Moderna Inc (NASDAQ:MRNA) posted revenues of $570.7 million from coronavirus vaccines’ sales in Q4 2020. It is on the backdrop of COVID-19 vaccine distribution in several countries worldwide that includes the US.
Plans for coronavirus vaccine production increase
Moderna’s loss widened to $272,000 in Q4 2020 compared to $123,000 in the same period last year. In 2021, the company intends to manufacture a minimum of 700 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. It is an increase of 100 million doses from the previous estimate. Moderna targets to deliver 1.2 billion doses of the vaccine next year.
Expects to generate revenues of over $18.0 billion
Speaking during an earnings call on Thursday, Stéphane Bancel, CEO of Moderna, said the company plans to diversify its product offerings besides the COVID-19 vaccine. Following signification expansion in 2020, Moderna targets to report revenues of $18.4 billion in 2021 from coronavirus vaccine sales.
Moderna increased the production of COVID-19 vaccines to 17 million doses in 2020 using its New Hampshire-based plant from just 100,000 medicines in 2019. Bancel said the company acquired new machines to scale up the production of vaccines. It still lacks the facility for filling large vaccine volumes into vials. The company depends on outside service players like Catalent to get the vaccines for delivery.
Moderna raised $1.3 billion in May 2020 by issuing 17.6 million shares. The company used the funds to support the partners and purchase machines, raw materials for the manufacture of coronavirus vaccines. It also used the funds to pay salaries for recruits.
Funding from the central government
Moderna also benefitted from the support extended through the Defense Manufacturing Act by the Trump administration and the federal government’s grants. The company used these grants to purchase equipment and supplies.
Moderna paid upfront cash to its lipid suppliers to help them hire people and buy machines. The company initially set a target of 1 billion doses to meet the demand in 2022 and assumed that the requirement would slowly drop. On the contrary, the company received an order for millions of doses from the EU for fulfillment in H2 2021.
Citing the officials, Moderna plans to invest up to $400 million in 2021. The company is also working on 20 additional candidates to treat various diseases.
