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📘 Marktkapitalisierung
📈 Was ist das?
Die Marktkapitalisierung zeigt, wie viel ein Unternehmen laut Börse aktuell wert ist.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Sie hilft Unternehmen in Größenklassen (Large, Mid, Small Cap) einzuordnen und gibt Hinweise auf Marktmacht und Stabilität.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Große Unternehmen gelten als stabiler, zahlen oft Dividenden, wachsen aber langsamer.
- Kleine Firmen können stärker wachsen, sind aber schwankungsanfälliger.
- Die Marktkapitalisierung ist ein guter Indikator für Unternehmensgröße, aber kein Maß für Unter- oder Überbewertung.
📘 Enterprise Value (Unternehmenswert)
📈 Was ist das?
Der Enterprise Value (EV) zeigt, was ein Unternehmen tatsächlich kostet, wenn man es komplett übernehmen würde – inklusive Schulden und abzüglich Cash.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
(= Marktkapitalisierung + Nettoverschuldung)
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Der EV ist eine realistischere Bewertungsbasis als die Marktkapitalisierung, da er die Kapitalstruktur berücksichtigt. Er ist Grundlage für Kennzahlen wie EV/FCF oder EV/Sales.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Der Enterprise Value zeigt, was ein Unternehmen tatsächlich wert ist – unabhängig davon, wie es finanziert ist.
- Er ist besonders wichtig für professionelle Investoren, da er eine objektivere Grundlage für Bewertungsvergleiche bietet als die Marktkapitalisierung allein.
- Ein Unternehmen mit hoher Verschuldung erscheint im EV teurer, eines mit viel Cash günstiger – auch wenn sie an der Börse gleich viel wert sind.
📘 Nettoverschuldung
📈 Was ist das?
Die Nettoverschuldung zeigt, wie viele Schulden nach Abzug des verfügbaren Cashs tatsächlich verbleiben.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Sie zeigt, wie stark ein Unternehmen von Fremdkapital abhängig ist – und wie gut es in der Lage ist, seine Schulden kurzfristig zu bedienen.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Eine niedrige oder negative Nettoverschuldung bedeutet hohe finanzielle Stabilität.
- Unternehmen mit viel Cash und geringer Verschuldung sind besser gerüstet für Krisen.
- Eine hohe Nettoverschuldung erhöht das Risiko – besonders bei steigenden Zinsen oder konjunkturellen Schwächen.
📘 Cash
📈 Was ist das?
Der Cashbestand zeigt, wie viele liquide Mittel einem Unternehmen sofort zur Verfügung stehen.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Er gibt Auskunft über die finanzielle Flexibilität: Ein hoher Cashbestand ermöglicht Investitionen, Rückkäufe oder Krisenresistenz.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Ein hoher Cashbestand zeigt finanzielle Stärke und Handlungsspielraum.
- Cash kann für Investitionen, Schuldentilgung oder Aktienrückkäufe genutzt werden.
- Allerdings: Zu viel ungenutztes Kapital kann auch auf mangelnde Investitionsideen hinweisen.
📘 Anzahl ausstehender Aktien
📈 Was ist das?
Die Anzahl ausstehender Aktien gibt an, wie viele Aktien eines Unternehmens aktuell im Umlauf sind und von Investoren gehalten werden.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Sie ist die Grundlage für viele Kennzahlen wie Gewinn je Aktie (EPS), Marktkapitalisierung oder KGV.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Je weniger Aktien im Umlauf sind, desto höher fällt z. B. der Gewinn je Aktie aus – wichtig für Bewertung und Dividendenrendite.
- Aktienrückkäufe verringern die Anzahl ausstehender Aktien – und steigern den Wert je Aktie.
- Kapitalerhöhungen haben den gegenteiligen Effekt: mehr Aktien → Verwässerung der bestehenden Anteile.
📘 Kurs-Gewinn-Verhältnis (KGV)
📈 Was ist das?
Das KGV zeigt, wie oft der Gewinn pro Aktie im aktuellen Aktienkurs enthalten ist – also wie „teuer“ eine Aktie im Verhältnis zum Gewinn ist.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Das KGV gehört zu den bekanntesten Bewertungskennzahlen. Es hilft Anlegern einzuschätzen, ob eine Aktie im Vergleich zu ihrem Gewinn eher günstig oder teuer erscheint.
🧮 Berechnung
📊 KGV (TTM) = bezogen auf den Gewinn der letzten 12 Monate (Trailing Twelve Months):🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Ein niedriges KGV kann auf eine günstige Bewertung hindeuten – oder auf Probleme im Geschäftsmodell.
- Ein hohes KGV kann Wachstumserwartungen widerspiegeln – oder eine überbewertete Aktie.
📘 Kurs-Umsatz-Verhältnis (KUV)
📈 Was ist das?
Das KUV zeigt, wie viel Anleger für 1 € Umsatz eines Unternehmens zahlen – unabhängig vom Gewinn.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Das KUV ist besonders bei wachstumsstarken oder noch nicht profitablen Unternehmen hilfreich. Es zeigt, wie hoch der Umsatz an der Börse bewertet wird.
🧮 Berechnung
Marktkapitalisierung = 28,77 Mrd. $ | Umsatz (TTM) = 2,23 Mrd. $
Marktkapitalisierung = 28,77 Mrd. $ | Umsatz erwartet = 2,13 Mrd. $
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Ein niedriges KUV kann auf Unterbewertung hindeuten – oder auf schwache Margen.
- Ein hohes KUV kann hohe Erwartungen widerspiegeln – oder übermäßigen Optimismus.
- Besonders sinnvoll bei Wachstumsunternehmen, bei denen der Gewinn oder Free Cashflow (noch) keine Aussagekraft hat.
📘 Unternehmenswert zu Umsatz (EV/Sales)
📈 Was ist das?
EV/Sales zeigt, wie viel Anleger für 1 € Umsatz eines Unternehmens zahlen, wenn man auch Schulden und Cash berücksichtigt – es ist eine kapitalstrukturbereinigte Version des KUV.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Diese Kennzahl eignet sich besonders für den Vergleich von Unternehmen mit unterschiedlicher Verschuldung – sie zeigt, wie teuer ein Unternehmen tatsächlich im Verhältnis zum Umsatz ist.
🧮 Berechnung
Enterprise Value = 24,20 Mrd. $ | Umsatz (TTM) = 2,23 Mrd. $
Enterprise Value = 24,20 Mrd. $ | Umsatz erwartet = 2,13 Mrd. $
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- EV/Sales ist neutral gegenüber der Kapitalstruktur und eignet sich gut für Unternehmensvergleiche.
- Ein niedriges Verhältnis kann auf eine günstig bewertete Aktie hindeuten – ein hohes Verhältnis auf hohe Erwartungen oder Überbewertung.
- Besonders nützlich bei wachstumsstarken, noch nicht profitablen Firmen.
📘 Unternehmenswert zu Free Cashflow (EV/FCF)
📈 Was ist das?
EV/FCF zeigt, wie viele Jahre es dauern würde, bis ein Unternehmen seinen Unternehmenswert durch freien Cashflow „zurückverdient”.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Diese Kennzahl hilft, Unternehmen auf Basis ihrer tatsächlichen Cash-Erträge zu bewerten – unabhängig von Bilanzierungsregeln oder buchhalterischem Gewinn.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Ein niedriges EV/FCF deutet auf eine günstige Bewertung bei starker Cashgenerierung hin.
- Ein hohes EV/FCF kann entweder auf Optimismus oder auf temporär schwachen Cashflow hindeuten.
- Besonders hilfreich bei reifen, profitablen Unternehmen mit stabilen Cashflows.
📘 Kurs-Buchwert-Verhältnis (KBV)
📈 Was ist das?
Das KBV zeigt, wie hoch der Marktwert eines Unternehmens im Verhältnis zu seinem bilanziellen Eigenkapital ist.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Das KBV ist besonders bei Substanzwerten (z. B. Banken, Industrie) relevant. Es hilft Anlegern zu erkennen, ob ein Unternehmen unter oder über seinem buchhalterischen Vermögen bewertet ist.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Ein KBV unter 1 kann auf Unterbewertung oder schwache Rentabilität hindeuten.
- Ein KBV über 1 zeigt, dass der Markt dem Unternehmen Mehrwert über den Buchwert hinaus zuschreibt (z. B. Marken, Patente, Wachstum).
- Das KBV eignet sich besonders gut für Unternehmen mit stabilen, materiellen Vermögenswerten.
📘 Eigenkapitalquote
📈 Was ist das?
Die Eigenkapitalquote zeigt, wie hoch der Anteil des Eigenkapitals an der Bilanzsumme eines Unternehmens ist – also wie stark es sich aus eigenen Mitteln finanziert.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Eine hohe Eigenkapitalquote steht für finanzielle Stabilität, Krisenfestigkeit und gute Bonität. Sie ist besonders relevant bei der Beurteilung der Verschuldung.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Eine hohe Eigenkapitalquote signalisiert finanzielle Stabilität – besonders in Krisenzeiten.
- Ein niedriger Wert kann auf ein höheres Risiko oder eine aggressive Verschuldung hinweisen.
- Wichtig: Die Eigenkapitalquote sollte immer gemeinsam mit der Eigenkapitalrendite betrachtet werden. Nur so lässt sich beurteilen, ob ein Unternehmen nicht nur solide, sondern auch effizient wirtschaftet.
📘 Eigenkapitalrendite (ROE)
📈 Was ist das?
Die Eigenkapitalrendite zeigt, wie effizient ein Unternehmen mit dem Kapital seiner Aktionäre arbeitet – also wie viel Gewinn es pro Euro Eigenkapital erwirtschaftet.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Die Eigenkapitalrendite ist eine zentrale Rentabilitätskennzahl. Sie hilft Anlegern zu erkennen, ob das Unternehmen eine attraktive Verzinsung auf das eingesetzte Eigenkapital erwirtschaftet.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Eine hohe Eigenkapitalrendite spricht für ein starkes, effizientes Geschäftsmodell.
- Besonders interessant ist sie bei kapitalintensiven Firmen oder solchen mit hoher Eigenkapitalquote.
- Wichtig: Ein sehr hoher ROE kann auch auf hohe Schulden hinweisen – daher sollte sie immer im Kontext mit der Eigenkapitalquote betrachtet werden.
📘 Return on Capital Employed (ROCE)
📈 Was ist das?
ROCE misst die Gesamtrentabilität eines Unternehmens – also wie effizient es das eingesetzte Kapital (Eigen- und Fremdkapital) zur Gewinnerzielung nutzt.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
Das eingesetzte Kapital ist das gesamte betriebsnotwendige Kapital, unabhängig von der Finanzierungsquelle.
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
ROCE eignet sich besonders gut für den Vergleich unterschiedlich finanzierter Unternehmen. Es zeigt, wie effektiv ein Unternehmen Kapital investiert – unabhängig von der Kapitalstruktur.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Ein hoher ROCE zeigt, dass ein Unternehmen sein Kapital effizient einsetzt – unabhängig davon, ob es durch Eigen- oder Fremdkapital finanziert ist.
- Je höher der ROCE im Vergleich zu ähnlichen Unternehmen, desto mehr Wert schafft das Unternehmen mit seinem investierten Kapital.
- Besonders wichtig ist der ROCE bei Firmen mit hohen Investitionen – z. B. in Industrie, Energie oder Infrastruktur.
📘 Return on Invested Capital (ROIC)
📈 Was ist das?
ROIC zeigt, wie effizient ein Unternehmen das Kapital investiert, das langfristig im operativen Geschäft gebunden ist – unabhängig davon, ob es aus Eigen- oder Fremdkapital stammt.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
- NOPAT = „Net Operating Profit After Taxes“
- Investiertes Kapital = operatives Vermögen abzüglich nicht-verzinster Schulden
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
ROIC ist eine der präzisesten Kennzahlen zur Bewertung der Kapitalrendite – besonders im Vergleich zur Eigenkapitalrendite, weil es Verzerrungen durch Schulden vermeidet. Er zeigt, ob ein Unternehmen Mehrwert für alle Kapitalgeber schafft.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Ein hoher ROIC zeigt, wie gut ein Unternehmen mit dem tatsächlich investierten (betriebsnotwendigen) Kapital wirtschaftet.
- Im Unterschied zu ROCE wird nur Kapital betrachtet, das wirklich zur Finanzierung operativer Aktivitäten dient – und verzinst werden muss.
- Besonders hilfreich, um die Kapitalrendite von Unternehmen mit viel „überschüssigem“ Kapital oder zinsfreien Verbindlichkeiten realistisch zu vergleichen.
📘 Verschuldungsgrad (Leverage Ratio)
📈 Was ist das?
Der Verschuldungsgrad zeigt, wie stark ein Unternehmen durch verzinsliche Schulden (z. B. Kredite und Anleihen) im Verhältnis zum Eigenkapital finanziert ist.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Die Kennzahl hilft, das finanzielle Risiko und die Abhängigkeit von Fremdkapital zu beurteilen. Ein hoher Verschuldungsgrad kann die Eigenkapitalrendite steigern – birgt aber auch erhöhte Risiken bei Zinsanstiegen oder Liquiditätsengpässen.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Ein niedriger Verschuldungsgrad steht für finanzielle Stabilität und Unabhängigkeit.
- Ein hoher Wert kann auf erhöhte Risiken hinweisen – insbesondere bei schwankenden Zinsen oder konjunkturellen Schwächen.
- Wichtig: Immer im Kontext zur Branche und Kapitalintensität bewerten.
📘 Umsatz
📈 Was ist das?
Der Umsatz zeigt, wie viel ein Unternehmen insgesamt mit seinen Produkten und Dienstleistungen verdient – also den Bruttoerlös vor Abzug von Kosten.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Der Umsatz ist eine der zentralen Kennzahlen zur Einschätzung der Unternehmensgröße, Marktstellung und Wachstumskraft.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Ein wachsender Umsatz zeigt eine steigende Nachfrage und kann ein guter Frühindikator für Gewinnsteigerungen sein.
- Vergleiche von aktuellem und erwartetem Umsatz geben Hinweise auf das Marktumfeld und Analystenerwartungen.
- Wichtig: Starker Umsatz allein genügt nicht – auch Margen und Profitabilität zählen.
📘 EBITDA
📈 Was ist das?
EBITDA steht für „Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization“ – also Gewinn vor Zinsen, Steuern und Abschreibungen. Es zeigt das operative Ergebnis eines Unternehmens, bereinigt um bilanztechnische und finanzierungsbedingte Effekte.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
EBITDA ist eine verbreitete Kennzahl zur Beurteilung der operativen Leistungsfähigkeit – insbesondere bei kapitalintensiven Unternehmen oder im internationalen Vergleich.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Ein hohes oder wachsendes EBITDA spricht für starke operative Erträge – unabhängig von Bilanzierung oder Steuerlast.
- EBITDA ist besonders nützlich, um Unternehmen branchenübergreifend zu vergleichen.
- Wichtig: EBITDA ist keine offizielle Gewinnkennzahl – Abschreibungen und Finanzierungskosten werden ausgeklammert.
📘 EBIT
📈 Was ist das?
EBIT steht für „Earnings Before Interest and Taxes“ – also Gewinn vor Zinsen und Steuern. Es zeigt das operative Ergebnis eines Unternehmens nach Abschreibungen, aber vor Finanzierungs- und Steueraufwand.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
EBIT ist eine zentrale Kennzahl zur Beurteilung der Profitabilität aus dem Kerngeschäft – unabhängig von Kapitalstruktur oder Steuersystem.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Ein hohes EBIT deutet auf ein profitables Kerngeschäft hin – vor Zinslasten oder steuerlichen Effekten.
- Es erlaubt objektivere Vergleiche zwischen Unternehmen mit unterschiedlicher Finanzierung.
- Im Vergleich mit EBITDA zeigt EBIT bereits den Einfluss von Abschreibungen auf das operative Ergebnis.
📘 Nettogewinn
📈 Was ist das?
Der Nettogewinn ist der verbleibende Jahresüberschuss (oder -fehlbetrag) eines Unternehmens – nach Abzug aller Kosten, Steuern, Zinsen und Abschreibungen
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Der Nettogewinn ist die zentrale Erfolgskennzahl – er zeigt, wie profitabel ein Unternehmen nach allen Kosten tatsächlich arbeitet.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Ein steigender Nettogewinn zeigt, dass das Unternehmen effizient wirtschaftet – trotz aller Kosten.
- Die Entwicklung des Gewinns beeinflusst z. B. direkt das KGV und weitere Kennzahlen.
- Im Zeitverlauf lässt sich ablesen, wie stabil und profitabel ein Geschäftsmodell wirklich ist.
📘 Free Cashflow (FCF)
📈 Was ist das?
Der Free Cashflow gibt Aufschluss über die echte finanzielle Stärke eines Unternehmens – unabhängig von Bilanzierungsregeln. Er zeigt, wie viel Spielraum für Dividenden, Aktienrückkäufe oder Schuldenabbau besteht.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
FCF reflects a company’s real financial strength – regardless of accounting profits. It shows how much flexibility a company has for dividends, share buybacks, or debt reduction.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Ein hoher Free Cashflow bedeutet, dass ein Unternehmen echte Finanzkraft besitzt – unabhängig vom bilanzierten Gewinn.
- Er ist oft die solideste Grundlage für nachhaltige Dividenden und Aktienrückkäufe.
- Sinkender FCF kann ein Warnsignal sein – auch wenn der Gewinn stabil aussieht.
📘 Umsatzwachstum
📈 Was ist das?
Das Umsatzwachstum zeigt, wie stark sich die Erlöse eines Unternehmens im Vergleich zum Vorjahr verändert haben – tatsächlich (TTM) und auf Prognosebasis (erwartet).
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
Erwartet = (Umsatz erwartet ÷ Umsatz Vorjahr − 1) × 100
Erwartetes Wachstum basiert auf Analystenschätzungen für das laufende Geschäftsjahr.
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Ein wachsender Umsatz ist ein zentrales Signal für steigende Nachfrage, Geschäftsausweitung und Marktanteilsgewinne – besonders bei Wachstumsunternehmen.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Wachstum ist der Motor langfristiger Wertsteigerung – besonders bei Technologie- und Wachstumsaktien.
- Wichtig ist nicht nur das aktuelle Wachstum, sondern auch dessen Nachhaltigkeit.
- Prognosen zeigen, ob Analysten weiteres Potenzial erwarten – oder eine Verlangsamung.
📘 EBITDA-Wachstum
📈 Was ist das?
Das EBITDA-Wachstum zeigt, wie stark das operative Ergebnis eines Unternehmens vor Zinsen, Steuern und Abschreibungen im Vergleich zum Vorjahr gestiegen oder gesunken ist.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
Erwartet = (erwartetes EBITDA ÷ EBITDA Vorjahr − 1) × 100
Erwartetes Wachstum basiert auf Analystenschätzungen für das laufende Geschäftsjahr.
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Ein steigendes EBITDA ist ein Zeichen für verbesserte operative Ertragskraft – unabhängig von Finanzierungsstruktur oder Abschreibungen.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Starkes EBITDA-Wachstum signalisiert operative Effizienz und Skalierung – besonders relevant in Wachstumsphasen.
- EBITDA-Wachstum ist ein Frühindikator für Margen- und Gewinnentwicklung – sollte aber stets im Zusammenhang mit Umsatz und EBIT betrachtet werden.
📘 EBIT Wachstum
📈 Was ist das?
Das EBIT-Wachstum zeigt, wie stark das operative Ergebnis eines Unternehmens (nach Abschreibungen, aber vor Zinsen und Steuern) im Vergleich zum Vorjahr gewachsen ist.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
Erwartet = (erwartetes EBIT ÷ EBIT Vorjahr − 1) × 100
Erwartetes Wachstum basiert auf Analystenschätzungen für das laufende Geschäftsjahr.
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Das EBIT-Wachstum ist ein direkter Indikator für die wirtschaftliche Entwicklung des operativen Geschäfts – unter Berücksichtigung der Kapitalintensität (Abschreibungen).
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Steigendes EBIT signalisiert wachsende operative Rentabilität – auch unter Berücksichtigung von Abschreibungen.
- Das EBIT-Wachstum ist ein wichtiges Maß zur Beurteilung von Geschäftsmodellen mit hohen Investitionskosten.
- Im Zusammenspiel mit Umsatz- und EBITDA-Wachstum ergibt sich ein umfassendes Bild zur operativen Entwicklung.
📘 Nettogewinn-Wachstum
📈 Was ist das?
Das Nettogewinn-Wachstum zeigt, wie stark der Jahresüberschuss eines Unternehmens gegenüber dem Vorjahr gestiegen oder gesunken ist – sowohl tatsächlich (TTM) als auch auf Basis von Prognosen (erwartet).
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
Erwartet = (erwarteter Nettogewinn ÷ Nettogewinn Vorjahr − 1) × 100
Der erwartete Wert basiert auf Analystenschätzungen für das laufende Geschäftsjahr.
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Der Gewinn ist die entscheidende Ergebnisgröße für ein Unternehmen. Ein wachsender Nettogewinn deutet auf steigende Effizienz, stabile Kostenkontrolle und nachhaltige Ertragskraft hin.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Wachsender Nettogewinn stärkt die Bewertung, Dividendenfähigkeit und Kursfantasie.
- Stagnierender oder rückläufiger Gewinn trotz Umsatzwachstum kann auf Margendruck hinweisen.
📘 Free Cashflow-Wachstum
📈 Was ist das?
Das Free-Cashflow-Wachstum zeigt, wie sich der freie Mittelzufluss eines Unternehmens im Vergleich zum Vorjahr verändert hat – also der Betrag, der nach allen operativen Ausgaben und Investitionen übrig bleibt.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Free Cashflow ist der echte, verfügbare Geldzufluss. Wachstum in diesem Bereich ist ein Zeichen für finanzielle Stärke und steigende Flexibilität bei Dividenden, Rückkäufen oder Investitionen.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Sinkender Free Cashflow kann auf steigende Investitionen, höhere Kosten oder stagnierende operative Erträge hindeuten.
- Besonders bei Dividendenwerten ist das FCF-Wachstum wichtig – denn Dividenden werden letztlich aus dem verfügbaren Cash gezahlt.
- Ein negativer Trend sollte genauer analysiert werden – er ist nicht zwangsläufig schlecht, aber potenziell ein Warnsignal.
📘 Bruttomarge
📈 Was ist das?
Die Bruttomarge zeigt, wie viel vom Umsatz nach Abzug der direkten Herstellungskosten (Material, Produktion) als Bruttogewinn übrig bleibt – also der „Rohgewinn“ eines Unternehmens.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
Auch: Bruttomarge = Bruttogewinn ÷ Umsatz × 100
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Die Bruttomarge gibt Aufschluss über die Profitabilität eines Produkts oder Geschäftsmodells vor Fixkosten, Steuern und Zinsen. Sie zeigt, wie effizient ein Unternehmen produzieren oder einkaufen kann.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Eine hohe Bruttomarge deutet auf starke Preissetzungsmacht und effiziente Herstellung hin.
- Sinkende Bruttomargen können auf Kostensteigerungen oder Preisdruck hindeuten.
- Besonders im Vergleich zu Wettbewerbern liefert die Bruttomarge wertvolle Einblicke in die Geschäftsqualität.
📘 EBITDA-Marge
📈 Was ist das?
Die EBITDA-Marge zeigt, wie viel vom Umsatz als operativer Gewinn vor Zinsen, Steuern und Abschreibungen (EBITDA) übrig bleibt. Sie misst die operative Effizienz – ohne Verzerrungen durch Finanzierung oder Buchwerte.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Die EBITDA-Marge hilft zu verstehen, wie viel operativer Gewinn ein Unternehmen aus jedem Euro Umsatz erzielt – unabhängig von Kapitalstruktur oder steuerlichem Umfeld.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Eine hohe EBITDA-Marge zeigt starke operative Ertragskraft – unabhängig von Bilanzierungseffekten.
- Die Marge ermöglicht gute Vergleiche zwischen Unternehmen und Branchen.
- Ein stabiler oder wachsender Wert kann auf effiziente Kostenkontrolle und Skalierbarkeit hindeuten.
📘 EBIT-Marge
📈 Was ist das?
Die EBIT-Marge zeigt, wie viel Prozent des Umsatzes als operativer Gewinn nach Abschreibungen, aber vor Zinsen und Steuern übrig bleiben.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Die EBIT-Marge misst die operative Ertragskraft eines Unternehmens unter Berücksichtigung der Kapitalintensität (z. B. Maschinen, Anlagen). Sie eignet sich gut zum Vergleich von Geschäftsmodellen mit unterschiedlich hohen Abschreibungen.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Eine hohe EBIT-Marge zeigt, dass ein Unternehmen auch nach Abschreibungen effizient arbeitet.
- Sie ist besonders relevant in kapitalintensiven Branchen.
- Langfristig stabile oder steigende Margen sind ein Zeichen wirtschaftlicher Stärke und Preissetzungsmacht.
📘 Nettomarge
📈 Was ist das?
Die Nettomarge zeigt, wie viel vom Umsatz am Ende als „Reingewinn“ übrig bleibt – also nach Abzug aller Kosten, Zinsen, Steuern und Abschreibungen.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Die Nettomarge gibt an, wie effizient ein Unternehmen über alle Stufen hinweg wirtschaftet. Sie zeigt, wie viel Gewinn tatsächlich je Euro Umsatz übrig bleibt.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Eine hohe Nettomarge zeigt, dass ein Unternehmen nicht nur operativ stark ist, sondern auch seine Finanzierung und Steuerbelastung im Griff hat.
- Vergleiche mit Wettbewerbern geben Einblicke in die wirtschaftliche Qualität.
- Sinkende Nettomargen trotz Umsatzwachstum können ein Warnsignal sein – etwa für steigende Kosten oder sinkende Effizienz.
📘 Free Cashflow Marge
📈 Was ist das?
Die Free-Cashflow-Marge zeigt, wie viel vom Umsatz nach Abzug aller operativen Ausgaben und Investitionen tatsächlich als freier Mittelzufluss übrig bleibt.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Diese Marge misst die echte Liquidität, die ein Unternehmen erwirtschaftet – unabhängig von Bilanzierungsregeln oder Abschreibungen. Sie ist besonders relevant für Dividenden, Rückkäufe und Investitionen.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Eine hohe Free-Cashflow-Marge zeigt, dass ein Unternehmen nachhaltig liquide Mittel erwirtschaftet.
- Sie ist ein starkes Signal für finanzielle Stabilität und Ausschüttungspotenzial.
- Wichtig ist der langfristige Trend – sinkende Werte können auf steigende Investitionen oder rückläufige operative Effizienz hindeuten.
📘 Ergebnis je Aktie (EPS)
📈 Was ist das?
Das Ergebnis je Aktie (EPS) zeigt, wie viel Gewinn auf eine einzelne Aktie entfällt – und ist eine der wichtigsten Kennzahlen zur Bewertung von Unternehmen.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
Die verwässerte Aktienanzahl berücksichtigt auch potenzielle neue Aktien, etwa durch Optionen, Wandelanleihen oder andere Umtauschrechte.
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
EPS bildet die Basis für viele Bewertungskennzahlen wie KGV, PEG oder Payout Ratio. Es macht den Gewinn für Aktionäre vergleichbar – unabhängig von der Unternehmensgröße.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- EPS hilft, die Profitabilität pro Aktie zu erfassen – und ist besonders wichtig im Zeitvergleich oder im Vergleich mit Analystenschätzungen.
- Steigendes EPS kann ein Zeichen für stabiles Wachstum oder Aktienrückkäufe sein.
- Wichtig: Verwende verwässertes EPS für realistische Bewertungen – besonders bei stark aktienbasierten Vergütungssystemen.
📘 Free Cashflow je Aktie (FCF je Aktie)
📈 Was ist das?
Der Free Cashflow je Aktie zeigt, wie viel freier Mittelzufluss einem Unternehmen pro Aktie zur Verfügung steht – nach Investitionen, aber vor Dividenden oder Schuldentilgung.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Der FCF je Aktie zeigt, wie viel liquide Mittel pro Aktie tatsächlich im Unternehmen verbleiben – wichtig für Dividenden, Aktienrückkäufe oder Schuldentilgung. Im Gegensatz zum Gewinn ist er schwerer manipulierbar und daher besonders aussagekräftig.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Ein hoher Free Cashflow je Aktie ist ein Zeichen für hohe finanzielle Flexibilität.
- Er zeigt, wie viel Kapital ein Unternehmen effektiv einsetzen oder ausschütten kann.
- Besonders relevant für dividendenstarke Unternehmen oder solche mit starker Kapitalrendite.
📘 Short Interest
📈 Was ist das?
Short Interest zeigt, wie viele Aktien eines Unternehmens aktuell leerverkauft wurden – also von Investoren geliehen und verkauft, in der Erwartung fallender Kurse.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
Der Wert zeigt den Anteil der Aktien, der aktuell auf fallende Kurse spekuliert wird.
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Short Interest dient als Stimmungsindikator: Ein hoher Wert deutet auf Skepsis oder negative Erwartungen gegenüber dem Unternehmen hin – kann aber auch zu einem „Short Squeeze“ führen, wenn der Kurs plötzlich steigt.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Ein niedriger Short Interest deutet auf Vertrauen in das Unternehmen hin.
- Ein hoher Wert kann ein Warnsignal sein – oder eine Chance, wenn sich die Stimmung dreht.
