Moderna has inked a deal to supply the US with another 100 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, doubling the total amount of orders secured to 200 million doses. Shares rose 3% in Friday’s extended market trading session.
As part of the deal, the US government also has an option to buy up to an additional 300 million doses of Moderna’s (MRNA) mRNA-1273 vaccine candidate. The supply contract comes as the company is awaiting a decision on emergency use authorization (EUA) approval by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) over the coming week. Meanwhile, the FDA on Friday issued an EUA for the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech.
Of the first 100 million doses of the Moderna vaccine purchased by the US government, about 20 million doses are scheduled to be delivered by the end of December 2020, and the balance will be ready for the first quarter of 2021, subject to FDA approval. The new order of 100 million doses is planned to be rolled out in the second quarter of 2021.
Moderna’s candidate, which is undergoing late-stage trials, triggers an antibody response specifically to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, and has demonstrated efficacy of 94.1% against COVID-19.
“We appreciate the confidence that the US government continues to have in mRNA-1273, our COVID-19 vaccine candidate, demonstrated by this increased supply agreement,” said Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel. “We continue to scale up our manufacturing capability in the U.S. and outside of the U.S. In parallel, we have filed for a Conditional Marketing Authorization with the European Medicines Agency, and we will continue to work with regulatory agencies around the globe to continue the rolling review process.”
Moderna has previously confirmed that its manufacturing capacity is on track for the delivery of about 500 million vaccine doses per year and up to 1 billion doses per year, beginning in 2021.
Shares of Moderna have surged 75% over the past month and are up a staggering 701% so far this year. Following the rally, Needham analyst Alan Carr downgraded MRNA’s rating to Hold from Buy and removed his $110 price target as he argues that the stock is now fully valued.
“The stock may react favorably to EUA issuance, but we do not believe it will justify a meaningfully higher price target,” Carr commented in a note to investors. “We await competitor vaccine updates and additional data from other Moderna programs, which may support a higher valuation.” (See MRNA stock analysis on TipRanks).
The rest of the Street still has a Moderate Buy analyst consensus on the stock’s outlook. Looking ahead, the average price target stands at $127.69, indicating 19% downside potential lies ahead.
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