Moderna laying out $900m CAPEX in 2024 to drive growth ambitions

The Boston, Massachusetts-based company is reinvesting in its core business across different disease categories including 

influenza and a range of latent diseases through its messenger RNA (mRNA) platform to expand its finances and steer its business away from COVID after vaccine sales declined.

During the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco this week, Moderna’s CFO Jamey Mock shared insights on the firm’s global mRNA ambitions saying that “the right capacity” can “scale the company to at least $10 billion, if not more.”

Moderna gained recognition for its quick reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic, with its vaccine Spikevax – the second mRNA product to win approval. This yielded $7.7 billion in revenues for the firm in 2021 and $18.4 billion in 2022. However, in the third quarter of 2023, the company witnessed a slump of 44% in comparison to the same period in 2022, with its revenues at $1.8 billion.

“2024 will be a low point,” said Mock, “of approximately $4 billion, which is obviously down from the $18 billion that we’ve been experiencing over the last two years.”

Moreover, he said Moderna expects to achieve “up to 15 product launches in the next five years,” with the launch of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine in the US (subject to regulatory review and approval) in 2024 kickstarting the growth process.

Expanding on the firm’s strategy, Mock said, “When you fast forward to 2025, we believe we will return to growth. […] With extra growth, our gross margin should go up because we’ll have better volume, leverage.” He added capital expenditure will play a major part in driving this growth. 

Having laid ground for a facility in Canada, the firm announced an agreement with the Australian Government in December 2021 to build an mRNA vaccine plant in Victoria, including access to Moderna’s mRNA development technology, which could produce up to 100 million doses each year. This was followed by reports of expansion to the UK, in February 2022, which was confirmed in mid-2023. 

According to Mock, capital expenditure for these projects should amount to around $900 million in 2024, but while Moderna is “prepared to eat into our cash” he told investors there is unlikely to be more investments in the near future. “That’s where it stops!”

Despite dwindling sales of Spikevax and reports of scaling back on manufacturing, the firm still saw successes last year. In 

January 2023, Moderna made its first-ever acquisition of Japan-based OriCiro to aid them with tools needed for cell-synthesis and amplification of plasmid DNA. This was followed by teaming up with  CytomX, Personalis and Immatics to develop mRNA-based therapeutics for oncology and non-oncology conditions.