- Besonders spannend in volatilen Märkten oder vor wichtigen Quartalszahlen.
📘 Employees
📈 Was ist das?
Die Mitarbeiteranzahl zeigt, wie viele Personen ein Unternehmen weltweit beschäftigt – ein Indikator für Größe, Struktur und Geschäftsmodell.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Sie hilft bei der Einschätzung von Skaleneffekten, Effizienz und Personalkosten. Zusammen mit Umsatz und Gewinn lassen sich Kennzahlen wie Produktivität je Mitarbeiter ableiten.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Viele Mitarbeiter bedeuten große operative Komplexität – aber auch hohes Umsatzpotenzial.
- Produktivität je Mitarbeiter ist ein wichtiger Indikator für Effizienz.
- Besonders spannend bei stark wachsenden Tech- oder Industrieunternehmen.
📘 Umsatz je Mitarbeiter
📈 Was ist das?
Der Umsatz je Mitarbeiter zeigt, wie viel Erlös ein Unternehmen durchschnittlich pro Beschäftigtem erwirtschaftet – eine Kennzahl für Effizienz und Produktivität.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
Die Mitarbeiterzahl stammt in der Regel aus dem letzten verfügbaren Jahresbericht.
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Diese Kennzahl hilft, Geschäftsmodelle zu vergleichen – insbesondere zwischen arbeitsintensiven und technologiegetriebenen Unternehmen. Ein hoher Wert deutet auf Automatisierung, Effizienz oder hohen Wertschöpfungsanteil hin.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Ein hoher Umsatz je Mitarbeiter spricht für ein skalierbares und margenstarkes Geschäftsmodell.
- Ein niedriger Wert kann auf arbeitsintensive Prozesse oder geringere Wertschöpfung hinweisen.
- Besonders hilfreich beim Vergleich von Tech- vs. Industrieunternehmen.
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Moderna — Special Call - Moderna, Inc.
1. Management Discussion
Good morning, and good afternoon for those of you that are following us from overseas. Thank you so much for joining us today. On behalf of my colleagues and I, welcome to Moderna's Science Day 2026. Before I start, let me remind you that we'll be making forward-looking statements. You can find those online at your discretion. Moderna's mission is to deliver the greatest possible impact to people through mRNA medicine.
And since the beginning, we built an mRNA platform based on 3 key pillars of science: mRNA science, which is the mRNA molecule itself, delivery system, how we get the mRNA molecule into cells and very importantly, also manufacturing processes where there's a lot of know-how that we developed over the years. But because mRNA is an information molecule, what is very exciting about this platform is we can create modalities, families of medicine that use exactly the same technology features so that we can replicate very quickly.
As you can see on the pictogram on the right? We basically start with a leading product to go into the clinic as a sentinel programs to learn about the modalities. And when we have clinical signals, we can scale very quickly because we use exactly the same technology components. And that's what is exciting about the platform. And of course, you are all very familiar with 3 established modalities that we built over the years, an Infectious Disease Vaccine modality with approved products, products under review and also products that are in the clinic.
Intismeran modality going after cancer and a rare liver disease therapeutics modality, all coming from the same mRNA platform. That established modalities is what we consider horizon #1, is driving the business today and in the coming years. But of course, we're working hard with the team to invent the future. And today, we want to talk to you about Horizon 2, the modalities that are today in the clinic, dosing patients that we want to share with you some of those programs and what's coming next.
And the other piece we want to talk about as well is Horizon #3. The future modalities that the team is working hard at that we believe should be testing in human by the end of 2027 in the next 18 months. But we're not stopping there. David will also spend time talking to you later this morning about what we're doing with AI to keep learning faster and faster to invent the next generation and the next generation of modalities.
And our AI strategy in science is based on basically 2 vectors. One is an mRNA technology vector that we will describe and talk about. And of course, there's a biology vector where we can leverage models that exist outside in the industry. So in a minute, David and Rose will come up to talk to you about mRED. And then Kristine, Professor Church and Sarah will talk to you about the cancer-antigen therapy modality. We'll take a small break, and then we will come back. Lin will talk to you about our T-cell engager modality. Then Sumana will talk to you about our EBV therapeutics in multiple sclerosis.
Lin will come back to talk about in vivo CAR-T for autoimmune disease. And then David will try to wrap it up to talk about what are the exciting science he and his team are doing to invent the future modalities. I'll come back with a few slides to close and then David, Rose and I will take your questions.
So with this, let me turn over to David and Rose.
Thank you very much, Stephane. So I joined about 3 or 4 months ago. And I think today, you'll begin to see why I joined the company, why I'm really excited about the potentials here at Moderna. But first, why are we creating an mRED, Moderna Research Early Development? The riskiest stage in the drug development continuum is the early clinical phase. And why? It's because we need to adapt to data that emerges quickly, number one.
And number two, teams need to be able to stop drugs that are not going to work to accelerate drugs that have potential. And it's very hard in the traditional scheme for teams to do that on their own. And this is compounded when you have multiple layers of governance and levels between them and senior leadership. So based on my tenure of working at 4 companies, 2 large pharmas and now 2 biotechs, I think there are 2 major levers that can be done structurally to enhance rapid innovation.
And number one here is creating an mRED leadership team, which is comprised of research, development and CMC. And by the way, we include CMC because mRNA and lipid nanoparticle science is evolving as rapidly as our biology understanding, and we need to have CMC at the table as well. But we're having this mRED leadership team with no barriers or connections, the teams directly report into the senior leadership.
And what this will do, as you see here, is it connects the senior leaders to the data directly. It allows us to accelerate decision-making that is fast, data triggered, and very clear with no guesswork by the teams involved. It ensures that we have a dedicated focus on bringing innovation in this next generation and very importantly, it enables us to make science-driven decisions to accelerate where necessary, but also to stop drugs that are not going to be promising.
The second major structural element that should be done is to marry early clinical research, early clinical trial development with research. And I think there are 2 major reasons why it's important to do this. First, early clinical research is actually closer to basic science research. We're getting data based on patients. We need to interrogate the data, and we need to adapt based on what the data is telling us as well as external data.
In late phase, you don't want to do that. You design a Phase III trial and you do not want to react and change rapidly in a rapid fashion. The second reason, and I think this is inherent to the modality discussion that you heard is -- we have these modalities with sentinel programs. And these sentinel programs are in the clinic, and you'll hear about them today. And these sentinel programs inform the other programs that share the same modality, whether it's T-cell engagers, cancer-antigen therapy, you'll hear about it today.
And so it's very important to make sure that the science that the clinical insights we're making in early phase are rapidly translated into the research and vice versa. The new insights we're making in research are embedded into the early clinical stage. So I think this mRED structure, which we are now rolling out will help Moderna accelerate where necessary, but also stop programs that are not going to be promising.
And with that, I'd like to call up Rose, who will talk more about the mRED portfolio.
Thank you, David. So we wanted to share a little bit of insight into how we actually craft this early portfolio. And so the first thing to say is that we want every asset in our pipeline to start out with a competitive advantage. So we, as a portfolio strategy, look for applications where the use of mRNA and LNP platform technology offers a competitive advantage to start. That helps us advance differentiated programs. So for example, you'll see that we utilize multiplexing in our pipeline.
And we specifically say multiplexing and not combination because from a regulatory perspective, we are able to encode and deliver multiple proteins in one therapeutic, and it's not considered a combination. It's considered one potential drug product. You'll see this in the Infectious Disease vaccines that we already have licensed, and you'll see it in our early pipeline today in the form of our T-cell engagers. We also have an advantage in being able to express intracellular and transmembrane proteins, which, of course, are not truly accessible, for example, if you have a recombinant protein platform.
Now you'll see demonstration of this already in our rare disease pipeline, which has advanced all the way through pivotal studies, but you'll also see it applied today for our in vivo CAR-T program. And then, for example, on the T-cell response front, we know that our platform can generate very robust CD8 and CD4 T-cell responses. That's been well demonstrated through our INT, our individualized neoantigen therapy program.
And you'll also see it today in multiple applications, both in oncology and now in autoimmune therapeutic space. So that's the first pillar of how we think about crafting the portfolio. We also think about how we're going to get the most leverage out of the investment that we make in R&D. And so we look for modalities where we can see multiple follow-on programs where the learnings that David mentioned that we're generating in the clinic can help derisk those follow-on programs. That lets us get the best return on our investment.
So what you'll see is we'll start a modality. We'll bring an initial program into the clinic. We often use the term sentinel program for that first program. We learn about how our technology performs and whether the biology that we were hoping to access is performing the way we anticipated. When we see that, we feel like that modality is more derisked, and we're willing to advance more programs behind it at a faster pace.
And then finally, this is the pretty early part of the funnel for our pipeline. So we like to keep quite a bit of diversity and balance. So you'll notice that we have multiple different modalities that utilize different types of our platform technology and are also looking at different therapeutic applications. And this is somewhat intentional. We want the very early part of the pipeline to also have uncorrelated risk in many ways so that we have multiple independent shots on goal as we're building the pipeline through that funnel.
So we won't talk through all of these modalities today, but to give you a sense, Horizon 2, these are the modalities where we have a program already in the clinic, generating that clinical data and moving toward clinical proof of concept. Horizon 3 that you'll see here is earlier. These are the programs that we're looking to take to first in human by the end of next year. And then while we don't talk about programs that are earlier than that, you will hear some about the technology that we're continuing to advance, and that's critical to make sure that Horizon 3 stays robust and diverse. You can also see across Horizon 2 and Horizon 3, how we gate our investment.
So in Horizon 2, in some areas where we've seen early encouraging clinical signal, we're willing to advance multiple programs in that same strategy, whereas in Horizon 3, we're typically looking at one sentinel program to move into the clinic, generate data, give us that confidence, and then we will bring in more programs behind it. So with that, I'm going to hand it over to the brilliant, Dr. Kristine McKinney, who's going to talk about our cancer-antigen therapies.
Thank you so much, Rose. And yes, I'm delighted to be here today to share with you a little bit about the emerging cancer portfolio, including our Horizon 2 that are entering and in clinic. So yes, my name is Kristine McKinney. I lead the Cancer Vaccines and Bioinformatics Research team here. And I'm going to walk you through a few of these cancer-antigen therapies. Sarah will also walk you through another one. First 2 that we are developing in solid tumors, mRNA-4106 and mRNA-4200 as well as our first foray into the preventative space with mRNA-4194.
Okay. So as Rose has been highlighted, we're very excited about the data coming out of the Intismeran program. We were really happy to share those -- the 5-year update of the Phase II at ASCO recently as well as showcase some of the data demonstrating the depth and breadth of the immune response that this drug is able to inspire in the form of a translational poster.
And as Rose highlighted, this means that we've de-risked this concept, and we're investing very steadily behind it to make sure that we bring this technology to the greatest impact in patients. And so just to orient you to how we're thinking about developing the next-generation cancer antigen therapies, I wanted to highlight that there are different opportunities in different tumors in terms of targets.
And here in the red boxes are the ones we're going to talk about today. I'm going to first start with the tumor-associated antigens. And just to reinforce that these -- this class of antigens are actually non-mutated, they're shared, and they are either misexpressed or overexpressed in malignancies. And so yes, again, these constitute Horizon 2.
So to start off, let's talk about mRNA-4106 and mRNA-4200. And you'll see these design principles flowing through the entire portfolio. So I wanted to take a second to double-click on those, how we're designing these cancer antigen therapies. So first of all, we are optimizing for population as well as individual level efficacy. Here, we're leaning into the aforementioned ability of our platform to multiplex. This really allows us to inspire the broadest immune response across broad populations.
Second of all, we're managing the biology risk. As I highlighted, there are different classes of tumor antigens, and we're really thinking about prioritizing validated antigens and optimizing for immunogenicity. Third, of course, safety is first and foremost in our mind. We're making sure that we're safely exploring that design space, again, in a data-driven manner. And fourth, in order to enable the portfolio strategy that Rose walked through, we are enabling optionality. So we are including targets that are also expressed -- that are expressed in a wide variety of tumors that allows us the ability to expand into different malignancies should the data indicate that would be wise.
Okay. So now -- sorry. Okay. So just to talk again about the design and mechanism of action for mRNA-4106 and mRNA-4200. On the left, you'll see the hypothesized mechanism of action, which is the mRNA encoding the antigens that we select, these are multiplexed, are formulated into LNPs, which are then administered intramuscularly just like in intismeran. Those LNPs are taken up by antigen-presenting cells, translated, processed and presented on MHC Class Is, which you see the little Y-shaped molecule that's sitting on the surface of the APC there. That serves as a signal to activate T cells in an antigen-specific way.
So those are now armed to go find and kill tumor cells anywhere in the body. Okay. So in particular, how do those design principles I just highlighted play out in mRNA-4106, so and mRNA-4200. So the targets are validated across many human tumors, as well as we look at both expression in tumor tissues and normal tissues in humans. That is RNA protein as well as peptide presentation using immunopeptidomics mass spectroscopy technology.
In addition, we generate preclinical data that confirm successful antigen processing and HLA presentation as well as immunogenicity in the particular -- once the antigen is formatted. And we -- and just to reinforce that we're using whole antigens here. So these are entire protein sequences that gives us many, many possible peptides that can bind across many HLAs across populations. Also, these are multiplexed products. So we -- this, again, reduces the risk of tumor escape through single antigen loss as well as improves the coverage in case of intratumoral and/or inter-patient heterogeneity, really trying to cover a really broad space here.
In addition, they are applicable across multiple tumor types. So we have selected targets that are expressed in multiple tumor types. Again, as we de-risk and prove immunogenicity in humans as well as efficacy, we will be able to expand these rapidly into other histotypes. So to show you how we're entering clinic with these. So mRNA-4106 entered clinic last year in a single monotherapy dose escalation. It's been progressing very well and without any safety findings.
And mRNA-4200 is coming close behind. We are developing these 2 in tandem. So mRNA-4200 will enter and importantly, we'll leverage the data that we've generated in mRNA-4106 to start the monotherapy dose at a safe and efficacious dose. So we don't have to go through the whole dose escalation. After the first dose, we will then combine with pembrolizumab in cycle 2 and continue dosing the combination. And of course, as all Phase I, safety and tolerability are first and foremost, but we will also be exploring, of course, efficacy as well as immunogenicity in these studies.
Okay. Now to switch gears and talk a little bit about mRNA-4194, which again is our first foray into the prevention space. And in this case, these antigens are actually exquisitely tumor-specific, very much like Intismeran, but they are derived from frame shift mutations. And I'm going to talk a little bit more about the provenance of those antigens and why they come into play in the following slides, maybe.
Okay. And like mRNA-4106 and mRNA-4200, this has a similar mechanism of action. So the only difference here is that the mRNA is encoding frame shift antigens, right? So that the T cells that it activates are then activated to kill any cell that expresses a frame shift peptide. So that could be a tumor cell or importantly, a premalignant cell. And that really is the biggest difference for mRNA-4106, right? Is that it's opening up the prevention setting.
So in order to help you understand the context of Lynch syndrome as well as the patient journey and what patients live through, we have the opportunity to hear Dr. Church explain that to you all. David Church is an esteemed collaborator. We're so lucky to have him on this program. He's really a world-renowned expert in this field. He's a physician scientist with numerous titles at Oxford, which you can see listed here. But I think I really want to reinforce that he is a person who's not only pushing the technology and the science, but he's also making sure that those are integrated into clinical practice in NHS and has multiple appointments to do that in a regional way. So without further ado...
Thank you, Kristine, for the kind introduction and the invitation to present on Lynch syndrome. My name is David Church. I'm a Professor of Precision Oncology at the University of Oxford, and I'm a Cancer Research U.K. senior Cancer Research fellow. In the next several minutes, what I'd like to do is talk you through Lynch syndrome, give you an overview, update you on epidemiology, how we diagnose it in the U.K. and its management and then cover the trial that we're really excited to be starting in partnership with Moderna.
So Lynch syndrome, is a condition that many of us have not heard of, but in fact, is a common condition. It affects more than 300 people globally. That's 175,000 people in the U.K., more than 1 million people in the U.S. And at the molecular level, Lynch syndrome is caused by germline defects and inherited defects in one of several genes which are responsible for DNA mismatch repair. This is a process that ensures our DNA is copied accurately when our cells divide.
And the failure of that due to the defects in Lynch syndrome causes error-prone DNA replication. And errors in genes that regulate cell growth, cell death can lead to cancer. And so people with Lynch syndrome have a grossly increased risk of colorectal, endometrial, and other cancers, as you see in the schematic here on the right. And also, as a consequence of that error-prone DNA replication, they're also prone to getting these stereotypical frame shift mutations. So mutations that change the sequence cause insertion of [indiscernible] encoding DNA and cause a frameshift and novel open reading frame, which is important as we'll come to in a second.
Management for Lynch syndrome relies primarily on surveillance with aspirin used by some people after the CAPP2 study to reduce the risk of colorectal cancer and possibly other cancers. But coming back to those frame shift mutations, these are important, particularly as we talk about the clinical trial that we're starting because they can create potentially targetable source of cancer-specific antigens. These are predictable alterations, which are present only in pre-cancers and cancers and people with Lynch syndrome other mismatch repair deficient tumors.
So to focus on the epidemiology of Lynch syndrome, there are 4 main mismatch repair genes that are defective causing Lynch syndrome, MLH1, MSH2, MSH6, and to a lesser extent, PMS2 and then rarely deletions in EPCAM, which cause silencing of MSH2. The cancer risk varies according to gene. As you see here, the risk of cancer is highest in MLH1 and MSH2 carriers. This is reflected in surveillance guidelines. MSH6 carriers have a lower risk of these tumors and overall, but a particularly high risk of endometrial cancers for women that carry these variants.
And you see here at the bottom, the takeaway, the lifetime risk of cancer very high in these individuals. And clearly, despite surveillance, despite aspirin, a huge unmet need for reducing cancer burden in this at-risk and common population. So recognizing the need to identify Lynch syndrome to reduce that cancer burden in this population over the last decade, we've put a number of steps in place in the U.K. to identify Lynch syndrome from cancer diagnosis and then more broadly.
Going back to 2017, NICE, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence in the U.K. recommended that all colorectal cancers were tested for Lynch syndrome using either immunohistochemistry, so protein staining for the proteins where the genes are defective in Lynch syndrome, or microsatellite instability. This is a genomic readout of mismatch repair deficiency and consequently potentially of Lynch syndrome. And so we've been doing that to identify the 4% of colorectal and endometrial cancers or colorectal cancers that are caused by Lynch syndrome.
In 2020, the guidelines were updated to also cover endometrial cancer. So here, the testing is only immunohistochemistry because mismatch repair deficiency caused by Lynch syndrome doesn't always cause microsatellite instability in endometrial cancer. And in 2021, NHS England published guidelines to help clinicians streamline Lynch syndrome testing pathways as follows: So we do reflex testing on all colorectal and endometrial cancers where the testing suggests that it could be caused by Lynch syndrome. The follow-on step is to do germline testing to see if there's a pathogenic variant present in the germline.
And then if that's confirmed, the index case is managed by putting them on a national registry. We now have more than 13,000 people on our U.K. registry of Lynch syndrome. They're registered for surveillance to reduce their colorectal cancer risk. And then after discussion with the index case, a cascade testing of at-risk family members with the intention of identifying them, hopefully before they ever get a cancer and preventing cancer in these at-risk family members.
Management of Lynch syndrome, we've covered some of it already, covers both colorectal and extracolonic cancers. It should be noted that at the moment, there's no evidence -- high-level evidence for screening for extracolonic cancers for people with Lynch syndrome. So we focus on colonoscopy, reflecting the different risk of cancer, colorectal cancer, MLH1, MSH2 carriers compared to MSH6 carriers have a different age of onset or recommend starting surveillance.
But the recommendation in the U.K. is it's done every 2 years. Aspirin based on John Burn's CAPP2 data shows that high-dose aspirin reduces the risk of colorectal cancer. The unpublished CAPP3 study, which is just about to be published, shows that actually the reduction in cancer risk is the same as low-dose aspirin, so opening up to more people with Lynch syndrome to take this and reduce their cancer burden.
For some people, risk-reducing surgery, both colorectal, both the colon and also women who have completed their family may consider removal of the uterus tubes and ovaries. H. pylori eradication reduces the risk of gastric cancer and also lifestyle changes to reduce cancer-causing dietary and lifestyle factors. So despite all of those steps, as we said, there's a huge unmet need to reduce cancer risk and cancer burden in people with Lynch syndrome. It's a common condition.
And so we're delighted to be able to announce that in partnership with Moderna, we've developed and about to start this INTERCEPT-Lynch study. So a Phase I/II study of novel Moderna vaccine for Lynch syndrome. This vaccine leverages the fact that Lynch syndrome causes predictable frameshift mutations, which are recurrent across cancers, colorectal, endometrial, gastric, ovarian cancers caused by Lynch syndrome share these potential vaccine targets.
So Moderna developed a vaccine and was going to be opening the study to test it. The study is divided into 2 parts. First part will test safety, tolerability, and define immunogenicity of the vaccine to identify 2 doses to take forward into the second part, which will focus on identifying whether the vaccine has evidence of activity in the tissues in which we want to see it. So just to look at the first part in a little bit more detail. This is a fairly standard dose escalation study with endpoints of safety and tolerability. It will define 2 doses to take forward into Part 2.
And then Part 2, people with Lynch syndrome who are scheduled for colonoscopies will be identified. And the final stage of the screening is to do the colonoscopy. And what we're going to do here is we're going to leave small polyps, adenomatous polyps, which we know are the subtype of polyps that become microsatellite unstable and develop the target frameshift that we're looking to target with the vaccine. We'll be leaving those in situ, measuring them very carefully at baseline and then vaccinating at 2 doses defined by Part 1.
And after 28 weeks, we repeat the colonoscopy, we remeasure the polyps to see if there's evidence of response to the vaccine and then the polyps are removed. And then the standard of care colonoscopy at 2 years will be done, and we'll also be looking for polyp burden at that time point. So endpoint of the study, safety, and tolerability and then the secondary endpoint in Part 2 of the study is a percentage change in the MSI-high, the microsatellite-unstable adenomatous polyps post-vaccination.
We'll be looking at immunology, both circulating and in tissue. And we're really excited to be starting the study imminently in Oxford with the second part of the study recruiting from additional U.K. sites. And what's really motivating about this is not just the clinician engagement. We've had a huge interest from clinicians, but also directly from patients. I've presented the work leading up this study over the last 3 years to Lynch syndrome carriers at Lynch syndrome U.K. Annual Meeting.
And since we released the press release putting out the study, there's been a huge amount of interest and had many e-mails from people keen to recruit, keen to participate in the study and also just commending us on the effort that we're making to reduce the cancer burden in this common condition. So thank you very much for your attention. I'm really excited to take this study forward and look forward to updating you at a future meeting.
Okay. So David, obviously, I would just like to underscore a couple of different pieces that he mentioned as well as tell you a little bit about the design of this vaccine. So as we've discussed and David highlighted, Lynch syndrome carriers have polyps over time. And those polyps over the course of their lifetime can develop into microsatellite unstable cancer. So to design this product, what we did was take precancerous polyps and look with all of the same technologies I already highlighted. So protein expression all the way through presentation at the MHC level of the peptides from the frameshifts.
And we've also looked at MSI-high cancers from sporadic cases. So as the same genes that cause the germline defect and the germline sensitivity to developing frameshift mutations. Those mutations can be acquired sporadically as well. And so we do find them in cancers that have no -- like did not have any germline susceptibility here. Those have a lot more samples. So a lot more samples from the MSI-high cancers across different malignancies and across broad populations. And we compared the frames shift peptides that we saw expressed and presented in those cases.
And we were able to find many, many that overlapped. We selected specifically from that overlap to make sure that the cancer -- sorry, that the -- that mRNA-4194 would address all the relevant stages of disease, everything from polyp to frank malignancy. And in particular, we actually were able to incorporate 194, hence, the name, mRNA-4194, 194 different frameshift peptides into this vaccine. So we really have extremely broad coverage, again, not only intertumoral heterogeneity across disease, across histologies, and across populations.
Yes, I think that's -- and then I also just wanted to take a second to pause. I know Dr. Church reviewed the Part 2 of the Phase I and how it's constructed in great detail. So I won't take you through all of the steps. But I just want to highlight that this is quite an innovative design. And the goal here is really to make sure that we are learning fast, right? And that we are de-risking upstream of pivotal investments and that we can iterate in data-driven ways.
This sort of mindset is taken through all of the [indiscernible] trials, and we're leveraging these ideas across the [indiscernible] trials more and more leaning into the translational data because we know that if we can get this to patients, as Dr. Church said, they're hungry for it and they -- and this could transform their lives.
So with that, I'm going to pass off to Sarah, who's going to walk you through mRNA-4359. Thank you.
Hello. My name is Dr. Sarah Keidel. I'm the program lead for mRNA-4359. And it's my pleasure today to walk you through our program, including the exciting data that we presented over the last year at ESMO and earlier this year at AACR. So going back to this cancer-antigen therapy schema that Kristine talked us through earlier, we're now going to be focused on the top right-hand side of the figure at the tumor-associated antigen therapies. So mRNA-4359 employs the same mRNA and LNP technology base as the other cancer antigen therapies, but applies it to immune evasion proteins.
And importantly, mRNA-4359 is the first of our cancer antigen therapies for which we'll have the opportunity to really unpick that product concept, looking at the scientific and clinical data as they emerge. So what is mRNA-4359? It is a lipid encapsulated mRNA-based cancer antigen therapy, encoding antigens of PD-L1 and IDO1. And these are proteins that are intimately involved with immune invasion by tumor. And we know that PD-L1 and IDO1 can be expressed by tumor cells, but importantly, they can also be expressed by immunosuppressive cells.
And this gives mRNA-4359 a dual concept. So not only can it have the potential to induce T cell responses to direct tumor cell killing, but it can also direct immunodepletion of the immunosuppressive cells that are protecting the tumor. And because this immune evasion mechanism is common to many solid tumors, it is possible that this product can be applicable across multiple tumor types, although we're starting with melanoma as a very rational first place to test the mechanism given the intended backbone of IO.
So you'll recognize this schema, this mechanism of action from the talk that Kristine gave earlier on the cancer-antigen therapies. And broadly, we have the same mechanism, but there is one point of difference due to the specific antigens that are encoded by the mRNA, the PD-L1 and IDO. So kind of skipping through, you know that the protein is translated and they get expressed. The T cells that are specific to IDO1 and PD-L1 then get activated.
These mature, they expand, they go into the circulation and then they enter the tumor microenvironment. And it's at this point where you get that potential of that dual mechanism. So those T cell -- those tumor antigen-directed T cells will then look to destroy the tumor cells expressing these antigens and also those immunosuppressive cells also expressing these antigens. And so over time, we would expect a rebalancing of that tumor microenvironment to a more immune-permissive state.
Now this also gives us that impetus for the idea of the backbone of the checkpoint inhibition. So the idea of mRNA-4359 is that it really works as a target to induce those target-directed T cells. However, the idea of the checkpoint backbone is to release further brakes on the immune system to maximize the potential of the mRNA-encoded product. So now to the data. On this slide, you've got our Phase I/II study design.
We started off pretty typically with dose escalation and confirmation cohorts. And at the moment, we're in the Phase II portion of the study at dose expansion. We'll come back to that in a minute because what I'd like to focus on the next few slides is on arm 1b, which is our dose confirmation cohort in patients who are treated with mRNA-4359 in combination with pembrolizumab and who had checkpoint refractory advanced melanoma. So starting with the ESMO presentation here.
We've got here listed the patient disposition and the baseline characteristics for the 29 patients who are included in this cohort. They were treated at 2 different doses, but the main takeaway from this slide is that these were refractory patients. All of them were checkpoint refractory, and there's a median of 3 prior therapies with a maximum of 8 prior therapies in this group of patients. Now first and foremost, in this Phase I study, safety. So mRNA-4359 in combination with pembrolizumab demonstrated a manageable safety profile.
The majority of adverse events considered related to mRNA-4359 by the investigator were low grade, and they comprise of injection site reactions and localized self-limited systemic adverse events such as fever, fatigue and also chills. There were no dose-limiting toxicities or grade 4 or 5 adverse events considered related to mRNA-4359. Now switching to the pembro-related adverse events. These were very typical for the adverse events seen in the checkpoint inhibitors with irAEs.
But the overall, what we saw from this cohort is that it looks possible to combine mRNA-4359 plus pembrolizumab without getting unexpected safety signals. And this is something that, of course, we're watching out for as we expand our Phase I/II study. So here, we have the efficacy, and this is the part that really started to get us very excited. So what you'll see here on the left side of the slide is the efficacy table, and we're going to focus on all patients pooled across the dose levels. So you'll see that we had 25 patients who are valuable for their tumor responses and 6 of these patients responded, giving us an objective response rate of 24%.
We even had one complete response. The median duration of response was not reached for these patients, and our disease control rate was 60%. So we're encouraged by these results already. As we mentioned, this is a heavily pretreated population, but we were really interested in understanding, are there any signals or any biomarkers that could help us point to which patients have a higher chance of response. So on this slide, you'll see the spider plot looking at the tumor responses over time.
And what we've done here is color through the patients by their tumor PD-L1 expression. So in the red, we've got the PD-L1-positive and in the blue, we've got the PD-L1-negatives. And what you can see really clearly here is that all the responses occurred in patients who were PD-L1-positive. And indeed, these responses were enriched in that PD-L1-expressing population. So 6 out of our 9 patients responded, giving us an ORR in this subgroup of 67%, which we were very encouraged by.
