July 31 (Reuters) – Moderna beat Wall Street estimates for second-quarter revenue on Friday, benefiting from better-than-expected sales of its COVID-19 vaccine, as the company gears up for the potential launch of its flu shot.
However, the company’s shares fell more than 4% in premarket trading after its experimental norovirus vaccine candidate missed the statistical benchmark for early success in an interim analysis of a late-stage study.
The company is betting that its flu vaccine and a future COVID-flu combination shot can help offset the decline from pandemic-era COVID-19 vaccine sales while demonstrating that its mRNA platform can support a durable, diversified respiratory-vaccine franchise.
The U.S. FDA is set to decide on Moderna’s flu vaccine by August 5, after the agency first refused to accept its application under former Commissioner Marty Makary, only to reverse course and accept a revised application for review.
The company reiterated its revenue growth expectation of up to 10% for the year, with roughly half of its revenue coming from the U.S.
The company reported second-quarter revenue of $145 million, compared with analysts’ average estimate of $103 million, according to LSEG data.
(Reporting by Christy Santhosh and Mariam Sunny in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)
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