Moderna targets 600 million doses of COVID-19 booster shots with new Lonza deal

  • Moderna (MRNA) hit a 52-week high today on the news of an additional agreement with Swiss contract manufacturer Lonza (OTCPK:LZAGY +0.3%) to ramp up the drug substance manufacturing for its global supply chain.
  • The highlight of the announcement was the commissioning of a new production line at Lonza's Geleen site in the Netherlands to support 300M doses of an updated booster variant vaccine candidate at a 50-µg dose subject to regulatory approval.
  • Thanks to another agreement with Spain's Rovi, Moderna now expects to source 600M 50-µg doses from the EU as production lines are expected to become operational before the end of the year.
  • "We are assuming that as of 2022, we are going to have a mix of dose levels on the market," Reuters quoted a spokeswoman from Moderna as saying.
  • Citing initial Phase 2 data in previously vaccinated people, the company said a single 50-µg dose vaccine given as a booster increased neutralizing antibody responses against SARS-CoV-2 and two variants of concern: B.1.351 (first identified in South Africa) and P.1 (first identified in Brazil).
  • In December, Moderna obtained FDA's emergency use authorization for its 100-µg dose COVID-19 vaccine.
  • The announcement of half a dose COVID-19 vaccine as a booster shot comes as the National Institutes of Health begins a study to evaluate the use of different COVID-19 vaccine combinations to boost immunization against the virus.

    For this year the company, located in Cambridge revenue will be around 18.5 billion USD. This is according to the average of the analysts' estimates. This is rather significantly lower than 2020's revenue of 803.4 million USD.

    Historical revenues and results Moderna Inc plus estimates 2020

    financiële analyse

    The analysts expect for 2021 a net profit of 10.6 billion USD. According to most of the analysts the company will have a profit per share for this book year of 25.31 USD. The PE-ratio therefore is 8.65.

    Analysts don't expect the company to pay a dividend. The average dividend yield of the biotech companies is an attractive 1.97 percent.

    Based on the current number of shares Moderna Inc 's market capitalization equals 73.65 billion USD. The Moderna Inc stock was the past 12 months quite unstable. Since last June the stock is even 253 percent higher. This year the stock price moved between 54 and 228 dollar.

    Historical stock prices Moderna Inc period 2007-2021

    stock modernainc

    At 16.44 the stock trades 7.52 percent lower at 218.85 USD.

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