But of course, we wanted to understand a little bit more who are these patients? Are they on the lighter end of the treatment spectrum? What's going on with them and what treatments have they had before? So on this slide, we've got the 6 patients treated who responded on the -- in each row. And we've got their prior treatments listed in chronological order and including the disease setting as well as their best overall response to that drug. In addition, on the right for reference, you'll also see the results that they had on our drug in the combination of mRNA-4359 plus pembrolizumab once they came on to our study.
But I'd really like to focus on the middle part of this slide because looking at it to me, what I take from this is that these were a heavily pretreated group of patients genuinely. So almost all of the patients were treated previously with anti-PD-L1 monotherapy as well as IO combinations with nivo/rela or nivo/ipi. And half of them had prior exposure to TILs or TCR therapies.
In addition, when you look at the best overall response to each of these therapies, the majority of patients had the best response of disease progression to the majority of these prior therapies. And so again, these are patients that in the real world would have exceptionally poor prognosis and see any responses in this group of patients to us was encouraging, but particularly important when you look back at that spider plot that we had in the previous slide of the durability of those responses that we saw. So for us, again, very, very promising.
Last but not least, for this checkpoint-refractory cohort, we have the translational data. We are very interested in understanding, is there a proof of biology for this drug based on its mechanism of action. So on the left-hand side there, you'll see some ELISpot analysis looking at for the development of antigen-specific T cell responses between baseline and after treatment. And what you'll see here is that indeed, there was an increase in the PD-L1 and IDO-specific T cell responses in the periphery for the evaluated patients and that this was seen across best overall response categories.
On the right, we are then interested in looking at whether the patients develop novel expanded TCR clones once they're exposed to therapy. So again, looking from baseline and across the treatment cycles and as we go through the diagram, you can see that there, again, there is an increase in these novel expanded TCR clones after starting mRNA-4359 and pembrolizumab. And this does seem to be directionally higher in those patients with responses versus those patients with either stable disease or progressive disease.
So together, these data were important for us because it really helps to underpin mechanism of action. We see that proof of biology, and it helps us to understand some of the data that we're seeing clinically as well. So based on these data, we expanded into another multiple treatment expansion cohorts. And so we're looking at a couple of first-line melanoma cohorts with combinations of checkpoint inhibitors. We have further expanded our second-line and beyond melanoma cohort, looking at those patients specifically for good reason, who are PD-L1-positive.
We've also added a first-line non-small cell lung cohort in high PD-L1 expressers. But I'm going to focus at the top at our Arm 1/2a. And this was a small cohort treated with mRNA-4359 in combination with pembrolizumab in the first-line melanoma setting. And this is fully enrolled. We had results and these results were presented at the oral plenary for AACR a couple of months ago. So here, we have treatment disposition at a median follow-up of 54 weeks. 7 of the 12 patients had discontinued treatment by that point, 2 because of progressive disease and 4 because of adverse events.
Five patients continued on therapy at this point, 4 had completed their mRNA-4359, but continued their pembrolizumab. One patient remained on the combination side of the therapy because they were pretty early in these treatment cycles. Here, we have the baseline characteristics, nothing particularly unexpected. The majority of patients had an ECOG performance status of 0. The disease stage of the majority of patients was 4. About half of the patients had BRAF-mutated disease. And this is a small, but important clinically relevant cohort for us, which we'll come back to in a few slides' time.
We had 4 patients who had prior exposure to neoadjuvant therapies, 3 of whom had immunotherapy exposure in the form of nivolumab. So again, first, the safety. Here, you'll find nothing unexpected. These are, I think a slide has gone missing, but yes, needless to say, the mRNA-4359 related adverse events, they were all low grade in these 12 patients. The most common were those fevers, chills, pyrexia and fatigue, as you'd expect from innate immune activation after administration of an mRNA product.
Pembrolizumab-related adverse events, as determined by the investigators, were predominantly low grade. Most common -- I think that's just going to -- I'm so sorry. It looks like that's pembrolizumab, but that's the mRNA-4359. This is now the pembrolizumab. So the majority of the most common adverse events were fatigue, nausea, increased amylase, diarrhea and pruritus as expected for anti-PD-1 monotherapies.
About 1/3 of patients had high-grade events, and these were pretty typical for immune-related adverse events that occur with checkpoint inhibitors. So again, based on a small number of patients, we're not seeing any signals that there are unexpected safety events occurring with the combination. But again, we continue to monitor carefully. Now to the efficacy. Here on this efficacy table, we've got all the participants on the right-hand side. And in the middle, we've also looked at the subgroups by PD-L1 expression because based on the checkpoint-refractory data, we were very interested in understanding what happened by PD-L1.
So looking at all participants first, you'll see that 10 out of those 12 patients responded, including 2 patients with CRs, Median duration of response was not yet reached. Now looking at the small subgroup of patients with PD-L1 positive and negative expression, you'll see that we were very encouraged to see that there were responses across PD-L1 expression. So we had 2 out of the 3 patients who are PD-L1 negative who responded to therapy.
On this slide, we've got the swimmer plot showing the patient journey as they came on to the study. So we've got those 12 patients on the Y-axis. And just to orient you a little bit to the plot, the blue, dark shade is the treatment duration. The lighter shade is the period of follow-up. The blue and white triangles are the complete and partial responses the patients had and the red circles are the progression events.
And what you'll see here visually is that the majority of patients remain disease-free and in follow-up on the study at the time of the data cutoff. We had 3 progression events, 2 of which contributed to the PFS results because one of them, per the prespecified statistical analysis plan, was censored because of multiple missing tumor scans. The median duration -- the median PFS was not reached. Now going back to that important small subgroup of patients who had prior neoadjuvant therapies.
And these are the patients that are denoted by the asterisks on the right-hand side of the swimmer plot. There's those 4 patients. So what you'll see here is that 3 of those 4 patients had a response of either CR or PR, and these patients remain progression-free through the duration of the follow-up. Now the reason this is important despite the fact that it is a small cohort is it starts to give us a sense that it may be possible to give mRNA-4359 in combination with pembrolizumab in the first-line setting with efficacy despite prior exposure to IO.
Now on this slide, it looks, in some ways, very similar to the one we saw in the checkpoint refractory disease with that spider plot. We've got the reduction in tumor target lesions over time. On the right-hand side and on the left, we've got the waterfall plot, again, colored by PD-L1 expression with the positives being in red. But the main point of difference that is quite striking on that spider plot compared to the one we saw earlier is just that the majority of patients here are responding. And again, that you do see those responses in the patients with PD-L1 negative disease.
What looks similar is the translational data. So here, we have the translational data from the first-line cohort. And again, we see biological activity demonstrated both by the development of IDO1 and PD-L1 specific T cell responses as well as the novo clonal expansion of those T cells. So again, very nice to see this based on the mechanism of action of the drug. So in conclusion, we were very heartened by these data. We now have data that the combination of mRNA-4359 plus pembrolizumab may have a manageable safety profile and also may have evidence of biological activity in these patients with both refractory melanoma as well as treatment-naive advanced melanoma.
In terms of efficacy, we saw durable responses in both. Of course, it was higher in the first-line setting, where we actually saw that it was regardless of PD-L1 expression, while the responses were enriched in the PD-L1 positive patients in our checkpoint-refractory disease. So based on these data, as we mentioned, our Phase II expansion cohorts are ongoing, and they should help us to elucidate our strategy in terms of ideal treatment setting, in terms of our preferred combination partner and also in terms of our biomarker strategy. And we also are eagerly anticipating the results in the non-small cell lung cohort.
So with that, you've bear with me through a lot of data, but thank you so much for your attention, and we now break. Thank you.
[Break]
Hi, everyone. Welcome back. I have the distinct pleasure of telling you about a new modality we are creating within Horizon 2, specifically mRNA-encoded T-cell engagers against surface antigens. And so T-cell engagers, as you know, are a well-established class of medicines with 10 FDA-approved products. T-cell engagers are a great demonstration of how we use mRED principles to build modalities.
And so I'm going to walk you through our platform differentiation within those modalities, walk you through also about how we think about our sentinel, our first application and how that de-risks follow-on programs. And then also about how we think about the depth of the well, follow-on programs and diversification of the follow-on programs thereof. Now unlike cancer vaccines, cancer antigen therapies, therapeutic vaccines, where we use our platform technology to train the immune system, specifically T cells to go and hunt their target.
T-cell engagers, as you know, are bispecific antibodies that physically direct T cells to tumor cells to unleash killing activity of those T cells on tumor cells. Now you probably know that T-cell engagers are conventionally recombinant antibodies. And you're probably wondering, well, what's our differentiation there. And so I'm going to come back to a point Rose and Kristine made, which is on multiplexing. And so here for T-cell engagers, we really lean into our ability to multiplex. So in a single drug product, we have multiple messenger RNAs encapsulated in lipid nanoparticles.
Again, that is considered a single-drug product. And we can encode, we can produce multiple T-cell engagers all at the same time. Why that becomes advantageous is because we can go after multiple tumor targets and thereby overcome some known resistance mechanisms for given histotypes. So inter- and intratumor heterogeneity specifically and also antigen escape, which is a well-described phenomenon for certain histotypes.
On top of that, for T-cell engagers, we can think about tumor biology and really, again, resistance mechanisms and also include T-cell engagers that encode co-stimulatory molecules. So not only directing T cells to kill tumors, but also providing molecules to improve the fitness of T cells. Now we're going to talk about the modality with respect to surface antigens, but we also are working on this modality beyond surface antigens against intracellular antigens as well.
So for our Sentinel application, we always try to minimize biology risk because this is the first time we're taking our platform technology into a new area. And so when we looked at T-cell engagers, the optimal sentinel application from our perspective was going after multiple myeloma, where you already have a bunch of clinically approved T-cell engagers and other T-cell engagers showing great antitumor activity in clinical development.
And so there, the thesis was we could encode multiple T-cell engagers all at the same time against clinically validated tumor-associated antigens, we use our technology. So we use our systemic lipid nanoparticle where we had a ton of repeat dosing clinical experience in patients with devastating rare diseases over 80-plus patient years. And we leverage that technology for oncology. And I'm going to walk you through that sentinel application momentarily. Beyond that, once we get an encouraging clinical signal from our Sentinel application, we can learn and we've ungated and de-risked follow-on programs.
And so here, our follow-on program, we wanted to move from multiple myeloma, a hematologic malignancy and really go towards solid tumors. You probably know that the 10 FDA-approved T-cell engagers 8 of them are for heme malignancies and 2 are for solids. Solids have certainly been far more challenging. And we're up to that challenge. And we're excited about using our technology to encode not only the kill T-cell engager, but also provide that co-stimulatory signal to enhance T-cell function to have greater antitumor activity against solid tumors.
Now coming back to diversification within a modality and then broadly across the portfolio. I already touched upon our first application, we go after kind of what we know the signal should look like in myeloma in a liquid tumor and then venturing into ovarian cancer, where there are clinically validated tumor-associated antigens, and we understand some of the tumor biology resistance mechanisms, particularly around the tumor microenvironment and its hostile immunosuppressive environment.
Okay. So the Sentinel application is mRNA-2808. And this sentinel application is a multiplex product. It encapsulates 4 different messenger RNAs that encodes 3 distinct T-cell engagers against clinically validated tumor-associated antigens. You recognize those antigens, I'm sure, BCMA, GPRC5D, and FcRH5. Now our differentiation with respect to multiplexing also is because it's a single drug product, we don't have to show contribution of components for each of the T-cell engagers.
And so if we were working on this with recombinant antibodies, we would have to follow a more traditional drug development path where for each specific recombinant bispecific antibody, we would have to conduct a nonclinical program, manufacturability assessment, clinical development program for each T-cell engager and then combine them. Because mRNA-2808 is a single drug product, we can advance this as a multiplex product, as Rose was saying, it's not a combination. It's a multiplex product, and we can advance it through preclinical, nonclinical, and currently, we're dosing in Phase I/II.
By the way, we haven't been asked a single question about contribution of components from the FDA. And I think that's incredibly exciting as you think about the multiplexing potential for T-cell engagers as a class of medicines for messenger RNA. Now as I said, by multiplexing, we can overcome known disease biology and resistance mechanisms. And so for myeloma, we know that there is significant both inter-and intra-tumor heterogeneity. But also very importantly, we know that these antigens upon treatment can escape. They'll mutate and they will escape patients will stop responding.
And so by going after multiple targets, we should be able to overcome both the tumor heterogeneity, but also the antigen escape. And in fact, the investigators that we're working with are really excited about the potential here of going after these clinically validated tumor-associated antigens all at the same time. Okay. So as you know, the first generation of T-cell engagers are really focused on what we call monoplex. So single target, single T-cell engagers. Of course, you have actually approved BCMA T-cell engagers and approved GPRC5D T-cell engager for multiple myeloma, and they are effective.
The second generation companies are starting to combine those T-cell engagers together. Sometimes they are separate T-cell engagers. Sometimes they are novel multi-specific antibody formats that can be difficult to manufacture. And you have a variety in clinical development and also preclinical development, mRNA-2808 to our knowledge, represents the first time any drug product encodes 3 T-cell engagers all at the same time. And so the multispecifics that others are working on typically are focused on 2 tumor-associated antigens.
Here, we don't have to resort to a fancy multi-specific antibody format. We can use actually an antibody format that we designed specifically for ourselves, for our technology, and we multiplex. We can include multiple messenger RNAs so that we can encode very functional, very well-behaved molecules, all at the same time. And so I'm going to walk you through some of the preclinical data that we showed at ASH about 1.5 years ago.
First showing you that the mRNA-2808 encoded T-cell engager proteins are all incredibly potent. And so what I'm showing you here is in vitro data when we look at binding of the T-cell engagers to their respective targets. They are in nanomolar binding affinity. So these are very potent binders. When we look at killing activity, cytotoxicity against the respective tumor cells that express their respective targets, we are in the picomolar range, so very, very potent.
And then when we do a mix and match of the various tumor cells that have their respective tumor targets, as you can imagine, by multiplexing, by including multiple of these T-cell engagers, we achieved greater killing than simply going after one of these targets by itself. Now importantly, for us, monkeys represent a highly translationally relevant species. And that's based on all of our platform experience in advancing different medicines from preclinical from monkeys to patients.
And what we showed in monkeys was definitively preclinical proof of concept. where we took mRNA-2808 and we evaluated both single and repeat dose administration studies in monkeys, both to assess pharmacology, but also we conducted repeat-dose GLP toxicology studies as well. And what we're showing you on the left-hand side is that after a single dose administration, both intravenous administration and subcutaneous administration that we see really nice dose-dependent expression of the T-cell engager protein.
Now I'm just showing you one of the exemplary T-cell engagers. This is against GPRC5D. By the way, you can note the EC50 dashed line, that's from the cytotoxicity. That's how potent the molecule is. So we are well above what is therapeutically relevant even at these very, very low doses. But what you'll notice from the protein expression kinetics is we actually don't hit the Cmax until about 1 to 2 days later.
And that's exciting for us because if you think about how the T-cell engager field has evolved, as you probably know, they have shifted from IV administration to subcu. And that really was to flatten out the protein exposure curve because you were having CRS cytokine release syndrome that was a Cmax-driven event. So they flatten out the curve. Well, we're excited because actually, our IV administration looks much more like a subcu curve from a recombinant protein.
We're also excited because you can see from this plot, we can subcu administer mRNA-2808 as well. And in fact, we actually included subcu administration as part of our nonclinical program, and we intend to evaluate subcu administration in the ongoing Phase I/II study. Okay. So on the left is we can make TCE protein at very therapeutically relevant levels. Now we know it's functional also because when we look at on-target pharmacology, specifically depletion of target expressing cells, specifically we're showing you here memory B cells.
Again, these T-cell engagers are very, very potent. And so what you'll see is after a single dose administration, we have very significant depletion of target cells. This is only a single dose and the rebound is approximately 2 weeks later. And so in monkeys, we've shown that we achieved good tolerability to enable the first-in-human study. We actually had a massive safety margin heading into the first-in-human study, that we can encode functional and therapeutically relevant levels of T-cell engager proteins of all 3 of them. And we've demonstrated on-target pharmacology.
And so with that, we have an ongoing Phase I/II study in advanced multiple myeloma. And so the patient population is relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma. They're triple-class-refractory, and so they've been exposed to proteasome inhibitors, immunomodulatories and anti-CD38. We are currently in dose escalation, where the primary endpoint, of course, is safety and tolerability. And our secondary endpoints include PK, pharmacodynamics and also antitumor activity, specifically response, duration of response, and progression-free survival.
And so we are really encouraged with the ongoing Phase I/II study, and we look forward to presenting findings and results at an upcoming medical conference. So with that, based on the encouraging signal that we've seen to date in mRNA-2808, we've actually ungated advancing our follow-on program, which is mRNA-2151 for ovarian cancer. And here, again, we diversify, we take more biology risk as we advance the follow-on program. And actually, the follow-on program, mRNA-2151, uses the same T-cell engager antibody format is mRNA-2808.
And so with mRNA-2808 having that encouraging signal and being able to show repeat visibility, et cetera, safety, we can apply those learnings to mRNA-2151. For mRNA-2151 is a similar idea to mRNA-2808. So it's a multiplex T-cell engager product, single-drug product. It encodes in this case, 2 T-cell engagers that kill the so-called Signal 1. And these are against 2 clinically validated tumor-associated antigens for ovarian cancer.
Now when we looked at ovarian and solids in general, we thought it would be a good idea to include a co-stimulatory molecule as well, again, because of the hostile, immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment and also that many of these patients, unfortunately, as a consequence of that tumor microenvironment can have poor T-cell fitness and function. And so in the drug product, we also included for the first time ever, a T-cell engager, a co-stimulatory signal, a Signal 2. And so mRNA-2151 combines the Signal 1, the kill, but also includes the Signal 2, the co-stimulatory.
And I'm going to show you some preclinical proof-of-concept data that gets us really excited about the addition of the co-stimulatory molecule to enhance antitumor activity. Now finally, I'll just note that by design, the antibody format, the molecules we're encoding, of course, messenger RNA being an information molecule. It's a very plug-and-play format. And so we're excited because we actually have a whole host of binders against other high unmet medical need tumor types where we can envision different Signal 1 and Signal 2 combinations going into higher unmet medical need tumor types and overcoming known resistance mechanisms and tumor biology.
Okay. So I'm going to show you some of the in vitro data first. So similar to mRNA-2808, these T-cell engagers for Signal 1, the kill T-cell engager are very, very potent. So we're talking about picomolar, killing activity, cytotoxicity, and this has been shown in a variety of tumor cells that express high antigen levels, mid and low. Importantly, the green is the Signal 2. And the Signal 2 molecule similarly is incredibly potent.
So here, I'm showing you sub-nanomolar affinity for T-cell activation. Now in vitro, when we look at both the Signal 1 cell and the Signal 2 co-stimulatory T-cell engager, we see enhancement of killing activity. And so the EC50 for the Signal 1 alone is shown on that dashed line on the upper right-hand side. And as we add concentrations of the Signal 2 co-stimulatory molecule, we can improve the potency, we can improve the killing activity for the drug product.
Now importantly, when we look in vitro, and we do repeat simulation studies of the T cells with tumor cells. So we stimulate the tumor cells day after day. If you focus on the blue line there, that's just a Signal 1 T-cell engager. And day after day, stimulating those T cells, those T cells get more tired, more exhausted, more terminally differentiated, and they lose their ability to kill, which is what you see in the blue. When we add the co-stimulatory Signal 2 molecule, you can see that we retain its ability to kill over time upon repeat stimulation. And that's because what we're showing on the other 2 plots is that those T cells have enhanced function.
And so they proliferate better, they have better survival markers. They're just overall more happy. And so we're excited with that in vitro data, but of course, we've taken this in vivo to various humanized xenograft tumor-bearing mice. Here, I'm showing you the OVCAR-3 model, which is one of the kind of workhorses in the field. The black line shows you just vehicle control. You can appreciate that these tumors grow out of control if these mice are not treated. The blue lines show you Signal 1 T-cell engager that kill T-cell engager alone.
And so you have significant control of the tumor with the Signal 1 T-cell engager alone. But when we add Signal 2 in addition to Signal 1, that's exemplified in the pink and red there, that's when we start to see complete responses and really significant and durable control of tumor. And so similar to mRNA-2808, we are administering this product intravenously, but we're excited about enabling subcutaneous administration as well. And so for mRNA-2151, the next steps are to complete the IND-enabling studies and also to initiate a Phase I study in 2027.
We've had excellent pre-IND meetings to date, and we're excited to advance this to patients. And so as I said, this is our T-cell engager modality against surface antigens. As part of Horizon 3, we're actually working on T-cell engagers against intracellular antigens. So these are antigens I get to that process and displayed on the surface of tumor cells with little parts, and they are HLA restricted. But there, again, we lean into our platform differentiation to multiplex. And we're excited because we should achieve broader patient coverage and also enhanced antitumor activity for that class of targets as well.
Okay. So with that, Sumana is going to walk you through our EBV therapeutic vaccine for MS.
Good morning, everyone. It's a pleasure to be here. My name is Sumana Chandramouli, and I'll be walking you through our mRNA-1195 EBV therapeutic for multiple sclerosis. Epstein-Barr virus or EBV is a very prevalent human herpes virus. It is associated with many serious diseases. And this starts with infectious mononucleosis when EBV is contracted in early adolescents or young adulthood.
And then it can -- it is -- EBV is one of the first human oncogenic viruses that was identified. So it is positively linked to several cancers such as lymphomas Hodgkin's, Burkitt lymphoma, nasopharyngeal carcinoma, and also certain forms of gastric cancer. On top of that, there is emerging evidence and strong evidence that links EBV to several autoimmune conditions, including multiple sclerosis or MS. That will be the focus of the talk today. And in immunocompromised patients and persons, it can also cause several diseases such as post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder or PTLD, in transplant patients and chronic active EBV.
The underlying complexity of the virus and these diseases and the diversity of the biological mechanisms require not only prophylactic intervention, but also therapeutic intervention to address all of these. And we believe that the unique advantages and attributes of the mRNA platform allow us to address these from all angles. So taking a deeper look at EBV and multiple sclerosis. Multiple sclerosis or MS is a devastating neurodegenerative disease that affects predominantly women in the prime of their life. It can then lead to decades of progressive physical and cognitive disability that can be crippling in every sense of the world.
For many, many decades, people have been looking at the causative agents behind MS. There's nearly 1 million people with MS living in the U.S. today and many millions more worldwide. And the emerging evidence from looking at the data over many decades is that EBV seropositivity and a prior infection with EBV seem to be very strongly linked to a risk of developing MS later in life. This translates to an almost negligible risk of developing MS if someone is not ever exposed to EBV.
All of this was recently summarized in a landmark study that was published a few years ago now in science that showed that quantified this risk to be a staggering 26 to 32-fold increase in risk of developing MS following EBV exposure. That is shown in the graph on the left. The graph on the right shows something additionally interesting, which is that on top of the risk that comes from just having EBV infection, there is an additional two to threefold increase in risk of developing MS if there is a history of infectious model.
So this indicates that the virus starts manipulating the immune system quite early on as soon as it encounters -- so EBV is a tricky virus. It's a herpes virus. So as soon as it enters the body, it stays there for the rest of the life of the host. It bounces between forming active viral particles, which is known as lytic replication and going into a very quiet immune evasive state known as latency. And it goes into a latent state in the B cells of the immune system.
So what we understand from seeing healthy people because EBV is so seroprevalent around the world and most of the exposed people are still healthy is that the immune system uses both arms and antibody response that actively prevents EBV replication and infection of new cells and a very strong T cell control to maintain control over the latently infected EBV cells. So from that was born the concept of mRNA-1195. The composition of mRNA-1195 consists of 6 mRNAs 4 of them, gHgL, gp42, and gp220 are glycoproteins that are known to be the primary targets of neutralizing antibodies on the surface of the virus. These will prevent the virus from infecting naive B cells and epithelial cells.
Then we've also added in engineered forms of 2 latent antigens. These are a group of proteins that the virus uses to maintain its latency and to remain latent in the B cell compartment of the body. So we've included engineered forms of EBNA3A and LMP2B, which are key latent proteins that the virus uses to propagate latency. We are starting out with testing this in multiple sclerosis because we believe that immune dysregulation, often by EBV, may be one of the underlying mechanisms that EBV uses to not only trigger the disease, but also to drive it forward.
We also envision that other conditions like PTLD that might require a combination of antibody and T cell responses in order to prevent the condition from occurring might also benefit from this composition. So we started out by testing mRNA-1195 in healthy seropositive adults, and we wanted to de-risk the immunogenicity of the product before going into the vulnerable patient population.
So the Phase I Part A was designed as a randomized observer-blind, placebo-controlled study. We tested different ratios of the antigens in order to get the ratio right. So we have 2 different compositions of mRNA-1195 in this trial. We also included our mRNA-1189, which is a prophylactic vaccine for EBV against infectious mono that we are developing. We use that as a comparator to understand the interplay between the different antigens between the latent and the lytic antigens we've added in, and there was a placebo group as well.
We -- of course, the primary objective of the study was to look at the safety and the reactogenicity of this candidate. And then we were also going -- we also looked at the humoral and cell-mediated immunity and the impact on EBV shedding. So to share some of the early data we have here, this is the reactogenicity profile of mRNA-1195. As we can see from -- as we can see, the top panels show the local reactogenicity and the bottom panels show systemic reactogenicity. The shades of blue are grade 1 and grade 2, very fast resolving reactive symptoms and very, very low levels of grade 3 were detected.
So overall, mRNA-1195 was well tolerated with an acceptable safety profile. We then looked at the immunogenicity of this candidate. So here, we are looking at the binding antibodies to the glycoprotein components in the -- in this composition. So that's gHgL, gp42, and gp220. Just to orient ourselves, the gray bars that go through the middle of these graphs are the baseline responses to natural infections seen in these seropositive individuals as they come into the trial.
The line in black is the comparator mRNA-1189 that contains these glycoprotein antigens as well. And then in the shades of yellow and red are the different dose levels of mRNA-1195. So a few things are immediately obvious when you look at the curves here. The first is that compared to the placebo, there is a significant boost in the binding antibodies following just a single or 2 doses of mRNA-1195 in this population. This is then sustained by the third dose, and we can see these responses maintained well above baseline out to 6 months after the last dose, which is the last time point in the study.
There was no pronounced dose response as we can see all of the yellow curve -- yellow and red curves are overlapping with each other as well. They're looking at the functional antibodies. So the B cell neutralizing antibodies would be preventing the infection of EBV into B cells and the epithelial neutralizing antibodies are doing the same, protecting epithelial cells from incoming EBV. So here, what we see is that both -- all of the tested dose levels of mRNA-1195 and mRNA-1189 are able to boost significantly the neutralizing antibody response to both B cells and to epithelial cells.
The B cell nABs are considered the more relevant ones here because we are primarily studying B-cell biology-related diseases. And we did measure that all the way out to Day 337, which is 6 months after the last dose, and we can see that the neutralizing response is well sustained above baseline. This is an exciting piece of data we would -- we are also excited to share here, which is looking at EBV shedding and saliva of these seropositive individuals.
So as EBV bounces between lytic and latent replication over a lifetime, any given moment, multiple -- majority of the EBV-infected people will be shedding EBV in their saliva. And this is shown in the gray bars in the top panel that is the average -- the genome copies of EBV DNA in saliva in placebo recipients. And what becomes apparent is that as soon as a single dose of mRNA-1195 is given, we can see that this drops in that group and is sustained all the way through the end of the study.
This is similar to what we had presented previously with mRNA-1189 as well, where we see this rapid and sustained suppression of EBV shedding in saliva. The bottom graph is a different way to look at the data, which is to look at, at any given time, what is the percentage of individuals with detectable DNA in their saliva. This gray bar is, again, represents the placebo group and the black and the orange are mRNA-1189 and mRNA-1195. And again, we can see that as soon as either of the mRNA compositions is given, there is a rapid and sustained reduction in the frequency of individuals that are shedding over time.
As we mentioned earlier, the T cell responses are just as important in this case because the surveilling T cells are what keeps the latently infected B cells in check. So we looked at 2 different types of T cell responses induced by mRNA-1195. These are the CD8 T cell responses. And what we observed is that unlike the placebo group, we can see a nice boost and sustained increase in CD8 T cell responses to the 2 latent antigens, which are shown in the top panels, EBNA3A and LMP2B. And in the bottom, we also observed that there were very strong CD8 T cell responses to the glycoprotein antigens -- antigen gH.
Again, we didn't see much of a dose-specific response, and we also see that these responses were sustained through the end of the study. This panel here now shows the other type of helper T cells, CD8 T cells -- sorry, CD4 positive T cells. And again, we observed a nice boost in sustained response to both EBNA3A and gH following mRNA-1195. And this is sustained through the last time point in the study.
We are now continuing our Phase I, knowing what we know about mRNA-1195. We are now continuing with a second part to the Phase I. Now we are testing it both in seropositives with additional dose levels and also in seronegatives, trying to plan for the future for indication expansion as we go forward. And we also have mRNA-1195 now actively dosing in our proof-of-concept multiple sclerosis study, P201. This is a randomized, observer-blind, placebo-controlled study, where we are again looking at the potential impact that mRNA-1195 might have in people that are living with MS -- and we are looking at various time points.
