anticipated transition to a seasonal COVID-19 vaccine market.”

Moderna further remarked that it will begin diversifying its mRNA vaccine offerings, including offering a respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine and a seasonal flu vaccine, to bounce back from the post-pandemic slump. The RSV vaccine is expected to launch in Q3 2024 if cleared to do so.

In this regard, the pharmaceutical company is behind its competitors like Pfizer, whose RSV vaccine is already on the market. Accordingly, Pfizer’s Q1 2024 sales came in at $14.88 billion. Johnson & Johnson, another Moderna competitor, reported Q1 2024 sales earnings of $21.4 billion.

It’s worth noting, however, that these sales figures represent total earnings, and both Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson offer a wide array of consumer products in addition to COVID-19 vaccines. The two companies have also been around longer than Moderna: Pfizer was founded in 1849, and Johnson & Johnson was founded in 1886.

The pharmaceutical company also promises to usher in a new era with its revolutionary implementation of AI across its business. The goal of its new partnership with OpenAI, the company said, was to bring at least 15 new products to the market within the next five years, with the anticipation that a diversified offering would prevent further losses.

Moderna confirms that its Q1 2024 net loss of $1.18 billion was stronger than Wall Street expectations of $1.4 billion in net losses. The company said that it anticipates $4 billion in full-year sales.

“This is the start of a banner year for our vaccine platform as we continue to advance mRNA medicines for patients,” Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said in the earnings call, according to Fortune. “This is just the beginning.”