Among the handful of drugmakers to advance a successful COVID-19 vaccine in 2020, Moderna—whose mRNA shot Spikevax was also the company’s first commercial product—has notably struggled to keep its business growing in a post-pandemic world.
And even now that the company has scored an approval for a second marketed shot in respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine mRESVIA, Moderna to continues to wrestle with the ebb and flow of seasonal immunizations in a pair of highly competitive fields.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began to ease years ago, Moderna has been busy resizing its production footprint to meet the needs of a post-pandemic landscape. But that effort hasn't come without costs.
In 2024’s fourth quarter, Moderna’s cost of sales came out to $739 million, including $193 million in inventory write-downs and production wind-down costs of $259 million. In that latter category, Moderna revealed a $238 million charge related to the cancellation of a contract manufacturing pact during the quarter.
Inventory write-downs and manufacturing charges are nothing new for Moderna, which has struggled in recent years to properly gauge demand for its vaccines—first with Spikevax and now mRESVIA—in an endemic market.
“We did have $500 million of inventory write-downs in 2024 and about $100 million of unutilized manufacturing capacity,” Moderna’s CFO, Jamey Mock, said of the situation on a Friday call with analysts.
The executive’s comments came as Moderna reported fourth-quarter sales of $1 billion, down significantly from the $2.8 billion it generated over the same stretch in 2023. Of that sum, Moderna’s COVID shot Spikevax contributed $923 million during the earnings period, versus just $15 million from RSV shot mRESVIA.
For all of 2024, the company brought home $3.2 billion in revenue, down around 72% from the $6.8 billion it generated in the previous year.
For the coming year, Moderna aims to generate revenue between $1.5 billion and $2.5 billion, with most of that sum pegged to arrive in the back half of 2025 thanks to the seasonality of the vaccine business.