In addition to safety and reactogenicity, we are also looking at the impact of mRNA-1195 on MRI markers of MS disease activity and other clinical markers as well and also looking at the humoral and cell-mediated immunogenicity in this population. I'm very happy to share an update on this study, which is that we fully enrolled our sentinel cohort of 12 patients. And the DSMB has reviewed the safety data and has given the recommendation to proceed with the dose escalation phase in this study.
So in conclusion, we have learned through our Phase I data so far that mRNA-1195 is generally well tolerated and we are continuing with our Phase I and Phase II studies. In the immunogenicity realm, we see that mRNA-1195 is able to strongly boost both B-cell and epithelial cell neutralizing antibodies, binding antibodies, CD8 positive and CD4 positive T cells. We find this very encouraging and the immune responses are sustained for well over 6 months after the last dose.
And we also, again, were able to demonstrate that mRNA-1195 is able to reduce measurable viral shedding in saliva, similar to our mRNA-1189 composition. We are continuing with our Phase I data. We expect data -- sorry, we are continuing with our Phase I trial. We expect data coming up soon, and we'll also have data from our proof-of-concept MS study in the future.
With that, I'll hand back to Lin to talk through our in vivo CAR-T program.
Thanks so much, Sumana. So I have the pleasure of walking us through an emerging modality we are advancing as part of Horizon 3, which is in vivo CAR-T more broadly in vivo T cell therapy. And so in contrast to the modalities that you've heard about today with our therapeutic vaccines, again, intravascular administration, we encode in antigen-presenting cells, and we train the immune system to go and hunt and find their target.
In contrast to T-cell engagers, where we encode multiple T-cell engagers to physically direct T cells to their tumor targets and also provide co-stimulatory signals. Here, we are directly engineering T cells in a person's body in vivo. And so the technology here, our messenger RNA encapsulated in targeted LNPs targeted to direct preferential uptake into those T cells. And the sentinel application here is focused on deep B-cell immunity reset for autoimmune diseases.
And so you probably know that many autoimmune diseases have B cells playing a central and pathophysiologic role with respect to pathogenesis. And the unmet medical need remains high. And so you often have patients cycling through various standard of care, broad immunosuppressants, sometimes targeted biologics, specifically anti-CD20 monoclonal antibodies as an example. Those targeted biologics, as you probably know, do not deplete B cells in tissues as well as they do certainly in the blood.
And the emerging ex vivo CAR-T, autologous CAR-T experience for various late autoimmune conditions has been incredibly exciting, showing that those patients can achieve durable remission and deep B-cell depletion along with an immune reset. And so the ex vivo autologous CAR-T field for autoimmune is emerging with over 400 patients dosed to date and about 270 total years of clinical experience. What we're really excited about for ex vivo CAR-T as well is by going after deep B-cell depletion in blood and tissues to achieve that immune reset, what we deem are encouraging signals across a variety of autoimmune conditions.
So you can see here for lupus, for myasthenia gravis, for scleroderma, myositis and so on and really encouraging rates of durable remission. Now the durability in particular, remains to be seen. The data is still emerging. But so far, it appears that the results are quite durable, about half year to a year plus. And importantly, the dose, as you probably know, is lower than what is typically required for oncology ex vivo CAR-T. The persistence of those T cells, in particular, seem drastically shorter for autoimmune patients than what's observed for oncology.
And so in autoimmune patients, they typically persist for several weeks versus in oncology, you will typically see them last for months up to several years and correlated with clinical outcomes. Now what's been incredibly exciting as well as the tolerability with low-grade CRS and neurotoxicity observed across patients and really manageable tolerability, particularly with respect to infection risk, which is an on-target pharmacology consequence.
Now for ex vivo CAR-T, as you know, that whole process is complicated and costly. And so the manufacturing is incredibly complex. You have to take blood out of a person's body, engineer them ex vivo with a virus. And then to get them back in, you have to make space with harsh preconditioning. There are only specialized academic centers that can really realize this entire process for patients and the entire process is not scalable and quite costly.
Compare and contrast that to in vivo, which is an off-the-shelf approach to engineer T cells directly in a person's body. You do not need to lymphodeplete. You do not need to do the harsh preconditioning regimen. The field has been showing that quite definitively, which is really exciting. And because it is off-the-shelf, you're doing this in a person's body, it is scalable. And additionally, it is transient, which confers tolerability aspects, attributes for this drug product.
And so in vivo CAR-T, in contrast to ex vivo CAR-T, where you have a single dose administration and those T cells kind of persist for several weeks. We think with in vivo CAR-T with transient expression of those CARs in T cells, we can give a limited number of repeat dose administrations. And with a concomitant deep B-cell depletion in blood and tissues, we should see a concomitant decrease in disease activity, hopefully resulting in durable remission.
Now when those B cells reconstitute or rebound, as you know, the immune system has been reset, and so they will reconstitute with a naive phenotype. And so this modality exemplifies another area in which we take mRED principles to build not only the sentinel application, which has huge value for patients across many different autoimmune conditions, as I just showed you, but also take the same technology and apply it in other aspects that we can go into such as oncology and T cell reprogramming.
So we are advancing our lead nominated candidate, mRNA-6007 that we affectionately call 007. And we selected this based on comprehensive screening of various targeted LNPs, optimization, and preclinical evaluation. It's built on the foundation of our platform, which we have extensive experience, both from a clinical perspective and manufacturing. And the LNP, the base particle that we use for the targeted LNP is actually the same LNP that we use for T-cell engagers for our rare disease programs as well.
Now we actually had screened multiple base particles to evaluate them actually in monkeys before selecting this base particle. But just to reiterate, this is an LNP where we have 80-plus patient years of repeat dose clinical experience in patients. We understand the safety profile. We understand the repeat disability. And importantly, we know how to manufacture and scale this particle. Now the LNP has to be decorated with a targeting moiety to really facilitate and preferentially drive its uptake into T cells.
And here, the targeting moiety is a single domain antibody binder that was internally discovered and humanized, and it is decorated on the surface of the particle using a validated linker chemistry. The payload itself, we lean here again into our platform differentiation to multiplex. So we have a dual CAR approach, but we use clinically validated CAR architecture. And here again, we can encapsulate multiple mRNAs without having to show contribution of components.
Now 007 is our sentinel application, as I said, I'll walk you through some of our really encouraging preclinical data, and we are advancing this rapidly into the clinic, where we will evaluate a basket of B-cell-mediated autoimmune conditions, including lupus, but other autoimmune conditions as well. But beyond that, we're taking the same targeted LNP because it gets into T cells, and we want to explore applications for oncology as well, using both mRNA transient payload, but also working on gene insertion so that we can have integrating technology as well.
Beyond that, the team is kicking around clever ideas with respect to T cell reprogramming and what we can do broader with this targeted lipid nanoparticle. Now our points on differentiation for in vivo CAR-T are twofold. Number one is on the platform in manufacturing; and number two is on the product. On the product -- on the platform in manufacturing, the platform is built on validated technology. So we have extensive experience, of course, with the messenger RNA.
I will note that the messenger RNA includes a chemical modification on the 3 prime ends of the molecule to extend the half-life of messenger RNA. So we have greater exposure, greater half-life of the encoded CAR. The base particles, as I already mentioned, has tons of clinical repeat dose experience, and we have extensive manufacturing experience of that base particle. We have a proven global health authority regulatory strategy where we know how to take platform nonclinical studies and apply them across the board for our portfolio, including this program.
And as I already highlighted, we have extensive know-how and knowledge on manufacturing. And this includes both scale-up processes, phase appropriate control strategies and an infrastructure that enables end-to-end manufacturing with the long game with getting this to patients in mind. Okay. So that was point number one on differentiation with respect to platform and manufacturing. Point number two on differentiation of the product. And so 007 actually targets CD7 on T cells.
Now the rest of the field really primarily focuses on getting into CD8 T cells. We think we're differentiated because CD7 gets you into CD8s. They get you into CD4 T cells, which we know are important for oncology, and they also get you into NK cells, which have cytolytic potential. And so we think because CD8s are not necessarily a sync for us, we can get into CD8. I'm going to show you that data momentarily, but we also get into other immune effectors. We think that is advantageous for this product.
The other differentiation on the product, again, comes back to multiplexing, where we are not encoding a single CAR, we are encoding 2 CARs. And so it's a dual-CAR approach. And by targeting 2 different antigens, we can cover not only the entire B-cell lineage, but also plasma cells, which are implicated in many autoimmune conditions. Specifically, they are responsible for the generation of pathogenic autoantibodies for many of these diseases.
And so -- but we think by targeting a broader immune effector cell population, in addition to the dual-CAR strategy, we should achieve greater biological performance, greater reset and hopefully, durable remission in patients. Okay. I'm going to walk you through some of our preclinical data, starting with humanized mice. And so this is a CD19 CAR messenger RNA encapsulated in that targeted LNP. Here, we are doing IV administration once every few days, 3 times.
And I'm showing you data in spleen after the second dose, but the data are very similar after the third dose. And what you'll see on the left-hand side is we see really nice dose-dependent expression of the CAR in both CD8 T cells, but also CD4 T cells. And we know those CAR-Ts are functional because if you look at the B cells on the right-hand side, they're completely gone. And they're completely gone at all dose levels evaluated.
Now importantly, we have taken the product into monkey studies, several monkey studies, where for us, again, monkeys are a highly translationally relevant species. Again, that's based on our experience in advancing different medicines from monkeys to patients. But also the field has shown translatability as well using monkeys. Here, we do use a surrogate CAR CD20 and not simply because the binder is cross-reactive with monkeys. And we have demonstrated reproducibility and consistency across lots in these monkey studies.
And so what I'm showing you here is first, the safety and tolerability of the CD20 CAR messenger RNA packaged in the targeted LNP. These monkeys received 3 IV dose administrations every 3 days and importantly, received no pre-treatment. So no dexamethasone, no diphenhydramine. We wanted to understand the safety and tolerability profile of the targeted LNP by itself. And the dose levels we evaluated were 0.5 and 1 milligram per kilogram. And so with respect to safety and tolerability, we've been really encouraged.
As you can see here by the liver enzymes, the gray shows you what's normal for monkeys. So we are well within normal. By the way, we have 2 controls, a vehicle and another messenger RNA control, which is simply a reporter messenger RNA control. Beyond that, the clinical pathology also looks very clean, uneventful, clinical observations great. Again, these monkeys were not pretreated. So again, happy with the safety and tolerability profile.
Let's come to delivery. So we focus on our reporter messenger RNA here, which is Green Lantern -- it's essentially GFP. And I'm showing you data from Green Lantern versus the CAR because Green Lantern is a more stable protein, and with CAR, you have trafficking and kind of the kinetics of CAR pharmacology. And what I hope you can appreciate from all these immune effector populations is we get great delivery. This is 2 days after the last dose administration in blood and various lymphoid tissues. You can see in blood, we are in the approximate 80% plus range in CD7-positive immune cells.
And in the various lymphoid tissues, we see really great uptake in various immune effectors in these lymphoid tissues as well. Now when we look at pharmacology, so first, I'm going to show you blood, but then I'll show you B-cell depletion in lymphoid tissues. When we look at blood, I hope you can appreciate, so the vertical gray lines show you the dose administrations. We see rapid depletion of B cells in blood in comparison to the control groups that you can see in gray and green.
And we wanted to show you exemplary flow cytometry plots here just to show you how comprehensive the gating is for capturing the B cells. And I hope you can appreciate the CAR-treated animals, again, in the pink and red, B cells are completely gone, not detectable in the FACS plots, and when we look at counts completely gone and remain gone after each dose administration. Now as we talked about, okay, blood is great, but it's all about lymphoid tissues. So 2 days after the last dose administration, we look at lymphoid tissues.
So starting with spleen, I'm going to show you immunohistochemistry against CD20 in these various tissues. And you can see in the control arms, you see really nice staining of CD20. You see nice follicles, you see really pronounced staining. And in all of the treated animals at both dose levels of 0.5 and 1 milligram per kilogram, in spleen, we see complete B-cell depletion. So not detectable at all, no brown spots whatsoever. In lymph nodes and here, we looked at a variety of lymph nodes. In the control again, really nice staining of CD20.
And in the treated animals, we see substantial B-cell depletion across the various animals across the various lymph nodes. In bone marrow, similarly, we see CD20 staining and upon treatment, complete B-cell depletion in bone marrow. And so with that, we've demonstrated proof of concept, pronounced B-cell depletion in blood, lymphoid tissues, excellent delivery and uptake into NK cells and T cells, and acceptable safety and tolerability to advance this asset forward.
Now I'm also going to show you some cytokine data as well. So we evaluated really the full cytokine and chemokine panel. And what you can see here is the usual suspects for CAR-mediated cytokine induction do spike up transiently after the first dose that is on-target pharmacology that attenuates upon subsequent doses. And just to remind you, these monkeys are not pretreated. And so interferon-gamma, IL-6, TNF-alpha definitely spike as a result of on-target pharmacology.
Again, we looked at the full panel of cytokines and chemokines, saw nothing concerning, very consistent with our platform, data and knowledge of repeat dosing LNPs.
And so again, we get really excited when we see data like this in monkeys because of our experience in translating these products from monkeys to patients. And we're also really excited here because that binder that I told you about that decorates the base particle, our anti-CD7 single-domain VHH binder is actually a very weak binder for monkeys.
And so actually, by monovalent format, it is not detectable for binding to monkey CD7. We can only detect it weak binding when it's in a multivalent format. It has been optimized and was selected for human performance. And so it is a very tight binder to human CD7. It binds at sub-nanomolar binding affinity. And when we look at T cell uptake in vitro, so in PBMCs from human versus [indiscernible] , we see an 18-fold increase in the potency and the uptake into T cells in humans versus humans.
Moreover, when we look at the expression pattern of CD7 on sino immune cells versus human immune cells, we see far greater expression of CD7 on normal healthy donors in addition to PBMCs from autoimmune patients as well.
And finally, as you probably know, monkeys tend to be more CD8 skewed than patients. And so with our targeting approach getting into CD8, CD4s and NK cells, we are excited about the potential of the pharmacology we may observe in human patients that have been likely underestimated from our monkey studies.
And so with that, we are completing our IND-enabling studies. We are conducting a series of pre-submission health authority engagements, and we plan to advance this program into the clinic in 2027. And we're super excited about this modality. So with that, I'm going to pass it over to David Huss, Chief Technology Officer of Research, who's going to walk through platform innovation.
Thank you very much, Lin. As Lin mentioned, my name is David Huss. I am responsible for our platform science organization. So I hope that you can appreciate through all of the talks we heard this morning on our therapeutic programs that there's really a common thread that goes through all of them.
And that is that they are each built on a unique combination of Moderna's platform technologies. Now one of the reasons that I'm standing in front of you today is because I firmly believe that our best technological innovations are still ahead of us. And so one of the things that we think about is how can we really innovate the technologies of the future to build the medicines of the future.
And today, I'm actually really excited to be able to give you the first glimpse into Moderna's scientific intelligence engine and where we are taking the future of our platform technologies. So I think it's safe to say that we are truly entering a completely new era of scientific exploration. If you think back to the days of scientists in the lab doing an experiment, looking at the data, reformulating their hypothesis, going back and performing another experiment, this serial way of experimentation, while incredibly important can be very slow at generating data that can be scaled.
And so we're now in an era where the advance of new AI technologies and automation are really eliminating this slow traditional limit on hypothesis generation and experimentation. And so we truly believe that now scientific advantage really belongs to those that can learn the fastest. And so how do we set ourselves up to be that company that can learn the fastest. This really requires fundamentally changing the way that we do experimentation and also the data infrastructure that is required to take the data in and make it usable for all of our modern AI tools.
And so what I'm going to share with you is how we really think about this concept of learning at scale and positioning ourselves to be able to do that better than anyone. And so today, I'm really excited to introduce Lucy. So Lucy is at the heart of Moderna's scientific intelligence engine. Lucy connects everything that we've built in AI, automation, experimentation and data into a continuously improving learning system.
So if we think now that experimentation is no longer done one experiment at a time, we really are conducting iterative learning cycles. And these learning cycles allow us to find that next discovery in a faster, smarter and more predictable way. Now importantly, if we think about all of the data that exists in people's lab notebooks, it's very disconnected. And so the way that we use Lucy is to be able to pull that all into connected data sets and so over time, with every learning cycle, Lucy becomes a strategic advantage that compounds across all of Moderna.
Now one of the really important elements is how do we teach Lucy. So a number of years ago, we made a really important investment into a digital-first automation platform that is able to teach Lucy. And so if you think about being able to do experimentation in a closed-loop cycle where we can go from mRNA synthesis, LNP formulation, we can look at the biophysical properties of that LNP.
We can then take that LNP and put it into a cell-based assay so that we can learn about its biological performance. And then imagine being able to take all of the data that's generated at every step along the way and without needing human intervention, we can go back to the next round of experimentation based on what Lucy has learned from that first round of experimentation. And this isn't done with one mRNA or one LNP at a time.
This is done in a scalable format so that we can be testing hundreds to thousands of iterations with every single iterative learning cycle. And so this takes that concept of a single scientist in the lab doing an experiment and really just expands it to a level that we've never before seen possible.
And what we're looking at in the video here is an example of our automation platform that is running right now up in our labs where we're able to really generate data at scale, importantly, that is connected from the initial mRNA design all the way through how that LNP mRNA performs in a biological system. So this combination of the automation that we looked at and Lucy really creates this ultimate scientific flywheel.
And the way we think about this is we're transforming the data that we generate truly into intelligence. And so I talked a little bit about this concept, but it's really allowing us to go from an AI-driven hypothesis generation. We can go through mRNA production, formulation of that mRNA into our lipid nanoparticles.
We learn from about the biophysical properties of those LNPs, going through a series of in vitro based assays and that is what we do within a closed-loop platform. And you can envision that why this matters is because if I want to test 1,000 different LNP formulations or one LNP formulation and 1,000 different mRNA designs or I can do a combinatorial approach.
And so you just start to generate data at a scale that we've never been able to do before. And now that we have the AI tools available to make sense of that, it really is able to generate new hypotheses to learn in a faster way and to make better decisions about the candidates that we move forward. Now importantly, we don't stop just at primary human cell data. We've built platforms that allow us to do in vivo multiplex screening in mice and in nonhuman primates.
And what I mean by that is instead of taking one candidate into one animal, we are able to use current barcoding systems so we can take 100 or 1,000 different candidates into a single animal and then deconvolute on the back end to understand the performance of each individual candidate.
Now of course, we view human clinical data as our ultimate ground truth. And it's probably fair to say that Moderna has more human clinical data than anybody else on the planet. And so important in our scientific flywheel is the incorporation of the volumes of human clinical data that we already have and all of the data that's emerging from our ongoing clinical trials.
So when we think about the totality here, I always think about Lucy as kind of the heart of the scientific intelligence engine. But it's not just the data that we're generating today or our internal data that we've generated over the last 15 years. We also have an ability now to look at the public domain. And with our collaboration with OpenAI, with other large language models, with emerging AI tools that are coming today, we are able to pull in publicly available data sets.
And so that allows us to kind of supercharge our existing proprietary internal data that we have and that we are generating to ultimately allow us to make better, faster decisions, not just about the therapeutic candidates that we move forward, but the diseases that are applicable if we think about the biology and pulling that in. And it allows us to continually do this cycle where we learn, make better decisions and are able to create better drugs. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to Stephane.
Thank you, David. Before I close, I would like just to thank my colleagues, not only those that presented today, but the literally hundreds and hundreds of colleagues that are working within the Emirates world trying to invent the future of medicine.
So just to close, I think you've got a good sense today of how we are trying to make sure that we both deliver for the short term through Horizon 1 initiatives, but also how we prepare the future and how we have a dedicated team within the [indiscernible] community within Moderna, working on Horizon 2 and Horizon 3.
And you just saw for David, we think we're just getting started, and we're very excited about what we can do in the future by investing in science to invent even newer modalities. As we shared at Analyst Day in November of '25, for the next few years, the plan is very clear. We're going to grow through diversification of geography, as you already saw in Q1 and through diversification of products. We are very excited with the launch across the world of mNEXSPIKE happening this year.
It was a start last year, as you know. We're very encouraged by the [indiscernible] meeting both last week, give us good hope about the approval of flu moving forward. And of course, the other products that are on the slide that we talked about.
If you look at this year, it's going to be a very exciting year because not only we're getting back into sales growth, we continue to make progress on the cost structure of the company, a lot of products approval across geographies. We are very, very pleased and proud with mCOMBRIAX to get the first approval in the world of a flu and COVID combo.
And as you know, the COVID component is actually mNEXSPIKE with much higher performance than Spikevax as we totally reengineered the product. It's a totally different product.
And so with flu, you saw the data, it was published in New England Journal of Medicine recently, showing great performance, especially for people at high risk. And those 2 products are in single dose. It's already approved in Europe and many more countries are going to follow.
Of course, we have very important clinical data ahead of us with intismeran. We had very good reception at ASCO of the 5-year data, not only the data and how all the subgroups look really strong, but also the transactional medicine that we understand the mechanism of action. That is how we decide intismeran and it is doing as advertise in terms of T cells, both expansion and programming of de novo T cells.
You heard today from the team about 459. We are also expecting norovirus data, of course, depending on case accruals and PA because it's a time-based pivotal study should read out this year as well.
So it could be very, very exciting in 2026. But as you saw today through a few examples of a few modalities, we don't have time to show you everything. Just looking at the cancer antigen therapy, looking at the T cell engagers, looking at [ 007 ], just getting a sense of all the exciting new medicines that are either in the clinic for which we are waiting for human proof-of-concept data and the new medicines that are entering the clinic in the next 6, 12 to 18 months to basically expand and expand the possibility of what we do with mRNA.
And as you just saw with David, what is so exciting is we have been doing mRNA for 15 years, and we feel that we're just getting started. The ability that we have to just change totally the pace of our learning is so exciting. We've always said as a motor of a company that we don't have to be the smartest, but we have to learn the fastest. We used to do it one experiment at a time, one lipid at a time, one chemistry at a time.
But as David showed you, the team is really changing the scale of what we are doing. And what is really exciting for me is we're really best positioned, I believe, in the world to do that. If you look at the scale that we have in science, in process engineering, in early clinical, the capability we're putting together on mRNA, the AI, the automation, all those pieces coming together.
I don't believe there's a company in the world that has the scale that we have in mRNA. And that is exciting for what we can do for patients. So if you think about where we stand today, I truly believe that we have not invented our best molecule yet. I'm very proud of what the team has accomplished.
During the pandemic, obviously, the mNEXSPIKE, [indiscernible] , the flu product, cannot wait to see the NRO data. [ Intismeran ] is looking very exciting, what we can do in rare disease.
But what we're doing also now with mRNA-1195, EBV and MS, 007 with autoimmune disease. If you think about it, we're really expanding the domain of what we can do for patients in infectious disease, in oncology, in autoimmune disease and in rare disease, which is why I'm really excited about the future. I'm so thankful for our team and all of our partners around the world, including the clinical trial sites, the participants in the studies.
And I really look forward for the next few years, it's going to be really exciting. So with this, I would love to ask Rose and David to join me, and we'll be happy to take your questions. And Lavina, you'll be moderating online and in the room. Thank you.
Please introduce yourself before your question.
2. Question Answer
This is Ted Tenthoff from Piper Sandler. So firstly, just recent things. Congrats on the flu AdCom, excited for [ intismeran ] data, really cool new in vivo CAR-T program. I have 2 quick ones.
First one is kind of high level. So when it comes to really evaluating all these different new oncology products, how do you sort of prioritize and/or sequence, obviously, data-driven, but there's some overlap between [ intismeran ] and some of the shared or tumor-associated antigen products. So how are you going to really kind of select when one is appropriate or maybe better than another one?
Yes, happy to take that. So I think it's a scientific question and a strategic question. I think the [ intismeran ] represents probably the defining clinical trial on whether cancer vaccines can work or not. It's been tested in the ideal population in the adjuvant setting.
And so we are planning for that to be a success, obviously. And that's why we are moving forward the off-the-shelf cancer antigen therapies that you heard about before.
So those are moving in parallel behind intismeran, but intismeran will be the gatekeeper for those trials because the cancer antigen therapies, the cancer vaccines will probably require randomized trials, large investments and we don't want to do that until we know that intismeran is positive, which I expect it to be, but I think that's the defining moment.
I think just to your other question about how do we prioritize, part of what I've seen successful over my career is a rigorous application of does the science work? Does the drug do what pharmacodynamically intended to do? And then does it clinically have a strong enough impact to be developed? And I think both of those questions need to be answered separately for us to move something forward.
Andrew Tsai, Jefferies. Thank you for sharing your vision today. Bigger picture question as well is that as you're developing these Horizon 2, Horizon 3 products and should they succeed in the clinic and so forth, can you maybe remind us the latest and greatest about your cash breakeven guidance for 2028? Does that incorporate an increased R&D spending over the next couple of years? And then maybe a second follow-up question is there's a lot of things going on. Would it be possible to give us a brief summary of the time lines of the data readouts actually for your Horizon 2 and 3 products that you've guided to today?
Sure. Thanks for the question. So in terms of cash guidance, there is no change. Those budgets have been all along through our long-range planning and annual budgeting process. We have not just set them apart in terms of disclosure, but those investments are in the budget. What we'll have to do as we see in human proof of concept is to figure out what's the best strategy for the product. And we'll be looking at this on an asset-by-asset basis based on the asset performance, but also where the portfolio is, what makes sense for the company. Some assets we're going to develop ourselves, some assets might be better in the hands of partners. So we'll just do what is practical and for the portfolio of the company, both upside and risk.
And for your second question in terms of the horizon for data readout. So 4359 was data we just shared at ASCO and at AACR. So we're now in the confirmation stage of that signal. We have a larger expansion. And so that should be data, I imagine, next year to be shared. 2808, which is the myeloma program that you heard about, we hope to share initial data later this year on that. And then I think the other two -- the other programs, the cancer antigen therapy and the multiple sclerosis 1195, 1195 will probably have data not until '28 just because it's a randomized trial. The cancer antigen therapy could be data next year.
Mark Allen of Goldman Sachs. A couple of mechanistic questions for the in vivo CAR-T. I was just wondering, because you're targeting T and NK cells and you're combining, I guess, both B cell and plasma cell targeting, is there any risk for a greater toxicity profile? Maybe these patients be at greater risk for infection? And also, would you -- do you plan to reimmunize patients afterwards?
I can take that one. Sure. So I think a lot of these things have to be done empirically. Obviously, we're pretty comfortable with the results that we have in NHP, but you have to use surrogate programs for some of those studies. And so we're also building off our understanding of those potential targets from oncology where they've been used extensively. So we're pretty comfortable proceeding with the plan that we have today. If the depth of depletion is such that patients do need to be revaccinated for your like standard vaccination routines, that's certainly an option, and we would look to provide that for them certainly.
I think -- I'd just add, I think part of the advantages of our RNA platform is we can hit the B cells extremely hard with CD19 and BCMA, but do it in a pulsatile short-term fashion without the need for gene integration and potential risk down the line there.
This is Greg representing Tyler Van Buren from TD Cowen. So on 4106 and 4200, how should we think about the undisclosed antigen targets? Are these well characterized from existing literature? Or does their novelty represent a key differentiator? And following on that, in the absence of robust in vivo data, what underpins your confidence that these will translate into meaningful efficacy, particularly in advanced solid tumors where the biology is more challenging than the adjuvant setting?
Yes. I'm happy to take both of those. So these are antigens that are known. So that's, I think, question number one. Question number two is a great question. I mean it's probably one of the -- it's the biggest cancer vaccine scientific question, which is cancer vaccines actually work. It's been decades, as you know, where they haven't worked. And we think mostly that's because they've been tried in late-stage patients. And I think also the vaccine technology was not the ideal one.
I think the RNP -- the RNA LNP is probably the best vaccine technology. So we don't know whether it will work. We will need to do randomized trials, but we are set up. I mean this is the company that's set up to answer that question. So if intismeran is positive, if neoantigen cancer vaccines do work, we are poised to have an off-the-shelf version. And it could be complementary. It could be in adjuvant setting, and it could also be in -- we'll try it in the metastatic setting. I think that's a question which we don't yet know.
And I might just add on the validation of antigens. This has actually been an important part of our collaboration with Immatics, where, as you mentioned, in vivo models are not particularly relevant for many cancer vaccines, but we can actually access patient samples and look at what antigens were both present in those tumor types and presented on those cancer cells.
This is Matt for Mike Yee from UBS. Maybe on the ovarian cancer program, could you talk a little bit about the target you chose, how it maybe fits into the standard of care already in ovarian cancer into the competitive landscape, the TCE modality, especially? And would this be a novel target relative to the other ADCs out there? I'm just going to speak to how you see this fitting in the landscape here.
I'll handle the landscape and you can address the target. So obviously, ovarian cancer is becoming incredibly complex and crowded and it's generally divided into the platinum-resistant setting where response rate is very important and where, of course, the ADC landscape -- the ADCs are really radically transforming the landscape. The other setting is the platinum-sensitive setting.
And here, probably the maintenance setting is the right place. And this is where probably you don't want -- this is after patients have a response to platinum-based therapy. They're in the intervening period. They probably don't want to have chronic toxicity with chemotherapies or ADCs. And this is the ideal setting for where a T cell engager can work. It's also an earlier setting where the T cell fitness is better.
