Moderna shares plunge amid struggle to fill Covid-19 vaccine orders

Demand is through the roof for vaccinations but a pharma giant has slashed its sales forecast by almost $7 billion because of one seemingly simple issue.

Pharmaceutical firm Moderna on Thursday slashed the 2021 sales forecast for its Covid-19 vaccine by as much as $US5 billion ($A6.75 billion), grappling to fill vials and distribute them to meet unprecedented world demand, sending its shares tumbling 16 per cent.

Moderna executives said production challenges now lie with bottling up doses, also known as fill and finish, and ramping up infrastructure to deliver them internationally, rather than production of raw material, the New York Post reported.

“We really believe we can fix those short-term supply issues …. those are what I would qualify as teething problems of scaling up so fast,” Chief Executive Officer Stéphane Bancel told analysts on a conference call.

Moderna shares were down 16.3 per cent at $A289.50 ($A390).

US pharmaceutical firm Moderna is struggling to fulfil orders. Picture: Patrick T. Fallon/AFP

The US drug maker is hiring more manufacturing workers and investing additional resources in its production lines to increase the number of doses it can release each week, Mr Bancel said.

Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccines, like those of its peer Pfizer, require more demanding cold storage than other shots, creating logistic challenges in shipping them, especially to poorer countries that lack extensive cold storage infrastructure.

The company’s sales target cut is in sharp contrast to that of larger rival Pfizer, which earlier this week raised the sales forecast for its shot.

Moderna’s contract manufacturer Lonza has been ramping up manufacturing, and Moderna has also enlisted Spain’s Rovi, another contract drug maker that is already bottling Moderna’s vaccine, to build new ingredient production facilities in Granada to lift European output.

Mr Bancel said the work was now complete, and “we should see a positive impact from this expansion very soon”.

Besides production challenges, the vaccine has also been under scrutiny over the rare risk of heart inflammation known as myocarditis.

Moderna is the third vaccine to be approved by the Australian government. Picture: Angela Weiss/AFP

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) over the weekend delayed its review of Moderna’s vaccine in children and teens aged 12 to 17 years, to assess the risk of myocarditis.

Moderna executives said its safety analysis do not show an increased risk in individuals below 18 years of age.

“We think, over time, the substantial benefits of our vaccine will ultimately win out here. And so we look forward to continuing to work with the FDA,” said Moderna President Stephen Hoge.

Moderna said it was now expecting 2021 sales of between $US15 billion ($A20 bn) and $US18 billion ($A24 bn) from $US20 billion ($A27bn) estimated previously.

Deliveries were pegged between 700 million and 800 million doses for the year, down from its prior forecast of between 800 million to 1 billion.

Still, Moderna said its sales could be in the range of $US17 billion ($A23bn) to $US22 billion ($A30bn) next year.

This article originally appeared in the New York Post and was reproduced with permission

Originally published as Moderna shares plunge amid struggle to fill Covid-19 vaccine orders