What an updated COVID vaccine will mean for Moderna – Yahoo Finance

In an attempt to expand its portfolio, Moderna (MRNA) is developing an updated COVID-19 vaccine that could also provide protection against the seasonal flu. Piper Sandler Managing Director and Senior Biotechnology Analyst Ted Tenthoff joins Yahoo Finance Live to discuss the value this new vaccine presents for Moderna as a company and patients worldwide.

"We're clearly seeing that vaccination rates are low," Tenthoff says. "So, it could be... our current guidance is they've recently said within the low end of that $6 to $8 [billion] range. That's still positive, bringing in $6 billion a year for a company that before the pandemic was bringing in... a couple hundred million. This is still a meaningful product for Moderna."

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- --an updated COVID-19 shot they introduced in September, what do you think the financial impact is going to be there for the company? What do you expect demand to be like there?

TED TENTHOFF: Yeah. So, again, they originally guided 6 to 8 billion this year really contingent on somewhere around $2 billion of US vaccination revenues. We're clearly seeing that vaccination rates are low. So it could be, you know, our current guidance is, they've recently said, within the low end of that 6 to 8 range.

That's still positive, you know, bringing in $6 billion a year for a company that before the pandemic was bringing in a couple hundred million. This is still a meaningful product for Moderna and will be an important vaccine for the company and for, really, the world, especially if we face heightened or worse COVID seasons.

You know, it's going to be kind of like the flu vaccine, where especially people who are at risk, whether they're immunocompromised or elderly, still should be getting their COVID vaccine. So we really do project that out at a couple billion, probably below this year's guidance, for the next several years.

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- And, Ted, sort of more broadly as well, when you look at the attention on respiratory diseases that came as a result of the pandemic, of course, Moderna was only one of the companies that was trying to address that. So when you look at the attempt to treat respiratory diseases like COVID, like RSV, you know-- let's throw the flu in there as well, how do you view the space there and sort of that competitive landscape?

TED TENTHOFF: Yeah, well, it's-- these are really important products. So RSV, for example, really impacts the elderly, you know, typically, people in their 70-plus years of age. Obviously, flu is still a huge burden. And as many as 30,000-- 25,000 to 30,000 people die every year from flu. There's also other vaccines that could be-- like, for example, RSV impacts younger kids too and is actually one of the primary reasons for young children to go to the doctors and even 200-some thousand hospitalizations a year and can cause wheezing.

So these are very important vaccines. I think one of the interesting things that Moderna is doing is starting to combine these vaccines. One of the really exciting things about mRNA is you can fit a lot of different antigens within a single vaccine. So, for example, they can have your one or two COVID antigens plus the four or more flu vaccines.

So actually, in 2025, rather than getting a COVID vaccine and a flu vaccine, you'll be able to get a single shot. And I really do think that moves the ball-- you know, moves the ball forward in terms of improving compliance and vaccination rates, especially, again, in these at-risk populations like the elderly.

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What an updated COVID vaccine will mean for Moderna - Yahoo Finance