So the general approach would need to be study this initially in platinum-resistant setting because those -- that's where the biggest unmet need is, and we can demonstrate, hopefully, as a monotherapy signal and then decide whether it can be developed as a monotherapy approach and then study it in a platinum-sensitive maintenance, which would be a longer trial and which you would do once you validate it in the PROC setting.
I would just add that mRNA-2151, much like 2808 is actually multiplex. So it's pursuing multiple targets for Signal 1 and also includes a targeting moiety for Signal 2 co-stimulation. So that is part of our strategy for, yes, using clinically validated targets, but being able to add on to anyone who might have been exposed to a treatment targeted at one of those same proteins.
This is [ Tejas ] from Ellie Merle's team at Barclays. Maybe I'll ask on your program in multiple myeloma. Can you expand on your target product profile in terms of safety and ease of administration as T cell engagers start to move out of the academic and community settings?
Yes. So the current formulation is administered intravenously, but we have the ability and plans to also test it subcutaneously. In terms of the safety profile, it's actually potentially better. And for the reasons that you heard, that when you administer a biologic T cell engager immediately, there's very rapid high Cmax that occurs very rapidly, and that results in very -- in high cytokine release syndrome. When you use an RNA approach, the RNA has to be first translated into protein and then secreted. And so you get a gentle ramp-up in the T cell engager release.
And what we know from the field is that there is a tachyphylaxis that occurs with repeated dosing or repeated exposure. And so we hypothesized actually that the safety might be better because you get a delayed and a blunted Cmax. Of course, that needs to be validated. I believe, especially in myeloma, that T cell engagers are going to be able to be moved into the community setting. And I think our three targets we have will be acceptable for a community setting. So right now, we're focused on demonstrating, of course, activity in heavily pretreated patients, and we'll be sharing that with safety later this year.
Alexandria Hammond from Bank of America. Thanks for hosting us here in your headquarters. A couple of pricing questions. ICER is holding a meeting today to talk about cost effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines. I guess, do you anticipate any price changes for your COVID products this fall? When might we hear about the price that gets set? And how do you expect price will feed into coverage and availability this season? I guess a related follow-up, when you think about pricing for the flu/COVID combo opportunity, how do you expect this could shake out maybe using your early discussions in the EU as an indicator?
Yes. So we're having discussions with payers like we always do. We are following what's going on, but we are not commenting on pricing at this stage.
Myles Minter from William Blair. Two for me, one on the science. Just for 1195, the EBV vaccine, great healthy volunteer seropositive data that you showed there. My question is, as you move into an MS patient population that's going to be treated, I would think with CD20 therapy prior. How does the latent portion of that vaccine work in patients that theoretically have B-cell depletion? That's the first one.
Second one, just to confirm on capital allocation, is the potential trial that you have to run if you do get approval for your flu vaccine, that, I think, was 800,000 patients over two seasons, is that in the budget? And if you do have to run that trial, that won't impact anything that we're seeing from Horizon 2 and 3 today?
I'm happy to take the 1185 (sic) [ 1195 ]. So the initial proof-of-concept trial that you heard about today is going to be run in recently diagnosed patients who are not on any biologics. So that's the proof-of-concept trial. After that, we'll determine based on the strength of the data, do we need to add on to an anti-CD20 or can we try and replace it, of course. And then finally, anti-CD20s, of course, work well, but they don't completely reset the B-cell immunity because they probably don't eliminate all those residual B cells. And so I think that's where our approach can help.
And on your second question, yes, the discussion that we had with the FDA that was discussed are in the budget.
This is Shelby here for Luca Issi from RBC. Maybe on the 1L metastatic melanoma data that you shared earlier, do you think that 33% Grade 3/4 AEs are attributed to just pembro? Or do you see some kind of additive toxicity since that rate does seem higher than pembro alone? And then maybe on Lynch syndrome, how should we think about the TAM? I think you said 1 million patients in the U.S., but I guess, what proportion of those patients do you plan on targeting initially? And then do you expect that number to kind of increase going forward?
It's a really great observation. It's something that's occurred to us as well. And when we -- it's a small number to begin with. But when we spoke with investigators on the trial, they said potentially, it might be slightly higher than what we would expect, that they are traditional immune-mediated adverse events. Some pointed out that this is using the 600 milligram, so -- which they sometimes feel does have a slightly higher toxicity profile than the every 3-week version. But on the other hand, I wouldn't be surprised or necessarily upset if there is a higher rate of severe immune-mediated because it means that we are activating T cells.
Yes. And on the Lynch syndrome, I mean, as we said, it's around 1 in 300 people. As you know, genetic tests are available for blood work today. A lot of people are not aware of Lynch syndrome. There are some geographies where there's a bit more awareness and a bit more advocacy. So definitely, this is not the right time to do anything about it for us. But as we get more data, if we think we have a product and we have in situ approval, you will see us engaging with payers, with patient associations, with governments and so on because that will be a beautiful thing to do in terms of preventing cancer and also, of course, reducing health care costs. So we will do all that if we have a product.
This is [ Adam ] on for Jess, JPMorgan. I apologize if I missed this. But for the in vivo CAR-T, how did you decide to pursue autoimmune? And should we expect Moderna to advance in vivo CAR-T for oncology?
Okay. So the ex vivo CAR-T results that have emerged over the last few years in the autoimmune space have been really eye-opening and started to tease out some of the important biology that some of these very rare B-cell populations are bringing to autoimmune diseases, including autoimmune diseases that we would have previously characterized as more T cell driven. These are showing responses to those ex vivo cell therapies.
Now, we think as you're going forward and thinking about patients and accessibility of that therapy, that in vivo CAR-T is the way to go. So from that perspective, with the ability with a few doses to truly put an autoimmune patient into remission, we think the platform is actually the ideal approach there. We are pretty excited about continuing down the road into oncology, either thinking about CAR-T or TCR-T, which is similar to CAR-T, but lets you also pursue intracellular antigens.
Yes. And I just add one other reason I think, is important in that if you think about autoimmune diseases, the confirmatory trials and Phase III trials are, of course, going to be very large. The commercial opportunity is very large. And there's no other company in the world who can really manufacture on that scale than Moderna for mRNA-LNP. So it makes sense scientifically and it makes sense also commercially for us.
Chris Yu from Morgan Stanley on behalf of Terence Flynn. We have two questions. One is, do you have any update on the pace of event accrual for the Phase III INT adjuvant melanoma study? And the second question is, the treatment landscape for multiple myeloma is rapidly shifting due to bispecifics and CAR-Ts, and you have presented multiple programs here on multiple myeloma. Just how do you think about your approaches and how that fit into the treatment landscape?
Yes. So for intismeran, we have not disclosed events, and so we're not going to start today, but we are confirming again that 2026 is the right time frame.
Yes. In terms of multiple myeloma, it's great for patients. I started working in myeloma 15 years ago, before all of the recent changes were available. It really is phenomenal. From a drug developer standpoint, it makes it extremely hard, as you point out, because the bar keeps on getting raised. For us, it made sense for this to be our initial pilot of a modality because it is derisked biologically, and we can do it. And so the question is, can we generate sufficient response rates and a differentiated product, right? This is the first time ever three T cell engager targets have ever been administered to a patient. So we'll generate the data to see if this platform works.
And number two, is it clinically differentiated enough to develop into earlier lines? I think for us, it provides also important positive control for our modality system. You heard about the ovarian cancer T cell engagers that we're going to be moving into clinic. But behind there as well, this is a company, I think, that could be on the forefront of not only multiplexing different targets for T cell engagers, but also figuring out how to manipulate the tumor microenvironment because, as you know, T cell engagers have had a difficult time or more difficult time in solid tumors and hematologic cancers. And I think the science is beginning to catch up to where we have the technical ability to multiplex. And so that's sort of the background here.
Lili Nsongo from Leerink Partners. Thanks for the great overview of the pipeline. I just wanted to backtrack a little bit. So we talked about how Horizon 2 and 3 fit into the R&D guidance. And then on the other side of that, could you maybe give us a little more color in terms of the commercial performance assumptions that kind of support the development of the second and third wave of assets?
So obviously, a lot of the Horizon 2 assets are currently in early clinical stage and then a couple of INDs are expected in 2027. So how should we think about the revenue mix that supports it in terms of the contribution from the COVID vaccine, the flu vaccine, the combo, as well as the rare disease and the oncology pipeline?
Sure. So what we're doing at this stage is developing those assets to get to human proof of concept to validate both the assets and the modality, because that's really how we've scaled the company historically. And then we will look at where the company is at that stage in terms of what do we do for the assets moving forward of the modality in terms of does it become something that we commercialize ourselves worldwide, in the U.S., and we have a partner? Does it go through a partner for global rights? So we just look at the portfolio. So what we've always done with the company is to look at how do we maximize the value of a portfolio of products and manage risk at the same time.
So it will depend on when some of those products get launched, what is their ramp. So we don't have to make those decisions now. The Horizon 2, Horizon 3 right now generate the human data to know do we have a new modality or not? If we have a new modality, then we'll assess at that time the entire portfolio. And it doesn't necessarily have to be Moderna alone. Look at intismeran, it was a great example. Years ago, when intismeran was a great scientific idea, it was clear to us at the time that doing it alone was going to be very expensive and much harder than partnering with best-in-class company in oncology, which is why we partnered with Merck.
We're very happy about that partnership. I think being with Merck, we're able to execute things we could not have done alone. So you always see us being very pragmatic. But where is the company at the time we have to make a decision? We will always look at how to maximize the value of the asset. And sometimes it might not be in our hands, sometimes it will be in our hands.
Great. I'll take some questions from the webcast. The first question is you've previously spoken about the intention to out-license or find a partner for EBV. Is this, first, still in play? And what demonstration of data do you think a partnership becomes more relevant for that asset?
I'm happy to take it. So 1195, as David said and the team presented, we are running the clinical studies to figure out the signal we have. And again, as I just answered right now, when we have the data, we look at the totality of the Moderna portfolio, the investment opportunities, the portfolio upside, the risk, and then we'll make a decision at that time.
Great. Similar question on the CAR-T assets in oncology potentially also likely to be partnered? Or what is the strategy with Horizon 2 and Horizon 3 assets?
So those assets, initially, is really to get a confirmation in the clinic, do we have a modality or not? And you're going to see us being very consistent like we've done historically with infectious disease vaccine and we're doing [indiscernible] and then we're doing with rare disease. You're going to see us doing the same thing, which is we think we have a very interesting way to address medical need using mRNA as a platform. Let's take it to the clinic. Let's look out through one or two or three programs, do we have a modality or not? And at that time, it will graduate out of MRD, and we have to figure out, as I just described, what's the best home for that modality, either internally or externally.
Okay. With that, it looks like we have exhausted questions. Thank you very much to everyone who came in person and to all our presenters.
Thank you. Have a great day.
Thank you.
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Moderna — Special Call - Moderna, Inc.
Moderna — Special Call - Moderna, Inc.
Science Day: Moderna skizziert mRNA‑Plattform‑Roadmap mit mRED, Lucy‑AI und klinischen Updates (EBV, T‑cell engagers, in‑vivo CAR‑T).
📣 Kernbotschaft
Moderna baut die mRNA‑Plattform systematisch aus: ein mRED‑Early‑Development‑Organ für schnellere klinische Stop/Go‑Entscheide, Lucy als AI‑gestützte Lern‑Engine und Multiplexing (mehrere mRNAs in einem LNP). Ziel ist schnellere, datengetriebene Proof‑of‑Concepts über Horizon‑2/3‑Modalitäten hinweg.
🎯 Strategische Highlights
- mRED: neues Early‑Development‑Team (Forschung, frühe Klinik, CMC) zur Beschleunigung von Entscheidungen auf Basis entstehender Daten.
- Multiplexing: mehrere mRNAs in einem LNP als ein Produkt erlaubt breite Antigen‑Abdeckung und regulatorische Erleichterungen gegenüber Kombinationsansätzen.
- Lucy: AI+Automation verbindet Design, In‑vitro‑/in‑vivo‑Screens und klinische Daten für schnelle Iteration von mRNA/LNP‑Kandidaten.
🆕 Neue Informationen
- Onkologie: mRNA‑4106 in der Klinik, mRNA‑4200 startet bald; intismeran bleibt Gatekeeper für Vaccine‑Strategie.
- Therapeutika: mRNA‑4359 zeigte in checkpoint‑refraktären Melanomen 24% ORR (67% in PD‑L1+); 1L‑Kohorte 10/12 Ansprechen inkl. 2 CRs. mRNA‑2808 (multiplex T‑cell‑engagers, Myelom) dosierend in Phase I/II.
- Weitere: mRNA‑1195 (EBV) boostet neutralisierende Antikörper und reduziert Speichel‑Shedding; in‑vivo CAR‑T (mRNA‑6007) liefert in NHP umfassende B‑Zell‑Depletion; IND‑/Klinikpläne zielen auf 2027.
❓ Fragen der Analysten
- Priorisierung: Intismeran wird als Proof‑point gesehen; größere Off‑the‑shelf‑Vaccine‑Investments folgen nur bei positivem Signal.
- Finanzen/Timing: Management betont keine Änderung der Cash‑/Budget‑Annahmen; mehrere Readouts und INDs bis 2027 erwartet.
- Sicherheit: Analysten hinterfragten Übertragbarkeit der NHP‑Daten, mögliche erhöhte Immun‑AEs bei Kombis und Re‑Impf‑/Rekonstitutionsstrategien nach B‑Zell‑Depletion.
⚡ Bottom Line
Für Aktionäre: Moderna skaliert technische Hebel (mRED, Multiplexing, Lucy) und bringt viele First‑in‑human‑Programme voran — das erhöht Upside, aber der Wert hängt an mehreren klinischen Proof‑of‑Concepts (Intismeran, mRNA‑4359, 2808, Lynch‑Studie). Kurzfristig wichtig: human‑POC‑Signale, Sicherheitsprofil und künftige Partner‑/Kommerzialisierungsentscheidungen.
Moderna — Goldman Sachs 47th Annual Global Healthcare Conference 2026
1. Question Answer
Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you so much for joining us. It's my pleasure to introduce Moderna. And with us, we have Jamey Mock, CFO. Jamey, thanks for joining us.
Thanks for having me.
So to start here, maybe frame for us how you see the company positioned today. There's been an evolution, I think, with regard to the growth outlook for the commercial business with COVID and combination flu plus COVID vaccines, where you've gone to the point, I think, here of kind of returning to this positive revenue growth cycle and you have an opportunity set with your late-stage pipeline. So what are you most focused on when you look at this from a strategy and execution standpoint as we head into second half and beyond?
Yes. Great. Well, again, thanks for having me. Good to see you, Salveen. So yes, we're super excited. The last 3 years have been hard, but we've been hard at work, really trying to build the next chapter of Moderna. And so that chapter, I think, is defined by growth, diversification and really an improving financial profile as well. And so from the growth and diversity perspective, if you look at -- we're going to have market expansion across the globe with our commercial products, as you just mentioned. We will grow from a product diversity perspective, and I'll kind of walk through some of these. So I think we're really set up, and I -- we think we started that at the beginning of this year. And I'm sure we'll get into some of the financials and that kind of thing. But we laid out 10 growth drivers a handful of months ago, and over the course of 2026 through 2028, we think could be pretty substantial.
And so in 2026, we think that mNEXSPIKE, which is more -- have better relative vaccine efficacy versus Spikevax had tremendous share last year for its first year, was approved in June, had 24% share in retail. So we were excited by that, and we hope to grow on that. And then our international partnerships in the U.K., Canada, Australia, in 2027, and we can talk about it more. Europe opens up for us. We have a flu PDUFA date this year that we hope to sell in 2027. We've announced some other market expansion opportunities, particularly in Latin America, but we're working across the globe as well.
And then 2028, additional product expansion, hopefully, with norovirus, which I'm sure we'll get into, as well as the combination vaccine in the U.S. And that's just infectious disease. Then we have INT, which I'm sure we'll talk about, 4359 as well as rare disease. So we're really set up for growth.
I think underpinning that really, though, is really financial -- is disciplined execution. And that's commercial, that's R&D, that's CMC. And I think that's really starting to show up in the financial profile, and I'll just mention a couple of things. So first, over the last 2 years, we took out nearly $5 billion in cost and investment. So in 2023, we were at $8.9 billion. Last year, we were $4.3 billion, so over 50%. And we've been trying to really make sure we navigate this so that we can grow in this next chapter that we still are investing. So that's the tricky balance. Of course, you can find efficiencies, but we also wanted to make sure we were making the right investments for this next chapter, which is here, which is what we're so excited about.
And we ended the year with $9 billion in cash and liquidity, which was ahead of our profile. So I think the execution has been terrific. We've set up this next chapter. We're in the midst of it right now. So -- and I think big picture strategy, what we're trying to do is build an infectious disease business that is leading in its space with various vaccines that is a cash cow, generates a lot of cash and has a lot of growth over the next few years and then invest that into oncology. And so we hope to diversify and have additional therapeutic areas in the next couple of years and really a vastly improving financial profile. So that is what we are focused on. That's what we've been focused on for the last [ 3 ] years, and we're in the midst of it.
Great. On the 1Q earnings report, you reiterated expectations for up to 10% year-over-year revenue growth on the -- with guidance accounting for potential decline in U.S. COVID vaccinations. Now that the winter respiratory virus season has ended, do you have any more granularity on expectations around next season? And what are the puts and takes on the revenue guidance and where there could be upside?
Yes. So I think it's important to start with 2025. And in 2025, we had $1.2 billion of revenue in the U.S. and $700 million of revenue in OUS. And we said we were going to grow -- we will grow up to 10%. We hope to beat that, but that's what our guidance is, so that's $2 billion to $2.1 billion. And we said that we are going to be 50-50 geographically split U.S. versus OUS. So roughly $1 billion each. And [Technical Difficulty] thinking in the U.S. and then what are we thinking outside the United States.
So in the United States [Technical Difficulty] $1 billion this year at some kind of midpoint here. That really takes into account a couple of things. One is vaccination rate decline. And so you were just mentioning what happened in the winter season. So if you look at fall last year, it was down 27%, but fall was a wild time. There was many different reasons, I'm sure we can get into them if we want to. But -- if you look at the spring booster, it's actually improved quite a bit. So it's encouraging the trend in terms, but it's a small sample size. But -- so nonetheless, we've provided for vaccination rate declines again in the fall of 2026 and winter of 2027. So we kind of sized that in to be prudent.
What could offset that though is everything I talked about in terms of mNEXSPIKE. So if we can grow share, particularly in retail, we were 24% share overall last year. If we can grow that, that's great, number one. Number two, it comes at a higher value. So that's the U.S. dynamics. If it really comes down to the upside question, what happens to vaccination rates? We plan for a sizable decline relatively speaking. And what happens to mNEXSPIKE share and how much penetration can we have?
Outside the United States, we were $700 million last year. And you really -- and I talked about these international strategic partnerships. And you saw that in the first half already this year. So in the first quarter, we had $400 million in revenue. We said there was $200 million in the U.K. That's just for the spring booster. We're going to have another fall campaign as well that we'll supply for. So that's substantial growth. Last year, we had next to no revenue in the U.K. and now all of a sudden, we have $200 million in the first half alone.
So when you step back, if we -- if I just -- I just want to really simplify the math for people. So we guided to $450 million to $500 million in the first half. And last year, we did $250 million. So that's up $200 million to $250 million. On $1.9 billion, that's 10% plus by itself, if we're just flat in the second half. So if you're just flat in the second half and how do you get to flat, that's if the U.S. comes down a couple of hundred million dollars and U.K. backfills [indiscernible] really simplify it. That's why we're so confident in growth this year, of up to 10%, and we hope to do better.
Great. You're also still guiding to cash flow breakeven in 2028. Can you walk through what's needed from an OpEx and revenue standpoint to achieve it. Moderna's ability to be flexible on the spend side and your confidence in meeting this goal?
Yes. So I've always -- we -- I've always said that this is both a revenue increase story and a cost decline story. And so I'll start with revenue. I already kind of laid out all the variables. But just to maybe emphasize just how big these are because I said substantial. I mean there's 10 variables for several hundred million dollars each. So if we have a 50% hit rate, it's a couple of hundred million each, that's a $3 billion-plus business. And so that's kind of the revenue side. You have to assume what do you think these 10 things are going to do. If you got a 50% hit rate, you can be at least a $3 billion business. If you hit on all of them, it could be much more than that. And that's kind of the revenue side. We've kind of got to obviously got to grow over the next 2 years.
On the cost side, we've already guided to 2027 because we have such clarity of what we want to do, and we guided to $3.5 billion to $3.9 billion of cash cost. So that's down another $400 million to $800 million from last year ending point. And so we're trying to manage what is that growth line and what is that cost line. And let me say one more thing about 2027, we know what we're going to take out. There's efficiencies that we were going to go have. There's Phase III trials that are going to run off. So that's obvious to us.
Then it comes down to this choice of, okay, how are we growing? How much are we going to invest? We're building the next chapter? How are the readouts happening? What investment level do you want to make? And of course, you can always drive efficiency to some degree. But that becomes more of a choice come 2028, and that's why we haven't guided 2028, which is let's see where the revenue line is. Let's do the things that we know will happen on the cost side. And then let's make a choice based upon the data that we're seeing on readouts, the execution on commercial sales. So that kind of paints the picture of what has to happen on both sides.
Perfect. Perhaps we can pivot over to your pipeline. So Intismeran data, you recently presented 5-year follow-up data in adjuvant melanoma at ASCO. Just to level set, remind us the high-level takeaways here and the importance of the translational data that was presented.
Yes, I'm glad, yes. It's quite an exciting year for Intismeran -- for both Merck and Moderna this year. And so I think the key -- there's two punch lines, but the headline, I would say, is that Intismeran continues to be a strong benefit, a meaningful benefit, a durable benefit. So we've now have 5 years data that we're seeing the same recurrence-free survival rate at 49% improvement. We saw it at 3 years. We saw it at 5 years. So we're really encouraged by the consistency of that, point number one.
You mentioned translational data, point number two. So now this is the first time we actually try to show what is the underlying biology and how is it affecting the clinical outcome here that we're seeing. And what we saw is that tumor-targeted immune responses are better with Intismeran versus KEYTRUDA alone. And that's largely due to T cell clonal expansion as well as the number of T cell clonal types that you have. And we saw like a 2x fold improvement on those patients that survive until 5 years or recurrence free to survive for 5 years versus just KEYTRUDA alone. So that gives us a lot of confidence in the underlying mechanism of action behind this overall program. And that's why Merck and ourselves have invested so much behind this program in various indications, and we're pretty excited about it.
Great. What is your confidence level for success on the Phase III interim study that's reading out in the second half? And maybe in the context of the Phase II results translating to Phase III, but being able to get it on an interim versus the final analysis?
Yes. I won't assign a probability to it. I'll just say a few things. One is, obviously, we're super encouraged by the Phase II results. We're super encouraged by seeing some amount of translational data that supports the program. And I think this isn't a transient response now. This is now 5 years that we're seeing this kind of impact. That's a very long time. So it's a Phase II. It's 107 patients on the -- on INT versus just KEYTRUDA alone. But that gives us a lot of confidence in what's going on. And again, we've continued to invest -- both Merck and ourselves have continued to invest. So I won't assign a probability to it, but we are quite encouraged.
On the interim point, I mean we've set up the Phase III to have numerous readouts. So I don't want to dwell on just the first interim analysis. Of course, we are hopeful and optimistic that it will be just as successful as what we've seen on the Phase II. But there will be other data points, and we will look at the totality of the data in terms of DMFS and RFS and how long from a durability standpoint. So there's other things to look at, but hopefully, the first interim analysis will be strong as well.
If you had to speculate what are the key risks here to the first interim the Phase III not working?
I'm probably not the best person to speculate on the risk of why it wouldn't read out well. But I mean, we always talk about it that you never know in clinical development until you actually get the data. So -- what we've seen is very strong, very durable and very consistent. And so that gives us a lot of confidence, but you never know. So clinical development being one. And then -- it's the first interim, like I just said. But if I step back, this trial was enrolled in very quickly. So I think that speaks to investigators and patients and just how encouraged they are and optimistic they are by this therapy. So -- but we'll see when it comes out.
Can you frame for us the commercial opportunity here for this drug in adjuvant melanoma, but also lung and RCC or where we have the best sight, I guess, line of sight to data this so far?
Sure. So all three of those are going to be multibillion-dollar opportunities. Merck and ourselves have not yet released what we think the addressable size will be, but they're quite sizable, and we're really excited. And so we think, overall, if this works across a lot of indications, it can be a very large product and a platform that is and very meaningful from a revenue standpoint, but we haven't given specific estimates yet.
How are you accounting for this asset with Merck? Will you recognize it as top line revenue? And how will commercialization expenses be split?
Yes, it's a great question. So -- first, yes, it will be top line revenue for us. I'll come back to that because that's a little bit more complicated. But broadly, it is an overall, we shared the economics 50-50 split down the middle. So at the end of the day, the cash is reconciled to make sure that both partners are in on it or benefiting from it from a 50-50 standpoint. So the expenses -- commercialization expenses are actually much easier. It will be 50% on Merck's P&L, 50% on our P&L. The reason why revenue and gross profit is a little bit more complicated is because we're manufacturing the products. We are selling it to Merck because they are the market authorization holder, and then they will sell it on to the end customer. And so we'll recognize whatever our COGS are with revenue because Merck will pay us for the COGS. And then that gross profit split, split 50-50 will be added on top of our COGS and revenue for extra revenue. So it won't be 100% of the revenue on behalf of Moderna. Merck will recognize 100% of the revenue. We will not recognize 100% of the revenue. We will have something in between, and we will recognize the full COGS as well.
Is there any commercialization effort from your side? Or is the sales force fully on the Merck side here?
There's an agreement to jointly commercialize in some areas to a small degree. But I would say the lion's share is certainly on the Merck side.
Got it. At your Analyst Day, you discussed a line-by-line expansion strategy for manufacturing. Can you touch on what this means and how it leads to efficiencies over time?
Yes. We're super excited and the team did an amazing job. We have a facility just outside of Boston in Marlboro, Massachusetts, that is a stand-alone facility only for INT and it was purchased and built in a matter of 2 years. It's just incredible. And what -- to your point, we said it's a line-by-line strategy. So the facility has the ability to have 7 lines. We have only built one of those lines, and that was very intentional for two reasons.
The first reason is why invest if you don't have -- if you don't have the demand for the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth line, don't spend the money yet. So that makes sense. It just keeps our overall cost down and a better return. But then more importantly is the ability to drive additional productivity. So we are continuously -- we already have 3 phases of how we are going to manufacture this product from inception that we've been doing for our clinical trials. We have a second phase that is already in Marlboro right now, and then we already have a vision for a third phase. And what do I mean by that? So what I mean by that is think the footprint of the boxes to manufacture these are much more automated, so therefore, less labor and much smaller footprint. So you can get a lot more throughput through the lines, and therefore, your cost comes down as well.
So as we have the demand, hopefully, for a second, third, fourth line, we'll be able to put in the latest technology. And therefore, the overall cost of goods sold will come down because it will be the latest technology on the second line. And we have already started to envision a fourth line, frankly. And so that's the key to making this as efficient as possible and most importantly, to give it as much market access as possible across the globe to drive our COGS down.
And could you discuss the cost component here of manufacturing, noting it's a personalized product. How should we think about margins initially and longer term?
Yes. So we're very confident that the initial margins will be solid, and the long-term margins we have -- based on what I just said, we have a lot of productivity roadway here. And I think that's natural in a product like this, and I've seen it in other industries as well that you will continuously automate, take labor out, make it simpler, make it smaller. And so therefore, the cost of goods sold should go down.
To step back and just think on behalf of Moderna, in terms of margins, they will start on from a rate perspective, smaller but a revenue perspective higher because you're selling at a cost of goods sold that's higher. So if you have to do that and then you split the gross profit on top of that, you actually have more revenue but less margin. Then as costs come down, you don't sell as much from that initial transaction with Merck, but then you get a greater portion of the gross profit split so your margin rate goes up, but the revenue per patient comes down a little bit over time. So that's the way to think about it. But as the patient ramp goes up, that will more than offset the small decline on a revenue per patient basis, and the margins will improve over time.
What is the view from Moderna at this point on the read-through from INT in adjuvant melanoma to other distal tumors, like lung, among others. And the confidence that this is going to translate beyond?
Yes, we get that question a lot, rightfully so. So INT wasn't really made just for melanoma. So that's how we think about it. It wasn't designed for melanoma. It was designed for cancer, and it was designed to target specific neoantigens on a tumor cell and train the immune system to attack it. And so we're hopefully seeing that already in our Phase II with melanoma. Should that work and if the biology is different to some degree, but at the same premise should be there for other indications, albeit that biology can change and maybe you have different neoantigens and that kind of thing. But -- so we are optimistic that, that mechanism of action and what we just showed in terms of translational data at ASCO can apply to numerous indications. And again, that's why I think we have 10 trials going on right now [indiscernible] and maybe 5 Phase IIs [indiscernible] and us are confident that this could work and starting to invest aggressively behind it.
And we're on track to see Phase II data in renal cell carcinoma and non-muscle invasive bladder cancer this year, too?
I don't think we've given an exact date. There is a chance, I mean, if you look at events and that kind of thing, but we have not said that specifically that we would have renal cell data in 2026.
Got it. Perfect. Norovirus here. So -- can you discuss the commercial opportunity for the Phase III asset here and when -- where you'll likely have data this year and your confidence here that this could be successful?
Yes. This is an important product for us. And so as we -- as I said earlier in my prepared remarks or my initial remarks, we want to build a leading vaccine franchise in infectious disease, and we want to have various products to bring to patients and customers. And so having two COVID products, one RSV flu hopefully later this year, our combination vaccine was approved in Europe. Adding norovirus to it, where there is no other vaccine is really a competitive advantage. And so we're quite encouraged by that. So maybe to speak to the commercial opportunity. The burden is pretty severe with norovirus. And I think there's 20 million cases a year. There's nearly 1,000 deaths. There's maybe 100,000 hospitalization. So it's severe and anybody that's had it, I think, knows that. And so the burden is obviously substantial. We think the patient population that we would target is a little over 150 million individuals in the United States.
I think older adults that get dehydrated and it really impacts -- if you're in a hospital, it really impacts you even further. So older adults think occupational therapy, health care workers, where it might spread. So -- but if we even got a fraction of that, a fraction of $150 million from a vaccination perspective, that would be a very sizable opportunity to which there is no competition. So I say it's an important product. I think it's very meaningful from a revenue perspective. And so that's that. The second part was on the trial and our confidence around it. So we'll see. We'll see this year. We've -- we know that. We believe it will happen this year that there will be enough events that it will read out. And from an approval perspective, what we see is where there is no other standard of care, anything that has relative vaccine efficacy of 50% above versus placebo normally is encouraged and approved. So that's kind of the limit that we're looking for is to be above that, and we hope to bring it to market in the not-too-distant future and we've said, hopefully, by 2028.
On the forward trajectory here for the COVID vaccine, given Pfizer's pandemic era contract in the EU will expire this year, that geography could meaningfully contribute to your growth in 2027 plus, as you mentioned. Can you discuss the size of the market and your strategy here to gain greater share and what steps you can take now for success?
For sure. There is a lot of active work going on right there. So to size the market, the flu market is about $1 billion. These are our estimates in Europe in the year 2027. COVID market, again, in the year 2027, from an actual demand perspective, there might be greater sales going into it right now, but we think it's a $700 million market and RSV is like a $100 million market. So a $1.8 billion market, pretty substantial to which we have less than $100 million is what we've said. So even 20%, 30% share across that would be pretty substantial for us. So that's kind of the market size.
In terms of where we are, so number one, I mentioned earlier, we got our flu plus COVID vaccine approved in Europe. So we're excited to bring that to market next year. We got mNEXSPIKE approved as well. So we're kind of ready to go. And so what are the actions we're taking now? Europe is normally a single payer system where you go tender by tender with countries that are the decision-makers, so we are working with them right now to shape tenders. The second thing is you need to work with health authorities and NITAGs to make sure that you have the right recommendation as well as reimbursement. So we're working with various countries across Europe to make sure that when the tenders come out at the beginning of 2027 or maybe even some of them come out late 2026, we are -- we have market access, and we have two products approved that we can go compete in.
So -- yes, I mean, 20%, $360 million versus less than $100 million, it's another couple of hundred million dollar growth, maybe $300 million growth driver for us. So that's why I keep going back to you have to believe that if we get 50% of these hits, we could be about $3 billion, and we've already mentioned that where our cost could go at least in 2027.
And your flu, COVID combo vaccine mCOMBRIAX was approved in April by the European Commission as the first COVID/flu combination, while not included in revenue guidance for '26. Can you speak to the commercial launch preparation underway, the kind of education and patient access efforts needed and your expectations for top line contribution in 2027 plus and expectations on timing for approval in the U.S.
Yes. I kind of size the market in Europe already, flu being $1 billion, COVID being $700 million, so call it $1.7 billion. So first, you got to shape tenders to actually allow for a combination vaccine as opposed to discretely COVID or discretely flu. So whether that is large in the first year or it takes time to develop and maybe have additional competitors also, we'll see, but that's number one. And then it's the same things I just talked about in terms reimbursement and getting recommendations and that kind of thing. So that's kind of the size and the tender process.
I think what's unique though and what we're trying to educate on is it brings a lot of simplicity. It brings simplicity to the health care system because they don't have to run 2 campaigns. They don't have to run a flu and a COVID campaign. You can run one campaign so that should simplify things and increase compliance, frankly, as well. And it's better for patients as well. So that instead of going and having two vaccination appointments, you can have one vaccination. So that's really what we're trying to educate every country and every health authority in Europe right now. And I think it's resonating well. We'll see how much it can grow over time, but it could be a very substantial opportunity over time.
Great. And for flu itself, you have an August PDUFA date for the seasonal flu monotherapy vaccine. Would you expect to start contributing to revenue in 2027? How big is the U.S. market for an mRNA flu vaccine? We know how big the flu market is, but what is the willingness to take an mRNA version?
Well, that remains to be seen. Yes. So it's a sizable enhanced dose market. That's where we'll play. What we think we're bringing is a lot of innovation to this space. And I think actually, we got quite a bit of education on that over the recent history because of everything that transpired around this. So the fact that -- and why do I say we're bringing innovation to the space. So we're bringing innovation to the space because the current flu vaccines take a long time to produce. And since they take a long time to produce, you have to pick the strain well in advance of the actual season. Whereas with mRNA, the innovation is you can be ready in 60 days. And so you can pick a strain that is more likely to circulate during the actual season and perhaps have a better impact and a better clinically meaningful impact to patients because it could be more effective.
So I don't know exactly the consumer angle on that. But I mean, I think people recognize that a better strain matched vaccine, if allowed could be much more effective. And the burden of flu is still in the tens of millions of people in the United States. The hospitalizations are in the hundreds of thousands. The deaths are in the tens of thousands. So it's very meaningful. And so -- but we have to continue to educate on what that can mean, and we're excited to bring the innovation to the flu market.
On the education front, in the context of just the use of mRNA during COVID. And to the period now, how much education do you need to do on side effects and safety just to have people recalibrated to real-world data as it exists today?
Yes. So we've done a lot of that. We publish everything. We're super transparent on our website to make sure every single, in our view, myth that is out there. [indiscernible] I think there is [indiscernible] I say, look, last year, we had 40% to 45% market share. So that tells you 40% to 45% of the people that are willing to get vaccinated are willing to get our vaccine, I get that our competitors also mRNA. But maybe then the better metric is look at COVID to flu. I mean there's still over 30 million people that are getting a COVID vaccine that is mRNA right now.
So hard to say we try to debunk, it what will come with that. It's a journey, I would say, but we're -- we stand tall behind our science, and we put it out there transparently. And there's still at least 30 million individuals that are willing to get an mRNA vaccine at this point. And hopefully, if the flu vaccine is better or a combination vaccine is more effective, then maybe that will grow over time and maybe the sentiment will change over time in the country and the world.
Jamey, as the last question, anything we didn't touch on that you want to highlight?
I think we touched on all the really pertinent stuff for the next 3 years, which is our next chapter, and that is what I know is on investors' mind. And rightfully so, particularly since the journey we've been through. That said, there is a lot going on behind the scenes for the chapter after that, so to speak, which is why we are having a Science Day on June 25. But there's been a conscious and disciplined investment around our science, around our platform and around programs. We announced one this morning or last night, I think. So there's more to come beyond this chapter, but we got to get this chapter right, for sure. That's what we're focused on. The only thing we didn't touch on is there still is a lot of great work going on for the next chapter as well.
Great. Well, with that, thank you so much. We appreciate the time.
Yes. Thank you, Salveen.
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Moderna — Goldman Sachs 47th Annual Global Healthcare Conference 2026
Moderna — Goldman Sachs 47th Annual Global Healthcare Conference 2026
Moderna setzt auf internationale Marktexpansion, mehrere Late‑Stage‑Assets (Intismeran, Norovirus, Kombi‑Impfstoff) und strikte Kostenkontrolle als Treiber für neues Wachstum.
📊 Kernbotschaft
- Strategie: Aufbau einer cash‑generierenden Infektionskrankheiten‑Franchise zur Finanzierung von Onkologie‑Investitionen.
- Wachstumspfade: Management nennt 10 Wachstums‑Treiber für 2026–2028 (Produkt‑ und Markt‑Expansion, Zulassungen, Partnerschaften).
- Finanzprofil: Strikte Kostendisziplin (rund $5 Mrd. eingespart über 2 Jahre) und Liquidität von etwa $9 Mrd.; Ziel: Cash‑flow‑Break‑even 2028.
🎯 Strategische Highlights
- mNEXSPIKE: Guter Start im Retail (24% Marktanteil) und Fokus auf Marktanteilsgewinn in USA/International.
- Intismeran (Onkologie): 5‑Jahresdaten zeigen dauerhaften Vorteil (ca. 49% verbesserte rezidivfreie Überlebensrate); Phase‑III‑Interim im 2. Halbjahr, kommerzielle Partnerschaft 50/50 mit Merck.
- Kombi‑ & Zulassungen: EU‑Zulassung für COVID/Grippe‑Kombi (mCOMBRIAX); Grippe‑Monotherapie PDUFA im August; Norovirus Phase‑III‑Readout erwartet, Zielzulassung ~2028.
- Fertigung: Marlboro‑Werk mit „Line‑by‑line“ Skalierung (1 von 7 Linien gebaut) und Automatisierungsplanung zur Reduktion der Herstellungskosten.
🔭 Neue Informationen
- Guidance: Management bestätigt bisherige Guidance: bis zu +10% YoY Umsatzwachstum und geografische 50/50‑Split als Planannahme.
- Kostenrahmen: Für 2027 erwartete Cash‑Kosten $3,5–$3,9 Mrd.; 2028‑Breakeven bleibt Ziel, hängt von Umsatz‑Hits und Investitionsentscheidungen ab.
- Pipeline‑News: Intismeran: translationaler Mechanismus bestätigt; Norovirus: Kommerzielle Zielgruppe ~150 Mio. in den USA, Readout voraussichtlich noch dieses Jahr.
❓ Fragen der Analysten
- Umsatzrisiken: Kritisch hinterfragt wurden Impfraten (Fall/Winter) und wie stark ein Rückgang die Guidance trifft; Upside durch mNEXSPIKE‑Share möglich.
- Breakeven‑Pfad: Nachfrage nach konkreten OpEx‑Senkungen vs. erforderlichem Umsatzwachstum; Management betont Wahlfreiheit 2028 je nach Readouts.
- Kommerzialisierung INT: Details zu Umsatz‑ und Kostenbuchung mit Merck (50/50‑split, Merck führt Vertrieb, Moderna liefert und bucht COGS + Gewinnanteil) sowie Risiken eines negativen Phase‑III‑Interims wurden diskutiert.
- Fertigung & Margen: Wie Automatisierung und zusätzliche Linien langfristig COGS senken und Margenprofil verbessern sollen.
⚡ Bottom Line
- Fazit: Call/Interview unterstreicht konservative Guidance bei gleichzeitig klar benannten Upside‑Katalysatoren: Intismeran‑Interim, Norovirus‑Readout, EU‑Kombi‑Rollout und internationale Tender. Kurzfristig hängt der Wert stark an klinischen Ergebnissen und Impfraten; langfristig bietet die Pipeline und Fertigungs‑Skalierung substantiellen Hebel für Margen und Cash‑Generierung.
Moderna — Special Call - Moderna, Inc.
1. Management Discussion
Hi, I'm David Berman, and I'd like to welcome you to the Moderna ASCO Oncology event. Here are forward-looking statements, and you can read them at your leisure.
Here's the agenda for today. I'm going to review the -- give you an overview of intismeran, then Michelle Brown from Moderna is going to highlight the neoantigen selection and the mechanistic foundations of intismeran.
We're very honored to be a jointed by Dr. Matt Carlino, who will give a reprise of the Phase II KEYNOTE-942 study that he presented today. Dr. Ryan Sullivan will then join us. He presented translational data on intismeran yesterday at ASCO and say we'll be sharing that data. And then I'll conclude and we'll have some questions and answers.
So for those of you I haven't met, I'm the Chief Development Officer, and I joined Moderna about 3 months ago. About 20 years ago, I had the honor to participate in the world's first checkpoint antibody for cancer that was ipilimumab. And over the past 7 years, I've had the honor to participate in the world's first TCR therapy for cancer. And I joined Moderna 3 months ago because I believe intismeran has the potential to be the world's first RNA immunotherapy for cancer. And you'll see why I'm so enthusiastic today.
Intismeran is the most advanced individualized neoantigen therapy in development. And in brief, a tumor and blood samples are taken. They are sent to a lab for sequencing to identify neoantigen mutations. These neoantigen mutations are then designed into a neutralized mRNA. We manufacture 1 lot per patient individualized. This is then shipped back to the investigator and the investigator then administer this. And you'll hear more about this from Michelle in a few minutes.
We've begun to develop a stepwise experimental framework for understanding how intismeran works. First, of course, is the production of intismeran. And as mentioned, Michelle will walk you through this in detail.
Once intismeran is produced and injected into the muscle, the lipid nanoparticle and intismeran migrates to the regional lymph node where it's picked up by dendritic cells, converted into peptides, which are presented on the surface of the dendritic cells and then the dendritic cells activate neoantigen reactive T cells. So T cells that are specific for the neoantigens encoded by intismeran.
These neoantigen T cells then circulate in the blood and hence, there is an increased clonality in the blood. And the T cells then migrate to where the tumor is and identify those neoantigens and kill the tumor. This is the theoretical framework.
Now personalized or individualized vaccines have been studied for several decades, predominantly as peptide adjuvanted peptides and as DNA. And it has been shown that novel T-cell clones in the blood can be produced or induced as a result of personalized vaccine. However, until intismeran, no one has ever demonstrated efficacy and especially not in a randomized trial. And so today, as mentioned, Dr. Carlino will present the 5-year updated efficacy of RFS, DMFS overall survival, from our randomized Phase II trial.
Now he will also take a step to the left and show you that we do see an increased level of novel clones in the blood. And he will show that on the intismeran randomized arm that patients who are relapse-free who don't relapse have higher levels of T-cell clones in the blood than patients who do relapse. So this provides a link between intismeran and the efficacy.
Now the outstanding question to date has been what are these novel T-cell clones you'll see in Dr. Carlino's presentation. What exactly are they? And this is where Dr. Sullivan's presentation will come in, and he will complete this loop showing that these novel that appear in the blood are in fact, T cells that react to specific neoantigens encoded by the intismeran product. Therefore, we have this complete circle. And to me, someone who has worked in immunotherapy for several decades, this is the strongest proof of confidence for any immunotherapy, of course, prior to a randomized Phase III trial.
Now why have prior therapies not worked? Why have prior individualized vaccines not produce the results? And why do we -- do I think intismeran works? First, of course, is the intismeran drug product. It's a modified mRNA in a lipid nanoparticle. And we know that this type of product is highly [indiscernible] to induced T cells. We've known this for COVID, for flu and for RSV, and we now know it as well for intismeran.
But the second is where intismeran was studied. If you think about it, prior studies were in heavily pretreated patients with metastases, usually multiple lesions and 1 lesion of many is usually biopsy to make the individualized product. However, in this late stage, there's probably intralesional variability. So producing a neoantigen vaccine from 1 tumor may not represent other tumors in the patient. Second, of course, the T-cell fitness in heavily pretreated patients is not good. And finally, patients with metastatic disease usually have somewhat rapid progression and this limits the time for the vaccine to take effect.
All of these are eliminated in the adjuvant setting. There is 1 single dominant lesion that is sequenced for the vaccine. That's removed allowing maximal T-cell fitness as good as you're going to get, and there's enough of a runway to produce the intismeran drug product.
Even, in the successful -- despite the successful development of anti-PD-1s in the high-risk adjuvant setting, there is an unmet need. For example, bladder cancer, 64% of patients treated with anti-PD-1 will still recur. And up to half of patients with adjuvant high-risk melanoma will also recur. And you can see even in other tumors, there is a significant high risk of recurrence. So unmet need still remains. Pancreatic cancer is here in gray because, of course, anti-PD-1s are not approved here, but this remains in the adjuvant setting, an area of high unmet need. And this is why intismeran was initially focused in the adjuvant setting, and in tumors that are known to be IO sensitive because IO sensitive means that checkpoints work here and checkpoints unleash he sells to target neoantigens. And therefore, it makes sense to study intismeran in adjuvant settings that are IO-sensitive melanoma, lung and genitourinary tumors.
We also have trials recently initiated, for example, the Stage 1 Phase III non-small cell lung cancer, which is the first time that we're actually getting a intismeran arm that's monotherapy, and then we have our Phase II non-muscle invasive bladder cancer. We decided to also study this in the metastatic setting. Now this is a higher risk for the reasons I articulated, but it is certainly worth studying in a Phase II trial.
We have also decided to explore intismeran in tumors that are generally less sensitive to immune therapy, gastric cancer and pancreatic cancer as well. And these are single-arm trials that we hope to share results for soon.
I'm now going to call Michelle up to talk about neoantigen selection and the development, how we make intismeran..
Thank you, David. So hi, everyone. It is nice to see you on feedback Okay. It is nice to see you at the end of ASCO, and we're really excited to have this as one of our third type of conference events around an intismeran dataset. And so we're very excited to see Dr. Carlino and Dr. Sullivan showcase the data that was planned over the weekend.
As David alluded to, he highlighted the unmet need that still remains in adjuvant melanoma and the adjuvant setting and tumors overall and also the basic principle behind why we think intismeran can be extended into the type of clinical portfolio we have today. But one of the things that we think about, and I think it's important to highlight with intismeran is that it is not just a traditional clinical product. It really is a process, and it's a process that sits at the culmination of mRNA LNP advancements on genomic medicine, next generations with next-generation sequencing, digital [indiscernible] small scale manufacturing, and really, it is because of all of that, that we're able to generate a personalized approach that we think has brought applicability to a number of tumor types.
So my intent here is to double click on some of the technologies that funnel in to intismeran to be able to make it as applicable and where we're advancing and making learnings. So as you see here, one of the starting point, as David alluded to, is that with intismeran, it starts and ends with the patient. And so this is very true with the leverage of the patient's tumor tissue and their blood sample and then the use of next-generation sequencing to understand the wide variety of mutations that are actually present in a patient's tumor.
And using that litany of information, we can understand what mutations that tumor is using to generate these neoantigens. And what neoantigens are, are those aberrant tumor mutations that are recognized by the immune system. But it's not enough for a mutation just to be present. It also has to be expressed. And so we use RNA seq to understand or pick the expression profile of these mutations and then also HLA typing to understand how the immune system is going to recognize these aberrant proteins.
So then when we take all of the genomic information, the RNA seq information and the data analysis, we leverage all of that data inputs into integration and interpretation with our bioinformatics algorithm to actually manufacture intismeran. So it's a different way of looking at the little cycle that you guys are used to seeing. But as you see here, one of the foundations building on all of the inputs for the next-generation sequencing is the algorithm itself.
And the algorithm, you have to think about it as a node for this technology. Because what it does is it takes all of that input, we use the litany of mutations that are present and basically says, which out of these are going to be the ones that are most able to mobilize the immune system. It then rank orders the amount of neoantigens and puts them in and selects the top 34 that we think will activate the immune system to generate de novo T-cell clones and increase endogenous T-cell responses. And this type of mechanistic hypothesis is the foundation of what Dr. Sullivan will be presenting today.
So if you believe this, what it means is that right now, the current algorithm is well controlled, and is essentially applying the same basic rules and principles for every intismeran patient that we have. But what we know is that science advances and technology advances, and we have a litany of clinical studies, as David alluded to, that are going to drive learnings. And so while the algorithm itself right now is fixed, it doesn't mean that we don't have an approach where we could adapt to those learnings and have it iterate on itself. And in fact, we're in conversations with the agencies to understand how we could adapt the algorithm based off of learnings today.
Now a lot of you ask, this seems like a relatively complicated process. There's a lot of steps, there's a lot of arrows. Do we really have to do this? And the answer was presented back in SITC in '24 where we essentially looked at the patients in KEYNOTE-942, so the Phase II study that Dr. Carlino will be discussing and looked at their intismeran antigen cassette. And what we found in that was that the majority of intismeran plus pembrolizumab patients had a full 34 cassette. So 91% of the patients that were treated had 34 neoantigens, but you can see that there's a span. It goes from 9 up to the 34. And that's not surprising because melanoma tends to have a lot of tumor mutations and so we have a lot to choose from and select from.
But what was interesting was that 99.1%, so over 99% of the neoantigens that were selected were unique. So they did not overlap between patients. And for that, less than 1% of patients that did have overlapping neoantigens, these were BRAF mutations and NRAS mutations. So what we know is that the algorithm is actually accounting for your traditional biological relevant mutations and then selecting hotspots that are relevant for those specific patients.
But it's important to note that even though some of these were overlapping neoantigens, the actual neoantigen itself, like the cassette frame, was different because it's based off the patient's biology, it's based off their HLA type, and it's based off the specific sequence for themselves. So even though they're targeting, let's say, BRAF, it's different parts of that BRAF that are tailored to that patient. So really, what this tells you is that we do have to go through all of the steps to generate an individualized neoantigen therapy because no 2 patients and now 2 tumors are the same.
So that funnels into the mechanism, which I think you've seen before. But the idea here, as David alluded to, is that we use all of the digital infrastructure in the next-generation sequencing to program and select these 34 neoantigens, which then integrate seamlessly to our manufacturing site to generate an mRNA cassette and encapsulate that into an LNP, which is then administered IM. Once the intismeran enters into the body, it tends to go to the lymph node, where it uses natural cellular processing to generate peptides that are expressed on MHC I and MHC II to activate CD8, CD4 cells, which then generate effector immune memory phenotypes.
So essentially, this was our hypothesis for how intismeran should work. And it's essentially saying that we're training and activating the immune system in a targeted way. And then the thought was that if we combine this with a PD-1 inhibitor, you're essentially taking the brakes off the immune system and mobilizing and maintaining activity of these targeted T cells. And again, one of the things we've been so excited about is not only the clinical data that's being presented, but the translational story that's following this mechanism.
And I think it's important to double-click on that translational story because, what we talk about a lot of the time is the clinical data set, the clinical portfolio. But one of the foundations with this type of technology is, again, the amount of learning that we are going to be able to have. So it is important to note that because of the litany of clinical studies we have in collaboration with Merck, we do have a lot of translational learnings to guide our future states. So we do have across the studies, multiple sample collections basically from every patient that comes on. We have a tumor sample for sequencing. We have a blood sample, and this gives us baselines, but it also can give us baseline about their biology, their sort of biological state in the blood.
And then within each study, we have a number of samples that are being collected to generate additional earnings. So that can teach us on the mechanisms of recurrence or progression. It can also to us about the use of ctDNA or really how the neoantigen and the immune system are interacting and interfacing. And all of these learnings can then be put back into the platform to help us with either future clinical trial designs or again, future intismeran design.
And right now, if you take a look at the totality of the clinical seats that we have, what it would mean is that we would have a repository of over 5,000 patients that we would have samples for to help us learn, which represents the largest portfolio that for a neoantigen approach to really drive those learnings.
And I think it's important to know, as David alluded to, that we do have a very large portfolio of studies, and each one is addressing different questions, where we started in this immune-sensitive foundational tumor, as Dr. Carlino will talk about with adjuvant melanoma for the highest probability of success. We then expanded to tumor types that had biological adjacencies that would make sense with the mechanism that we talked about. But after that, we started exploring the bookends because really, this type of approach is tumor specific. So we wanted to test how early can we go, especially with the safety profile we see, and that's one of the reasons we're so excited for the Stage 1 study but also for the NMIBC study. And then how late can we go because maybe we really do have the ability to activate that immune system in a metastatic way.
And then lastly, we're able to do this with multiple combinations. So we aren't just combining with the PD-1. We are combining with standard of care where it makes sense because, again, the mechanism is distinct and the safety profile is distinct.
And all of this really started with the Phase II P201 study that we presented back in '23 at AACR with the primary analysis and what Dr. Carlino is going to talk about today with the 5-year analysis, which represents the longest duration we have for follow-up for this type of technology. Thank you.
Thanks, Michelle. So if I [indiscernible]. It was exciting then and to sort of think about the concept, but the last few weeks have sort of closed the loop both presenting this data, but also visiting the production facility at Moderna and seeing the change from a trial that we were, I think, we put 15 or 20 patients on at our site and 107 patients collectively to now an infrastructure that's ready to make thousands, hopefully, for commercial products very, very soon.
So this is a slide deck I presented this morning. I'm happy for people to interrupt. Also presented slightly differently, given that some of the information overlaps with David and Michelle and maybe have some commentary as I go.
So ASCO makes you do your key findings first. And the key finding of the study was intis and pembrolizumab really works. So it reduces the risk of recurrence by 49% or 59% for distant metastasis-free survival.
To put those numbers in perspective, I think the benefit of pembrolizumab over placebo is smaller than that. And one of the things I was taught when I was reading papers as a trainee was the easiest study to do was when your study is of an active drug versus nothing or an active drug versus an inactive drug, right? So a study of placebo versus an active drug, placebo versus pembro or an active drug versus an inactive drug dacarbazine versus nivolumab. It's actually harder to get a big benefit when you're comparing yourself again something that's effective. So I think those numbers are more effective when you -- when the comparators actually pembro, not placebo or we weren't silly enough to give adjuvant to dacarbazine.
The second point is the safety profile. I'll touch on when I get to the safety slide. But I think when it comes to adjuvant treatments, there's really important safety factors that this does that other adjuvant trials hasn't done. And the last point I'll come to David and Michelle touched on, is the translational data that really links how intismeran is designed to what we're seeing. So this is clearly on-target benefit in these patients. So I think the translational data that's sort of, for want of a better word, a little bit superficial from this that I'll show you to the really deep dive that Ryan will show you. It closes the loop of the story.
So this is -- I'm sure you saw my slide or maybe I saw your slide. Anyway, so look, just reminding you of the mechanism of action, the goal is to expand existing and create new T-cell clones, targeting those up to 34 neoantigens that's in the intismeran. And we'll show you that, that's actually what's happened. And the theory is by giving the pembrolizumab, you're potentiating that response. So you're, if you like, getting that response and then driving it forward with the pembro.
So as I said, background, nivo and pembro both work. In the adjuvant setting in stage 2, stage 3 and stage 4, they reduce the risk of recurrence by 40% to 50%. So that's how I -- and I'm sure Ryan's the same describer of patients. If your risk of recurrence started at 60% roughly, we're making at 30% with pembro.
But that means whatever we're doing a significant proportion of patients still develop metastatic disease and still die. So an improvement on this matters because someone who gets adjuvant pembro or nivo and subsequently occurs has a very high chance of coming from their disease.
I think the other thing to remember is no trial has improved on this. And there's been -- I've been involved in 4 studies that have tried to improve on pembro or nivo. One of them stopped early. The drug was so bad. 3 of them were negative, including 2 agents that were positive in the metastatic setting. So the addition of ipilimumab and the addition of [indiscernible] don't improve nivo. I think the other thing about those 2 studies is both of those agents increased tox. So in the adjuvant setting, the thing I don't like is permanent toxicity. And so pembrolizumab, relation ipilimumab, all drive permanent toxicity, and the one that bothers me the most is patients who make diabetic or patients that give quarters old efficiency, too.
So I guess the alternative trials that we filed and failed had the added negative causing the toxicities we don't want in the adjuvant setting. And the previous analysis were positive. So the job today was to update the 5-year data and then give that beginning of translation data.
So here's the study design. There was a question today from the audience or maybe a comment from the audience, which was a compliment to me, but really a compliment to Moderna and a slap in the face to everyone else. So Jeff Soman is the most famous question ask in melanoma. And he made the point that this study was so important to be a randomized Phase II. And the other 2 people I shared the stage we've had single-arm studies. So I think that's right.
So if Moderna had done 200 patients with intismeran and pembro, and then try to compare it to some historical control. Rightly, we wouldn't -- we would be more skeptical or you should be more skeptical -- you should be most acceptable than a randomized Phase II. So I think this is a perfect example of the power of randomized Phase II trials, not to get a drug approved but to say it's worth and it's likely to win in Phase III, it's worth going forward with.
It was quite a high-risk population, which I also think was another smart move. Although we enrolled stage IIIb patients, they had to have recurred first. And actually, there's no stage IIIb patients in the study. So by going for a high-risk population, you can get away with a 150-patient study, and you get an answer early. There's nothing biologically different between stage II melanoma and Stage III. It's just you can get an answer with a small study, and I guess from a major point of view, a quick answer with a relatively small investment.
Patients needed to have tissue available to make or design a intismeran. That's something we were really worried about early on. We are -- the investigators thought, "Gee, we're going to need large chunks of tumor to get to make this thing," but we learned in this study in the subsequent Phase III study, that's not necessarily the case. 1/3 of the patients on this study actually had micrometastatic disease. So they didn't have big lungs of tumor. It was microscopic.
And certainly, when we all see the results from the Phase III study, probably 2/3 of patients had microscopic stage 3 disease. So you don't need big lumps, but you do need tissue but patients have tissue, easing 2 patients will have blocks of tissue available. Am I going too slow?
Okay. So this was a primary endpoint, relapse-free survival. A couple of things what I touched on before, a hazard ratio of 0.51 is really impressive against an active drug. So I imagine -- and I like to do this, so I'll do it. But if you put the placebo curve from the 054 study down there, and you looked at the equivalent patients. So not the whole 054 study, the 054 is pembro versus placebo. If you put in the placebo curve, I think I calculated that it probably sits at about 30. So you're going from 30 to 50 to 72. And so that really -- it's an additive benefit. And not many drugs do this.
So I was going talk when we developed on it, it was well before my time. But when people got hormone therapy for breast cancer, tamoxifen versus nothing, tamoxifen nothing was really impressive, but arimidex versus tamoxifen wasn't that much better. Same with Herceptin. Herceptin versus nothing is fantastic. Adding in Perjeta, a small benefit. So this tells you unlimmab, unlike relatlimab, this is a new class of drug and that's why you're getting that significant delta.
The other thing to say is a delta of 23%, so an absolute benefit of 23%. Or if you put the placebo curve in an absolute benefit above 40%, 40% absolute is kind of huge.
This slide really just shows that the benefit is durable and maintained. So first analysis, the hazard ratio actually gets better. Often with trials that have transient the first ASCO presentation, the hazard ratio is as good as it's going to get, and then it gets worse. So typically, what happens is ASCO presentation, one, best data you'll get post #2 because you don't get a second oral presentation, the hazard ratio gets worse. And then you don't even bother with the third presentation. This is the opposite, improves and then maintain benefit in terms of relapse.
Acknowledging this is a small study. I think this gives us confidence that it's not just 1 small group of patients we're helping. So, the collection was better if you had stage III disease, stage IV disease, PD-L1 status, BRAF status, left-handed, right-handed, high tumor mutation burden, et cetera. And so I think it's really promising going into the Phase III study that we're unlikely, I think, to have a population of melanoma patients that aren't going to benefit from the incremental benefit of intismeran, pembro.
Just a metastasis-free survival. So this has a ratio of 0.41. Got a lot of talk, I think, probably the first presentation. So another thing that you often see if you look at an adjuvant study, the relapse-free survival hazard ratio is typically better than the distant metastasis-free survival ratio. So there aren't many studies where distant metastasis-free survival is better. And in some ways, if it's a patient, what do you want, right? You said you can -- you have to have a recurrence, Certainly, I choose a local one.
So a drug that shows a bit a great benefit when it comes to the stuff that matters liver mets, brain mets, lung mets in some ways. So I'm really interested to see if this pans out. And certainly, biologically, there's an argument why this immune surveillance may be helping with distant metastasis. And once again, an absolute benefit of, I think this is 18% is huge in terms of distant metastasis-free survival. And incrementally, that's bigger than the benefit of pembro over nothing.
Overall survival is a really high benchmark. So to give you an idea, KEYNOTE-054, pembro versus nothing, there's still no overall survival available. It's at 9 years, right? So to see even a hint of an improvement in overall survival hazard ratio of 0.47, the reason this crosses one is the lack of events. But if this pans out, we may be getting an improvement of overall survival with intismeran versus pembro when pembro versus placebo has done, which will kind of be interesting for -- we won't be allowed to use pembro unless it's given with intismeran.
Okay, side effects. So A couple of things about side effects for me. So I'm not particularly concerned that any treatment-related AE in some ways there's an incremental slightly higher number with the combination versus a single agent. That doesn't bother me in the slides. So these incremental increases relate to pretty predictable side effects, and these will be better manageable today than they were on the study.
Remember, when we were enrolling these patients, it was either no patient had ever been an mRNA vaccine because it was pre-COVID or it was post-COVID, everyone who got febrile made us panic and we had to lock them up if they were febrile. So I think having slightly higher treatment-related is not a lot of consequence, particularly when we know what they are.
The most important point to me is this, the red box, immune-related AEs being equal or at least numerically, potentially lower. So give adjuvant treatment, how I describe it to patients in the wording I use is if you get in certain side effect here and it makes you run well for a week, but your melanoma doesn't come back, you should still thank me.
If I give you type 1 diabetes, if I give you cortisol deficiency, you still have to thank me, but you're allowed to be angry at me. And there's no increase in those type of immune toxicities with this. So this, in some ways, for us, it's a relief that we're not talking about giving adjuvant ipi/nivo and giving people a 10% to 15% chance of cortisol deficiency because when this is approved, we'll be able to say a risk of quarter efficiency remains 1% to 2%.
The intismeran side effects are pretty predictable. It's interesting now that we've got a placebo control trial. I've got two. We're currently running the metastatic trial of pembro plus intismeran for Stage IV melanoma, and either I'm very lucky at getting my patients randomized to the combination or a lot of my patients/myself have the placebo effect because everyone gets chills and a sore arm, but it doesn't seem to be too bad. So they are really manageable. And I don't think of, now that we know what we're doing with the current trial in the previous Phase III trial, it was responsive really to NSAIDs, paracetamol, a little bit of fluids.
So this is the translational data that Michelle touched on, which I actually think was the best part of this presentation rather than the uptake. So I'll just talk you through it and because this took me a while, and I think Moderna immunologists had to slow it down for me.
So what this is [indiscernible] clonality. And so clonality means have you got a large amount of T cells attacking 1 clone and up is more clonality and down is more diversity. So a spread T cells targeting lots of different targets or not targeting for that matter. And they're sort of inverse relation, the more clonality, the less diversity. And the more diversity, the less clonality.
So at baseline, and the time point to baseline. So this is before they get the drug. We have sign consent. Moderna is busily making the product. They haven't yet got any pembro. We give everyone 2 doses of pembro, and they haven't yet got the intismeran, which is often given with the third dose. This is after 2 potentially with the third intismeran at this time, point. And this, for most patients, is a year after starting, but importantly, 6 months after the intismeran dose for the vast majority.
And so I'm going to talk this backwards to what I did today. I'm going to talk about the blue line first. So pembro alone does not increase clonality. And the way I think about that is pembro is activating your immune system, but it's not specific to any one thing really because otherwise, if it was specific to certain targets, you would expect clones to could have come out. And that's certainly how I describe pembro tox to patients. I say I'm trying to activate your immune system to attack melanoma because I'm not smart enough to point it towards the melanoma, you're going to get a side effect that ataxia thyroid. What intismeran is the opposite. We're getting an increase in clonality, right? So we're getting our immune response directed. This does not tell us -- well, this curve doesn't tell us that we're directing the immune response towards those 34 neoantigens. But the question is, well, if it's not directing it to those 3 neoantigens, what are you directing it to? But also, Ryan is going to show you that we are, in fact, directing it towards those 34 neoantigens.
But this also tells you why you don't get immune-related toxicities additively because your immune response from intismeran is directed at those 34 neoantigens. And hopefully, the algorithm is choosing neoantigens that are novel to the tumor, not host neoantigens.
Similarly, this is the new clones now. So the -- what they've done here is forget about any line that existed before the patient walked into the study. Same thing. We are getting new clones coming out. And at the early time point, because the 2 arms of the study are identical, as many new clone pembro as you get for pembro because both arms are getting pembro. But you get a greater number of clones with intismeran. And once again, the suggestion or the hypothesis confirmed by Ryan or whoever did the work Ryan presents is this delta, this extra number of clones is due to clones directed at those 34 neoantigens in the product.
Okay. closing the loop is this. So just for a moment, forget about that curve, this is now just the patients who got combination. So intismeran, pembrolizumab, everyone in this curve, it's the same time point. Red patients did not recur. So these are the patients who, if you like, can't hasn't come back [indiscernible] patients, unfortunately, did recur. And it's really linking the mechanism to outcome, the patients who didn't recur got more novel clones than the patients who did recur.
Closing the loop. That association between novel clones and outcome wasn't seen with pembro alone. So once again, really strongly suggesting a mechanistic link between intismeran and the improved outcome. So as I said, I think the support for this data that Ryan's data gives is huge [indiscernible]. So I think the ratios of 0.41, hard to look aside, but when you see the data that proves how it happened really does close that loop, even based on 157 patients.
So this is essentially a return to the things. It works. It reduces the risk of staff coming back a lot. The safety and tolerability is fantastic. Really, the side effects you see are pembro side effects. So there, I don't -- I cannot think of a patient that I am willing to give adjuvant pembrolizumab to that I'm not willing to give adjuvant intismeran and pembrolizumab. There are many patients I could consider giving intismeran to that perhaps wouldn't have pembro, but it's that good a safety profile.
The translational data, yes, the superficial translational data I showed to you really does, I guess, suggest the link metastatically. And Ryan's data is going to take that suggested link to a kind of uncertainty in a moment.
I think like always, I think finding so much information from a randomized phase to is a positive, not a negative. But ASCO e-mail me said I had to have some study limitations. So I actually think the ability to make such a strong scientific argument based on a randomized Phase II is a strength, not a weakness. But the job of this study, and it did it in Spain, not only to lead to a registration Phase III in melanoma but to lead to multiple registration studies. So I think when we -- I'm glad that the first registration positive study will be melanoma and like always, all the other cancer types can follow. I think when we see the study -- the registration study soon, I think, at least I'll remember and it kind of started with 157 patients 5 years ago. Okay. Thank you.
Okay. So I get to take us home. So one of the joys I've had with working with Moderna and with Matt and the other investigators is having the opportunity to present some of the translational data with this study over a few years. And when we were presenting that data that Matt just showed with the expanded clones, people said, well, are they, what are they against, and he said, "I don't know."
And we just, there was initial collection of large numbers of patients with leukapheresis to do very sophisticated analysis, and to type these T-cell clones and see if they were neoantigen specific. And we've ultimately gone to the point where we have some of that analysis. And so that's what I'm going to share.
We've seen much of this. I will say that KEYNOTE-603, which is the Phase II study of intismeran did show in their -- in the publication that came out last year that all of the patients that they had T cells collected and analyzed, they could show that there was neoantigen-specific T-cell clonal generation. 30% of those neoantigens elicited immune responses, and you could see both expansion of CD8 and CD4 positive T cells.
At KEYNOTE-942, again, intismeran shows higher new clonality. And those were sustained over the course of the study, in fact, in those patients that didn't recur, it seemed to be going up. And the novel T-cell clonal type expansion associated with better outcomes.
So what I'm going to do over the next few minutes is talk to you about how the efforts that have been done to link the de novo T-cell clonotypes to intismeran-encoded neoantigens and to characterize the resulting neoantigen-specific T-cell responses in patients who received the combination.
So importantly, this study looked at some patients worth samples. Samples were collected. I wish I had that little the figure that had each of the time points. But baseline after starting pembrolizumab after starting intismeran and then a long-term follow-up, which is usually a year after therapy started, in about 6 months after intismeran ended.
From these 7 patients, 3 were actually from the Phase I study and 4 were from the 942 study. And what this figure shows is that using a really cool assay where you can essentially load the peptide and have a reporter assay that has a T-cell receptor that can recognize that peptide, you can begin to see -- or you have the T-cell receptor that are on these T cells, you can see whether or not there was a target agent which essentially means that it was a neoepitope-specific TCR.
So this is a patient, and just showing the example that you can identify a number of different TCRs against the same neoantigen. So remember, up to 34 neoantigens are in the cassette. So this was looking at neoantigen 14. And so these were all generated for neoantigen 14 in [indiscernible]. These happen to only be CD8. So this patient generated CD8 T-cell clonal clones against neoantigen 14, against neoantigen 27 and 28 similarly, just CD8, but also CD4. And so proving the sort of proving the point that when you create a neoantigen therapy, you may get both CD4 and CD8, and we think that's probably a good thing.
Now this is taking that same patient and then looking at all the T-cell clones that were generated against those specific neoepitopes. So again, 14, 27, 28. So this is only CD8 positive T cells against 14, but as I mentioned, CD4 and CD8 against 27 and 28.
And the ones that are in color are the ones that have been characterized to date. It turns out it takes a lot of time to do this. And really, the point of doing this was just to show, yes, we can do this, we can follow this, but there's a ton more that were generated. And I think it's important to note this straight line is when patients are getting pembro. And then the steep upward sloping lines are after intismeran. So dozens of different neoepitopes for specific TCRs were mapped to each neoantigen.
And the other point to make is that, some of these are going down, but most of these are sticking around. And it's been 6 months since this person received intismeran and yet they still have at least the same, if not higher, numbers of T-cell clones against, for example, neoantigen 14.
When we look at all 7 patients, we were able to identify at least 1 T-cell clone that are T-cell neoantigen-specific T cell. This was this patient. The highest of the 7 was 18 out of the 34. Importantly, and I think it was mentioned earlier that there is rare shared neoantigens, but those that are shared are either BRAF or NRAS neoantigens. And that intismeran, again, elicits CD4 positive and CD8 positive and combined CD4 and CD8 positive to different neoepitopes.
When you begin to look and say, okay, that's cool. You have T cells that can recognize the neoepitope, what are those T cells doing? And so in this, we're looking at staining of the T cells. What you can see when these T cells are engaging the antigen is that they're making granzyme B, which is a good thing if you want T cells to kill things, and they're making interferon gamma. And so this is different patient still patient 3 and looking at the responses against neoantigen 14 and neoantigen 27. So not only are they there and we can identify them, but they seem to be acting like the type of T-cell we want to generate cancer cells.
In addition, you can then begin to look and say, okay, what type sort of bucket would you put these T cells in? Are these the cytotoxic T cells that are terminally differentiated and killing and then dying are these memory cells that may not be as close to the action, but can stick around a while? Or they T effector memory cells. And you can characterize that, what's happening here is you're doing a [indiscernible] stain of the neoepitope, and then you can see which actually buy into the [indiscernible] and then you can see where they are. So this is a control against viral antigens.
And so what you're seeing that these T cells when exposed to viral antigens are terminally differentiated. These are ready to go. They're trying to get rid of those virally infected cells that they thought they got exposed to. And when we look at the intismeran-treated T cells, these are falling more into the T effector memory. So they functionally active. They're positioned to do rapid surveillance and they can also potentially leave and go to other sales, other areas of the body.
So to conclude, we saw durable dovo neoantigen-specific T-cell responses in patients who are treated with intismeran and pembrolizumab. The team at Moderna was able to functionally validate and directly map the intismeran encoded individualized neoantigens. They've validated the neoantigen-specific TCR clonotypes and expanded during intismeran therapy. And most importantly, they persist over time. We could see both CD4 and CD8 T-cell responses.
And the nice thing about this is if I'm standing in front of somebody talking about intismeran and they say that was [indiscernible] you showed about those TCR clones, but do you even know that those things are going after neoepitopes? I can say, yes, I think we do know, what's next, Dave?
Okay. Thank you very, very much. Wonderful presentations. We appreciate you both taking time out from your busy schedules. So today, you heard about intismeran, and that's frankly, why I came to the company. But since joining the company, I have also discovered quite an exciting oncology pipeline, including our 4359, which we presented, we had an oral presentation at AACR, 4106 and 4200, which are off-the-shelf cancer antigen therapies. A T-cell engager, in vivo T-cell engager program, which is really, really interesting, 2808 and then cell -- in vivo cell therapy enhancers. These 3 programs as well as our emerging oncology research programs, which will enter the clinic will be highlighted at our Moderna Science Day later this month, and I encourage you to attend that.
So now I'd like to invite up our speakers, and we're happy to take questions and answers. So guys -- if Michelle.
Great. Thank you, everyone, for fantastic presentations. We're going to start the Q&A session. When you do take the mic, please introduce yourself and then ask your question.
2. Question Answer
Ted Tenthoff from Piper Solar. If I may, I have two for Michelle. And if you permit me, I have one for Ryan. So it was very interesting to see in melanoma that a small percentage of the antigens albeit unique to the patient were kind of what I would call shared or known driver mutation, i.e, respin. In other cancers, are you seeing more of these shared ones? And the one that jumps to mind right away would maybe be a Phase II for CRC. Are you seeing more KRAS or things like that? So are you seeing different patients depending on the tumor type, a different flavor and/or number of these shared antigens?
And kind of the second part where the question is going is, how do we know these neoantigens are actually better than shared antigens? And I guess it's kind of impossible to prove that out until maybe we do like intismeran versus one of your shared antigen [indiscernible], I don't know. But how do we actually know that these are better?
Yes. So maybe I'll start and then phone a friend if anyone else wants to answer. So I think the key is that in the bioinformatics algorithm, all it weighs out all the mutations and that includes hotspot mutation irrespective of the tumor type we're going into, which is why you see the type of clinical trial portfolio we have. So in melanoma, you would expect BRAF and RAS mutations pop up and be within the ranking system. For non-small cell lung cancer, I would expect EGFR, ALK, ROS. The question becomes when we rank them based off HLA presentation, expression level and sort of a prediction to engage the immune system, do those shared mutations actually link to the way the neoantigens or the novel clones? And in some patients, that's the case where you see it for the less than 1% in some patients, you don't see it. So the answer is in all tumor types that we have, there is the potential to have some of those shared incorporated into the neoantigen asset.
Now the question becomes, do we have data yet across the rest of the studies to start showing this? And the answer is, we did see this the P101 study back from some of the older papers where we were mapping the different neoantigens, but we haven't accessed the Phase II studies yet that are ongoing or any of the new Phase III studies and the rest of the tumor type. So that is one of the things that we are really looking forward to as the data sets there to see exactly how those neoantigens map. Do you want to add.
Yes. I was going to add, it's highly likely. The answer is going to be yes. And that's, there's a long literature on this, going back to Steve Rosenberg's interrogation, that shared neoantigens are just not a, and that probably has to do with the fact that there's evolutionary immune pressure, even in hotspot mutations, they tend not to be presented or they're presented at very low levels. So I think that's to be the case. And then the answer to your second question, which was -- what was the...
How do you compare the share?
Oh, yes. Yes. So shared antigens versus neoantigen, of course, we won't know but scientifically neoantigens have not gone through thymic selection. And so there are T cells that are going to recognize it with sufficient [indiscernible], whereas shared antigens by definition, have gone even shared antigens, such cancer tests that are not usually present in adult tissues, they're present in the testes or the placenta, so they have gone through some timing selection, that's the scientific hypothesis, but of course, we won't know until we test.
That's a great point. And I really do appreciate the comment that you're making, but it's really about how the patient is going to respond to these neoantigens. And my quick question for Ryan was, and maybe I misunderstood this really cool presentation. But on Slide 39, where you showed the 3 antigens that were activated in expanding the T-cells, does this mean that only 3 of the neoantigens were kind of taken up and activated that way? Or were these just the top 3 that you had across analyzed.
Yes. So when characterized each of the 7 patients were characterized and they were tested against each of their 34 new epitopes, and the range was 1 TCR expanded 1 TCR expansion against the 1 neoepitope to 18, neoepitopes that generated TCR expansion. So I think it's why does 1 happen or 18 happen, why do you get a dozen or 2 dozen or 3 dozen against TCRs against 1 neoepitope, I think these are questions that are hard to answer from a small data set. But maybe areas of study is particularly if we can, I mean, all these patients that I showed, none of them had recurrence. So it's not like I can say, "Oh, the 1 had 1 recurred, but the one 18 that had a gain didn't recur." And of course, because it's an adjuvant study, you can't look at response or PFS or other endpoints that sort of make you feel more certain about what's clinically happening from an anticancer standpoint.
I think the other thing with the one, my understanding is that, that patient had 1 neoantigen with a response. It wasn't 1 TCR.
Correct, [indiscernible] TCR.
Even for a given HLA, you may have more of the CR, some neoantiwill be presented in different HLA. So I think there was an illustration when one of them had multiple T-cell clones against 1 antigen. That was the norm rather than exception. The norm is multiple different T-cell clones against 1 antigen.
And what we didn't show here showed in the poster, there was an example of a patient who had across HLA and HLAB that would generate against the same neoantigen.
It sort of gives this sort of innate biological redundancy. So it's not HLA 02, 01 limited or the -- and so I think I was surprised by the number of different T-cell loans against a given neoantigen.
Yes, that was clearly the most interesting, what I would not have guessed before seeing the day.
Particular when you go, we've chosen that clone because it binds well to HLA. And in your head, the carton new drawers student was 1 T-cell finds that HLA with that neon.But clearly, there is so much redundancy in the immune response.
Alec Stranahan from Bank of America. Really great discussion. Just two questions from me. Maybe first, I believe that the Phase III is enrolling Stage II disease as well. I guess what percent this sort of within the Phase III data set? And I think we saw, I guess, directionally higher hazard ratio in the Stage IIIc versus the Stage IV in the 5-year follow-up, small end, but how does that maybe bode for even earlier patients?
And then maybe one quick one for Dr. Sullivan, in the poster yesterday, it looked like there was maybe some variability in terms of the number of immunogenic neoantigens sort of within that 34% total delivered between patients. Could you maybe speak to the variability and if there's maybe a minimum threshold of truly immunogenic neoantigens?
So I'll take the first one, which is we wouldn't disclose the number right now, but an ongoing trial. But I would say it's likely to be sufficient labeling negotiations. And in terms of efficacy, I think you're right. I think the lesson we're learning is that the earlier you go, the more likely you're going to have a treatment effect. Of course, that's balanced the early go the less treatment events or the less events you're going to have. So it will be a balance between that.
So my feet that is that the benefit the same. But I think there's some chance the benefit will be greater. So when you look at -- so when you develop a hazard ratio of a curve, the hazard ratio is a reference to the whole curve compared to the whole curve with sound intuitive, the higher risk of your population, the earlier you get recurrences. So in adjuvant studies, you get a group of patients who recur within weeks. And they're the absolute highest risk patients. So if a treatment starts at week 6, I predict the hazard ratio in the slightly lower risk patients, not the risk because Stage IIc is still a high-risk population, but they're less likely to recur 3 weeks after you start the pembro.
So if the hazard ratio instead of being 0.51 is 0.45, my hypothesis is it's that by having a more, if you like, typical adjuvant population, paradoxically, we get a better hazard ratio because when the curves run together, that feeds into the hazard ratio of the whole curve. So I actually think it's going to be a positive that we've balanced the population because really, we have -- this has got an artificially early recurrence population, not necessarily a risk, but microscopies has those early recurrences, whereas the IIIbs, the Ias and the IIcs, IIbs, don't get that, they recurred at first scan often, so I predict we might get a better number, a typical population.
And then your question about the number of neoantigens that you get T-cell responses to -- we said again, we can't answer that in this population because it's, one, we don't have enough patients and we don't have a splay between patients who recurred in patients who didn't recur. There is 2 pieces of information that speak to this, both is with a competitor called autogene [indiscernible]. One is in the pancreatic cancer data set, the initial data set that came out of MSKCC where they treat patients in the adjuvant setting with their new epitope and new epitope therapy.
The patients that generated responses against the neoepitopes didn't recur in the patients who didn't generate new epitope responses did recur. And that's very clean data. In another trial with that drug, we did a Phase II randomized study in frontline melanoma, previously untreated. This actually was launched around the same time. So weren't a lot of patients who got adjuvant therapy on that study was mostly just first time of being exposed to checkpoint inhibitors. And very similarly to that, we could see that patients who generated more new epitope and more responses to more neoepitopes had better outcomes than the patients who didn't. So it's not a specific answer to intismeran, but presumably, these things work together, and that biology is biology if you're having sort of an immune responsiveness to a therapy like this.
The one other piece I'd add on to what Dr. Sullivan saying is, at least in the poster, right? So you had that splay between 1 and 18. So we know one can be sufficient, at least for disease control in that 1 patient. And this is one of the reasons we're so excited for the 5,000-plus samples that I highlighted because these are the types of sizes. I think we're going to need to understand how many neoantigens do you need, what makes features of a neoantigen, how do we start parsing that out, I don't think we can do it with just the.
Yes. You basically need all the samples from all the patients or nearly all samples from all the patients that you can really get a good look at how core it outcomes.
Cory Kasimov with Evercore ISI. Probably for Dr. Carlino, but anybody can chime in. Curious as to your thoughts about how the upstream migration of immunotherapy to the neoadjuvant setting could impact -- eventually impact intismeran? And once available, how would you choose which patients get neoadjuvant therapy versus an intismeran-based adjuvant therapy.
Yes. So that's a good question. So, the one question I asked expecting to that get that question this morning, but not getting it was on this study, even though they're IIIc, remember, a lot of IIIc patients are microscopic IIIc, so even on this study, 1/3 of patients have micrometastatic disease, right? So by definition, those people can't get neoadjuvant.
When you look at the registration trial, the prediction or the estimation is 2/3 of those patients have micrometastatic disease. So the micrometastatic population is a significant proportion of the Stage II. And by definition, the Stage II, despite the presentation this morning, Stage II don't really have an option of neoadjuvant because the definite the biopsy removes all the tumor. So you've got all the Stage IIs. And most of the Stage IIIs, neoadjuvant isn't even on the cards for us. So I think that's the first thing. So this is the dominant much, if you will.
I think clearly, I guess the question, the provocative is at the moment, if someone walks in with macroscopic nodal disease, they're getting neoadjuvant, not adjuvant, right? And I think that will remain the standard unless the hazard ratio on the registration trial is so good where you'd actually say to someone, look, I could give you neoadjuvant pembro, same toxicity. I think intismeran outdoes the neoadjuvant benefit hypothetically. But when you're saying I'm going to give you neoadjuvant, ipi/nivo, a different question. So I think the short answer is there's a huge market or a huge group of patients that need adjuvant and can't have neoadjuvant. That's the easy population.
If the hazard ratio is spectacular, it becomes quite a complex discussion because the lack of increased tax compared to adena because adena right adds permanent tox. And then I think the most interesting question and the next study is for the can intismeran add to the neoadjuvant therapy, so if you give intismeran presurgery, can you improve on the adena or the SWOG result, and that's an important study to do. So we have to do that study. We start SWOG or start adena and you start intismeran before the operation. But the easier group patients to study is the patients to get neoadjuvant whichever one. And then post neoadjuvant if they don't have a complete response, they get their adjuvant would be typically nivo or pembro plus intismeran. So that's a very easy study to run.
Some may argue you don't need the study. But certainly, once you've got the positive Phase III study, I've just given you an idea of 2 other studies and the post-neoadjuvant one, I'm confident we could design a study with 200 patients because those patients have such a high risk of recurrence. They're technically already on label. So we could do another quick study with 200 patients and get that answer relatively quickly expanding the population.
So I think my main answer in summary is that the microscopic population is still the bulk of the patient/Stage II. And this will be tested in the adjuvant. Those 2 studies have to happen. The lung cancer guys have already got those studies going on. So we saw on that first slide, the neo -- post-neoadjuvant study already happening in the equivalent lung cancer, and we, lung cancer is not allowed to beat melanoma, so we'll get there quickly.
Myles Minter from William Blair. Congrats on running a controlled study here if you deserve that comment earlier today. My question is actually very much coming from investors and that is Dr. Carlino, I was interested you were kind of inferring where the placebo curve would be on the RFS that 5-year data, investors bring up where the pembro curve from 054 would have fitted on that. Do you think that pembro performed as expected in this trial? Did it underperform?
Exactly. So I think I think, so if you go to the 054 papers right, you can't use the whole 054 population. So the best way to capture the prediction is just look at the IIIc group. So that one of the 054 papers, we sort of update 054 every 2 years, but one of the 054 has the IIIa, IIIbs and IIIc. And that IIIc group is the best approximation to this. And I think it's smack on 50 at 4 years. So it's very, very close. And so that's what I was using in my head. I was remembering that. I think it's actually, there's 1 figure because there's, or these III, it's a, b, c in the middle. I can't remember which paper it is, but it's, I'm pretty confident it's smack on.
This is Greg Torres representing Tyler from TD Cowen. So how confident are you that the high rate of INT manufacturing you've achieved in clinical trials will be replicable in the real world? And are there any considerations related to feasibility of this in the Stage II and III versus Stage IV patients?
Yes. So maybe I'll take that one. So I'll start with the Stage II and III. So obviously, we've done it for the 001 study. And then on top of it, one of the things that we're so excited about with some of the other studies is that, especially for like NMIBC, the amount of tumor is actually even smaller than what you could get into the Stage II. So not only are we expanding the hypotheses within the clinical studies, but we're also testing the bounds for the tissue requirements as well. So for that, I think we've been able to showcase that based off the enrollment that we've had.
And then as far as the global expansion, you have to remember that this study for KEYNOTE-942 ran from 2017 to 2019. And in that time frame, we manufactured the 157 right or 107 intismeran doses over a 3-year span. The 001 study started in '23. And since then, we have the litany of the pipeline. And to date, we've dosed over 2,000 intismeran patients. So you're talking a tenfold range in the past 3 years.
So again, that ability to scale that we saw with the COVID era is what we are able to scale with intismeran, actually, a miniaturization of the process and then a scale out across the globe. So what we saw with KEYNOTE-942 was that we had a U.S. and Australia footprint. And now our global studies with Merck are in over 46 countries. And again, that turnaround time is really maintained [indiscernible]. So even with that up of the tenfold that scale out globally, we're still able to actually maintain the distribution time in the manufacturing chain. And that gives us confidence that if we enter into the commercial sphere, that we'll be able to deliver the way we expect.
When we visited, I visited the Moderna plant. And I think you really got the feel having visited that it was set up to do 50,000, and it almost felt like if it wasn't doing tens of thousands you could see the sort of the exponential of the processes where it felt very impressive to see how it's sort of this process had turned down to one thing and then you can -- it would just repeat it. And if you wanted to double it, your times it by 4. So I think probably of the ASCO week, the visit to that plant was up there with the sort of how much thought have been put into the scalability. I think as a none -- someone doesn't make things, but it seemed to be ready and raring where it's almost felt like it was built and sitting there ready to go.
Lili Nsongo from Leerink Partners. So maybe a quick question going back to the piping and then linking that to the epitope selection. So up to 34 neoantigen [indiscernible] selection, I think it was down to 9, between 9 and 34. And then 1 to 18 that are immunogenic. Can you maybe give us a sense of how much do we know in terms of whether there is any correlation between any baseline characteristic of those patients, namely P1 status stage and what you're able to do in terms of [indiscernible] selection and then what you see in the context?
Yes, I think, I mean it's an excellent question and an important one. I think with 7 patients across 2 trials we don't have -- it doesn't matter what they were in terms of like the PD-L1 status or TMB and things like that. I think we need to look at more patients and to be able to answer that question with any certainty.
But I guess, intuitively, it's unlikely to be a simple thing like stage in my mind. It's the biology of both the immune response and the tumor. And if we look at TMB, we don't have a huge difference in TMB between Stage IIIc and Stage II melanoma. Certainly, actually in Australia, you probably had a higher TMB in Stage II because they're slightly older and we get these group of patients who have Stage II melanoma and older people, which goes with chronic sun damage and TMB. But I don't think it's going to be something like stage or PD-L1 or something simple.
I guess the only thing, and I think this is where this could only get better is hypothetically, you could imagine an analysis in 5,000 patients where you run the algorithm and say, actually, this type of neoantigens isn't as good, so you no longer make the cut of the 34. And so I think the exciting thing for me is you're choosing the 34 best, right? So I think it's impressive that they chose the 34 best not having ever treated a patient, and that's worked out pretty good.
If you can feed the positive and negative feedback into the algorithm, could you improve it? I guess the question is, do you need to improve it? Until the curve is flat, you can always try. And so I actually think that if there was an opportunity to evolve the algorithm. And I know that's complicated and we'll need discussions. But certainly, the algorithm is pretty impressive. But theoretically, I think that was where the difference might come not something about the stage of the patients or...
True. But who knows, right? Like somebody with a big bulky tumor may be different than somebody with microscopic disease. So I think it's valid to look into that, but we also have to just get many more, need to get data from many more patients.
Matt Hagood for Mike Yee from UBS. Maybe one for Dr. Carlino. I just wanted to ask if you could expand a bit on the safety profile here. Compared to IO, I'm curious your thoughts on whether this kind of expands the population of patients who would get treated in the adjuvant setting with an agent.
And then if I can just squeeze one more in on the earlier stage pipeline, I wanted to ask when we might start seeing some days on updates from those programs, too?
So look, a couple of things about the safety. So I think the decision to use intismeran and pembro from a safety point of view is completely driven by the toxicity, right? So am I using intismeran and pembro and soon with a kidney transplant adjuvantly? No, but nothing to do with intismeran. It's because of pembro.
The only area, I guess, that may expand the population theoretically is I gave a second talk at ASCO this afternoon about tox. And my first slide was about risk benefit, right? So every patient has a risk profile, which can alter based on their comorbidities, and every patient has a risk appetite, right? So as a patient, a Stage II patient may say, look, for an absolute benefit of 10%, I'm unwilling to take the risk of a 1% risk of cortisol deficiency. Whether you would make that decision or I would make that division, that individual patient may decide not to take a given risk. Because intismeran doubles the benefit, right, and does nothing to the tox the risk/benefit discussion in some ways becomes easier. And so certainly, that's how I discuss adjuvant, risk/benefit, ex benefit, ex risk and you as an individual have to decide, but we're not touching the risk side of that equation. But if we're doubling the benefit side of the equation, you may expand the population.
The thing that we haven't touched on in melanoma, but the lung cancer guys get to is single-agent intismeran completely different conversation because it's probably safe to give a kidney transplant patient in single agent intismeran or a person with rheumatoid arthritis or ulcerative colitis, et cetera. So I think the summary answer to me is the combination, you probably have a slightly bigger population because of the risk benefit, but if the population was going to expand hugely, it would be single agent.
I guess a question for Ryan, when the drug is approved, if you had a patient who was contraindicated to pembro, theoretically, you could. There would be a temptation to use intismeran.
Probably wouldn't do it, but that's generally because I like some data before I make a decision. I don't need all the data. I do want to come back to your point, Matt, I think not only is the risk/benefit -- I mean, ultimately, the decision is to patients', but the way that the physician talks to the patient really can influence the decision. And right now, I don't know about you, Matt, but if somebody has a Stage IIIa melanoma. They have a 1.1 millimeter thick melanoma on their leg, and they have microscopic deposits in their node. I'm not going to recommend pembrolizumab for that patient. I'll talk to them about it. I'd say absolutely like to say, I have to have this, otherwise, I'm not going to be live. I'll entertain it. It's on label, but it's -- I think, to Matt's point about what a patient's threshold might be our threshold, just kind of our biases about how we think about risks and benefits, we might actually be more supportive of making such a recommendation.
Just to answer your second question. The 4359 we just updated at AACR, and we now are expanding the data set to confirm the signal. So that's ongoing. And I would estimate probably next year would be an update 4359. For the other 3 or 4 clinical programs, they're still mostly in dose escalation. And so we will share when we plan to update, I think, as we get closer. And then I'll just put plug in for the Science Day we have later this month.
And then the only one other part since we're talking ASCO is we did have the 2808 tip actually as a poster session here. So it does showcase that we're beginning to actually One, have the trials in progress and two, there's some preclinical papers that are out for that one as well as 4106 and 4200.
Ellie Merle at Barclays. Maybe first just for the physicians. Obviously, really impressive hazard ratio on Phase II. What would be the minimum effect size that you would want to see in Phase III to adopt this and say, widely added on to all your PD-1 adjuvant patients, given the risk-benefit comment that you make around the safety?
And then just a question for the company. obviously, really impressive hazard ratio in Phase II. As we think about the interim analysis, any color on sort of what the minimum hazard ratio would be needed to be successful on the first interim? And then just based on the curves that we've seen in the IO trials, how we should think about the likelihood that if it misses the first interim, it could be successful at the final analysis.
So just quickly on the statistics, we have we've said nothing on the interim analysis on the statistics. And with that, I'll hand it over to one of the physicians, please, to speak to what they consider a good hazard ratio in the Phase III.
Yes. I guess the first thing is that there, in my mind, is in Australia, I think there are 2 thresholds. So as a patient, as a clinician, because there's no, so when I think of tox, all I care is serious to permanent tox is the big one for me. There's permanent tox or tox that bothers the patient's quality of life is what we don't want.
So because the cost from the patient perspective, not financial, the cost from the patient's perspective is negligible, the benefit to consider doing it is lower in my mind. So hypothetically, if I had 2 trials that had the same hazard ratio, intismeran/pembro versus pembro or ipi/pembro versus pembro in the adjuvant setting, and they were identical hazard ratios, ipi doesn't meet the bar intismeran does. So from a patient and a clinician, I think the bar actually is quite low.
Acknowledging that there's another part to cost, right? And so the hazard ratio that is required to make it financially worth and it's hard as a clinician, we're not great making financial decisions, me personally. I'm also Australian, so therefore, I've come from a health system that has a central payer and has those complexities. So I don't know what number.
I think certainly -- and the other way to look at it is actually not hazard ratio, it's absolute benefits and numbers needed to treat. So we've got an absolute benefit in that study of 22%. So a number needed to treat of 25. Would I do this for a number needed to treat of 10? Yes. The pay a bit is something I don't think I'm don't have the knowledge to answer on. But from the patient point of view, the benefit could be really tiny because the patient's cost is not measured in dollars and cents. The patient cost is measured in tox. So with the calculation being tox versus benefit, the benefit could be smaller than.
Yes. And I think the answer to your question about what hazard ratio, whatever the hazard ratio where the p-value is significant and the FDA can approve it, I'll use it.
Okay. And we'll take our last question.
This is Morgan Lamberti, representing Salveen Richter at Goldman Sachs. For the physicians, how does the translational clonality data impact how you think about success in non-small cell lung cancer and indications beyond this?
I'll just start and then I don't know, I mean, if you didn't have the translational data, but you had an amazingly positive Phase III trial, it doesn't matter that you had, didn't have the translational data. it kind of matters and from a sort of scientific interest standpoint, like did it actually do what we think it can do. But I think from a proof-of-concept and as you're also rolling out potential ways that you can monitor patients. It's way easier and cheaper to do TCR sequencing than it is to do all of that really sophisticated experiments to get that reporter assay and characterize all the TCRs.
So on some level, I think seeing that there is a likely explanation of that in TCR clonality that correlates with actual expansion of neoepitope-specific clones, it will make us feel better about any of the trials if we just followed TCR clonality instead of through TCR sequencing instead of doing these deep characterizations of all these. As a scientist, it also makes me feel good that we are saying, we designed something to do something. We did it, and then we've actually shown that we were able to do the thing that we were trying to do. There's a lot of dos in there.
But ultimately, I think it feels good when you can say this works and we actually are doing what we think the drug is supposed to do, and we might even have a surrogate biomarker that can be reflective of the more sophisticated TCR characterization that can be rolled out into all of the trials.
Yes. So look, I agree Ryan. I think when you've got a randomized Phase III trial that's positive, it almost doesn't matter what the drug does, right? And by the same token, if I can give you the coolest drug ever and the best preclinical data, if properly designed and run Phase III trial is negative, it doesn't matter how cool, the net -- the science is, it's negative. So the Phase III trial thing.
I think the big thing this does for me is, one, it gives you huge confidence that the Phase II data is real certainly. So when you've got less than Phase III evidence, predicting your drug works because of x and then showing that it actually happened gives you confidence I think with the reference to non-small cell lung cancer.
The other positive is this mechanism of immune response is not melanoma specific. So it actually gives you the confidence that this is likely not just to be a melanoma, right? And so I think at the point now where we're going, what's the likelihood of the register melanoma study being positive, the translational data increases that of the scale. To be honest, once you've got the Phase III data and you just get Phase III positive trial after Phase III positive trial, the translational data is really important about working out if there is a subgroup of patients you're not helping, what do we have to tweak to have them and what's next? But it's more about the confidence today about what's coming next year, really, which is, that's the most important thing. Yes, it's cool, but it makes us way more confident than we otherwise would be.
Yes. Maybe I'll just add in the final minutes is the most validated immune therapy, of course, are anti-PD-1s. And we know that anti-PD-1s work by releasing the brake carb reversing exhaustion on tumor reactive T cells which then go on to kill the cancer. That's the most validated clinically immune therapy. We know now that our therapy roughly does the same thing. We give the intismeran. It activates neoantigen-specific T cells. And from the randomized data, we see evidence in this Phase II that the T-cell are doing their job. I think to me, that's the reason that gives me reason to believe that this is not just a melanoma specific melanoma because anti-PD-1s are not just melanoma drugs. Of course, we'll have to wait for the randomized trial, to find out.
But with that, let me thank our investigators who joined us, and thank you all for joining us tonight. Thank you, guys. Appreciate you. Thank you so much for spending the evening.
My pleasure. Thank you, guys.
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Moderna — Special Call - Moderna, Inc.
Moderna — Special Call - Moderna, Inc.
Moderna präsentiert auf ASCO starke Phase‑II‑Daten zu intismeran: signifikante RFS/DMFS‑Vorteile und translationaler Nachweis neoantigen‑spezifischer T‑Zellantworten.
🎯 Kernbotschaft
Intismeran, eine individualisierte mRNA‑Lipid‑Nanopartikel( LNP)‑Neoantigen‑Therapie, zeigte in der randomisierten Phase‑II‑Studie bei adjuvantem Melanom überzeugende 5‑Jahres‑Ergebnisse (Relapse‑Free Survival HR 0,51; Distant‑Metastasis‑Free Survival HR 0,41). Translationaldaten verbinden die klinische Wirksamkeit mit der Induktion neu entstehender, intismeran‑spezifischer T‑Zellklone; Produktion und globale Studien werden als skalierbar dargestellt.
🧩 Strategische Highlights
- Phase‑II‑Signal: RFS‑HR 0,51 und DMFS‑HR 0,41; Trend zu besserer OS, unterstützt Fortführung in Phase‑III.
- Mechanismus bestätigt: intismeran erzeugt de‑novo CD4‑ und CD8‑T‑Zellklone, die Granzyme B/IFN‑γ produzieren und persistieren.
- Skalierung & Portfolio: >2.000 Patienten dosiert, Studien in ~46 Ländern; Programme in NSCLC, NMIBC, Magen, Pankreas und Off‑the‑Shelf‑Ansätze laufen.
- Algorithm‑Ansatz: fixe Auswahl von bis zu 34 Neoantigenen; potenzielle iterative Anpassung nach regulatorischer Abstimmung geplant.
🆕 Neue Informationen
Neu sind die 5‑Jahres‑Follow‑up‑Ergebnisse mit DMFS‑Signal und der direkte mechanistische Nachweis: bei analysierten Patienten wurden 1–18 neoantigen‑spezifische TCRs pro Patient identifiziert, funktionell validiert und langfristig nachweisbar. Moderna betont zudem Produktionsreife und ein geplantes Proben‑Repository (>5.000 Patienten) für weitere Learnings.
❓ Fragen der Analysten
- Shared vs. privat: Diskussion über Häufigkeit gemeinsamer Hotspot‑Neoantigene (z.B. BRAF/NRAS/KRAS) und deren Bedeutung; bislang überwiegend patientenspezifisch.
- Immunogenitäts‑Variabilität: Anzahl immunogener Neoantigene variiert (1–18); keine klaren Baseline‑Korrelationen bei kleiner Stichprobe, größere Datensätze nötig.
- Skalierbarkeit & Setting: Fragen zu Tissue‑Anforderungen, globaler Produktion und Einsatz in neoadjuvanten vs. adjuvanten Settings; Management zeigt Vertrauen in hohe Produktionskapazität.
⚡ Bottom Line
Die Phase‑II‑Daten plus translationaler Mechanismus erhöhen die Wahrscheinlichkeit eines positiven Ausgangs der laufenden Phase‑III bei adjuvantem Melanom. Positiv: robuste Biomarker‑Signale und Produktions‑Scale‑Up. Risiken bleiben: Bestätigung in randomisierter Phase‑III, regulatorische Vorgaben für Algorithm‑Änderungen sowie die Marktpositionierung gegenüber PD‑1‑Monotherapie. Investoren sollten Phase‑III‑Readouts und regulatorische Gespräche überwachen.
Moderna — Bernstein 42nd Annual Strategic Decisions Conference
1. Question Answer
Welcome, everyone. Thank you so much for joining us for this conversation about Moderna. My name is Courtney Breen. I am the U.S. pharma analyst here at Bernstein. And it is my privilege to have Stéphane Bancel here with me, the CEO and Chairman of Moderna. He's been in this role for a decent amount of time as well and has seen Moderna through the ages and through the different areas of the company. So I'm really excited to kind of have an opportunity to dive into kind of Moderna today, where Moderna has come from and where Moderna might be going in the future.
I also know that AI is a super important topic for all investors these days. So we'll be hoping to touch on kind of the impact and potential of AI and drug discovery and kind of in operating some of these businesses. But I do also want to remind you that if there are other topics that I'm not planning on covering that you'd love to have covered in this conversation, please do send them through the Pigeonhole app. You'll find a QR code to be able to send them through. I'll receive them up here and can integrate them into the conversation. So we want to make this as relevant and as impactful for everyone's here.
But without further ado, Stéphane, again, thank you so much for joining us here today. As I mentioned, you've been leading Moderna for a while, I think, since 2011. It was back kind of before there were any products in the market. Before we knew about COVID. Back before then we had the COVID vaccine. A lot has changed between then and now. What has fundamentally changed in how you're thinking about the opportunity for Moderna and how you're running the business of Moderna today?
That's a great question. Good morning, everybody. Thank you, Courtney and the team for having us here today. So yes, I've been CEO since the beginning. I was employee #2 technically. There was a scientist at Flagship VC whom the founders had recruited and I joined and we started to have the team. So of course, the job has changed a lot.
If I look maybe pre-pandemic, we were really a research and early development company. We have quite a number of products in the clinic.
I think my belief in mRNA has increased tremendously for a few reasons. First, nobody has got the mRNA product approved in 2018. If we take the IPO time frame, pre-pandemic, whereas now we have four products that have been approved by FDA, another one being under review right now and a lot of readouts for Phase III in cancer and in rare disease this year. So it's kind of quite a different world.
And the team keeps on pushing the boundaries of the science of the platform. And so I think we're still in the very early days of what mRNA can do for patients. I've always taken a very long view on things, which is when we started the company, I used the biotech technology as kind of what I was trying to achieve with mRNA, which is if you think about Amgen and Genentech when they started in the '70s, which is like more than 50 years ago now. They had no idea they could do antibodies. They're working on human protein. And it was not working well in the early days, and then they made the first growth hormone insulin and then they made more and then made first antibodies. And if you look at the biggest set of products as we know in pharma today, it's mostly antibodies and proteins, right?
And so we've always taken that arch to say, okay, if we invest in science, if you can scale the company, you can be the true platform we should be able to get a lot of medicine over time into many therapeutic areas. And so I used to spend a lot of my time before COVID on just research and early development because that's where we were. If you look at where we are today, we are very different companies present around the world. So I would say spend maybe 25% of my time on the commercial business. Which is sales, marketing, manufacturing, cost of goods, scalability, prelaunch of products like Intismeran, right now in the thick of Intismeran pre-launch activity, marketing, medical, pricing, sales. Same thing for PA, we record that on rare disease because the Phase IIIs are reading this year.
That's maybe around 1/4 of my time on research and early development because, again, as I just said, I believe we're still in the early days of mRNA. I believe we are the only company at scale today because the landscape has changed a lot. CureVac used to be an independent company. It was the first mRNA company. They're gone. They have been acquired by BioNtech. BioNtech is spitting in two. They just announced as closing down their manufacturing facilities in Germany. And so Sanofi bought Translate Bio. Translate Bio, they just announced they're not working on the flu program anymore, Sanofi on mRNA. So the world has changed a lot. And I think we are the only company today at scale to be able to keep inventing new technologies. So I need to spend a lot of time helping the team find the next IND.
And then I spend around maybe 25% of my time on AI today because I think it's an amazing opportunity to reinvent the business of its science or it's just how we do work. And then the rest is around talent and a bit of time with investors.
Fantastic. Super helpful. You touched on so many things that we're going to dive into in this conversation. Perhaps one thing that didn't necessarily come up as where you're spending time with some of the policy pressures.
Last year was a year where I think every single biotech and pharma company perhaps spent an inordinate amount of time kind of dealing with the potential risks, policy risks that might have landed at the doorsteps of the sector. We're still seeing changes play out of the FDA, particularly. We no longer have an FDA Director of Commissioner. We've got an acting individual in that role. He's come from the food side.
How are you thinking about the changes occurring in the regulator kind of impact of vaccine skepticism, but also is there going to be consistency? And therefore, how does that influence how you're making decisions in R&D and kind of the choices you have to make upfront that perhaps then don't land in front of the regulator for a couple of years?
Sure. That's a big question. So I would say, obviously, for the industry, it is really important to have predictability. I mean, every CEO said the same thing over the last couple of years because of a very long life cycle of our industry in terms of investment and returns, we need predictability. We need to know when we invest in something, is that what's going to be reviewed ? Is it going to be reviewed in the right way and so on. So that's, of course, really important.
The good news, I would say, is that most of the teams do the work. So I think it's important to differentiate at an agency like the FDA, what the commissioner and the head of the divisions do, which is around the policy about the future. So of course, that is really important for the agency to prepare for the future. So not having roles filled is, of course, a problem for the country, for Americans and the health, if you think about 5, 10 years from now.
But if you look at the product reviews we're having, whether it's a vaccine, whether it's a rare disease or Intismeran. It's a working team that are in constant discussion with our working team. And those teams are pretty stable. There's been a bit of changes early last year. But thankfully, for our programs, they have not been really impacted. The key players in all our key programs have stayed through since early 2025.
And so I'm, of course, like anybody else anxious to see stability in the agency. To be able to have people in a leadership position to talk about for example AI. How do we use AI to file for approval? How do we use AI to do science? How do we use AI to enroll clinical trial faster, to get site faster? There's a lot of things that we can decide ourselves as how we run the business. But because we are a regulated industry, there are a lot of things we need the regulatory approval, and so we need policy clarity on those topics.
So I'm hopeful because I'm not optimistic. I'm an entrepreneur also. I have to be optimistic. or I will be in different lines of business. I think those things are going to get resolved. And again, they don't impact us short term, they impact us on more long term.
Yes, absolutely. So per super helpful. I do want to get back to AI, but maybe I'll dive into some important data, particularly as we've got ASCO on the horizon and a big oncology conference and more data anticipated later this year for your Intismeran program. And just for those in the audience that don't know, this is what previously might have been called a personalized vaccine is now being turned over as an individualized neoantigen therapy that can be used to reduce the likelihood of progression or disease in cancer states.
You've obviously got programs ongoing for melanoma. We've seen some very long-term Phase II data. Demonstrating durability of the outcomes and outperformance relative to standards of care like KEYTRUDA, which previously were big step-ups. How do you think about kind of what we might see later this year? What is the goal in terms of what could be demonstrated for this product? How different might it be to what we've seen in the Phase II for the product so far? And perhaps just a broader question, what could be the potential future for something like Intismeran, if you were we're thinking a few years further out?
Wow, that's a lot of questions. So I would take them in order. If I forget anything I'm sure you keep me honest. So we shared the top line of the 5-year data in January of this year with a hazard ratio of around 0.5, which we are very pleased about because it was the same as what we saw at 3 years.
And so as you said, the durability of a response was extremely exciting to us, what it can mean for patients and what it can mean for the company. And what also was really exciting to us as we looked at the data in detail is the p-value. The p-value improved as well. Which when you see a study where you have duration in oncology and improvement in p-value, this is really a good sign. Again, does that mean it's going to be a great outcome, but it's a really, really important key enablers to a great outcome in Phase III.
We're excited about this weekend. So there are two things that ASCOs, of course, the full data set of the 5-year data Monday morning, scheduled as a plenary session oral session at ASCO. We have an Investor Day at the end of the day to walk people through the data. We don't have direct access to ASCO. And this weekend, against public information, there is a poster about the translational medicine of Intismeran, which is really at the cell level, a very detailed work is being presented this weekend ahead of the clinical data to explain how Intismeran works.
We've already shared a little bit at ASCO before including, I remember in 2018, showing in lung cancer, how we could take the blood from people -- from patients, sorry, before we inject them the product, we had sequenced the DNA of the tumor cell. So we knew exactly what antigen we coded in our product. But we took the blood before we had the first injection of Intismeran. We look at the T-cell for those new antigen. And then we do the same thing after [ four ] those, and we show that T-cells we are starting to recognize the new antigen that we knew we coded in our product. Yes we knew the patient T-cell did not recognized before starting Intismeran. So that's a great proof of mechanism. The question we all had, which is when we saw the clinical data 2 years, 3 years and now 5 years, we are very pleased to say, do you have any clinical impact because you could have T-cell activation, but have no clinical impact, and that's not the drug.
But we saw the mechanism, you're going to get more detail on Saturday, and then we saw the data and now the duration of the data. So like anybody else, I'm binded to the data, when we have the data, you have unit of data pretty quickly. As we always do at Moderna, we never keep data wrapped that are important for obvious reasons. And so we're looking forward to the data.
I think the piece that is exciting is that we just announced recently with Merck, a new Phase III study in lung disease. It's our second one, Phase III in lung, just to tell you, Merck's and our beliefs in the science and the mechanism. It's in Stage I lung cancer patients. If you're diagnosed with lung cancer in stage I you do not get a checkpoint today because of a side effect of checkpoints. As you know the checkpoints when they work are wonderful medicine, but they come with a heavy side effect profile. And so the standard of care today is surgery. Sometimes chemo, sometimes no chemo and monitoring the situation. But here, the idea is to try Intismeran as a monotherapy because whether in the study, we're also going to try Intismeran plus KEYTRUDA. But we are very, very excited. Personally, I'm very excited about trying Intismeran on monotherapy because we know from the Phase I study of Intismeran, we showed had at ASCO several years ago that we had response in several tumor types, including lung, because of what we understand the mechanism, partly was going to be presented on Saturday at ASCO on melanoma.
We really believe that if you go earlier in disease, you have first less burden of disease. And two, you have a stronger immune system. And what is very clear to us is that this drug works by teaching your immune system, what to look for or your T-cell to go eat your cancer. And so we believe that having a very healthy immune system is very important. Earlier in disease, we believe, is going to increase the odds of our medicines working well.
Fantastic. That's super exciting. And I think the there's one question of, does it work in melanoma? And then the next question immediately is how well is it going to work in other cancer? And do they have to be highly immune-sensitive cancers? Or can they be kind of a broader set of heading towards your gastrics and other cancers and other immune sensitive.
Yes. So like in science, we have to run the experiment because you cannot know a priority. But we are deploying a lot of capital and so is Merck. Again, for those of you that are not close to the partnership, it's a 50-50 cost share now and profit share. So every time you see a study going, you know that Merck is paying half of it and the capital allocation they're making compared to a lot of other assets we have in the pipeline, of course.
Look, as I just shared, we have shown earlier response of Intismeran as a monotherapy without even KEYTRUDA in melanoma, lung, head and neck. So with what we know of melanoma and the mechanism of action, we believe, I personally believe -- strongly believe. It's not the we don't deploy capital either that where KEYTRUDA works, Intismeran should help improve the response from KEYTRUDA.
How much is it? Is it a 0.5 hazard ratio like melanoma? I don't know. We have to run the clinical experiment to know. Could it be better in some, worse in other, most probably. The piece that I'm excited about, as I said a minute ago, with our lung Stage1 disease is to go earlier in disease. For example, I learn talking to key opinion leaders, world key opinion leaders in melanoma that some patient Stage 2 melanoma do not want a checkpoint because of the side effect. So could 1 day we go earlier in disease, assuming the Phase III is successful of melanoma later this year, do we want to go earlier in disease because that could be interesting and could Intismeran monotherapy. We actually could become standard of care because you don't have a safety profile. I think what most people are missing about it is Intismeran, and you have to do the work because it's a different asset, it's different technology. Its the safety profile.
The safety profile of Intismeran is similar as an infectious disease vaccine. So I think if you have a cancer and you're diagnosed by cancer or a loved one, and you are told you can try this drug, and it's like you might spike a fever tonight or you might have chills tonight and that's it. If you have a cancer and that's a side effect profile, like yes, sign me in.
We've said it several times, but -- the Phase III Intismeran plus KEYTRUDA drug melanoma study was a fastest study Phase III of KEYTRUDA that Merck ever enrolled. And I cannot say we did it better than Merck. It's not true. Merck run the study. And they are pretty good at running clinical study in oncology last time I checked. And this was a fastest study ever enroll in Phase III. And you asked the investigators why, and I have done that myself, and they tell you Stéphane was an easy call. We had very exciting data in Phase II, 0.5 hazard ratio, one in two people benefiting and the safety profile is like our vaccine.
Every patient that I told that, that they have one in two chance that this is better than what I'm going to give them anyway, KEYTRUDA. And there's no downside in safety in the like mine, which is why the PIs sometimes will tell me, I signed up everybody. Because I recommend it to everybody and when I explain it to them, they all signed up. So that's I think the interesting thing about Intismeran is its safety profile. It's unlike anything I think we have seen as a field in oncology.
Absolutely because you usually in some ways trying to...
It's always the trade-off. And when you see sometimes a lot of time, you have two checkpoints together and then you have a lot of talks.
Absolutely. So the core of your business today, though, is still very vaccines, very COVID oriented. And we've obviously been through a lot of evolutions of the COVID market. It seems like we're getting to perhaps a more stable level, predictable level of what does cover vaccine utilization look like going forward? Perhaps you can make a comment on that, but also norovirus, this is different to COVID in so many ways as you think about this opportunity. Can you talk about the market opportunity here? And what will it take for this to become a really meaningful contributor to Moderna's revenue profile?
Sure. So again, a lot of good questions, Courtney, as I want to try to unpack everything. So yes, today, we're [indiscernible] vaccine business. We have now four vaccine approved around the world. We should get through this year. And if Noro Phase III is positive later this year, we'll file it very quickly, and it could be approved next year.
And if that happens, we'll be, I believe, with the largest respiratory portfolio of any company, which will be very helpful to us as we negotiate with customers because in the U.S., most people want to realize, we sell directly to pharmacies whether it's a CVS or Walmart local pharmacies. And there's no PBM in the middle. So we are direct in a B2B setting and be able to bundle product is really important. And for one of the reason we have struggled with RSV, in my opinion, is two things. One has been the market has decreased in size tremendously. Because of a lack of a recommendation by [indiscernible] for boosting people. So basically you got the first class of people who all went in. He was a great first year for GSK and Pfizer with the [indiscernible] year 2 and year 3 with no recombination yet. I believe there will be a vaccination recommendation because if you look at the epidemiology, natural infection after a couple of years, you start to be infected and seek again.
And so what we've done over the last capital years is a few things. First, we've become much better at predicting the business because it was tough to model coming down from the pandemic. Because if you think about Moderna, we went from too big roller coaster, [indiscernible]. One was first going up from $0 to $18 billion of sales in the year. I don't think the company has ever done that before. That's at least what [indiscernible], let's say at a time. And then we went down from $18 billion to around $1.9 billion last year. So it's down 90%. No pharma company has ever done that because when they lose patent expiry on one product, it's one product. This was the company.
So we did everything we have to do in terms of processing manufacturing. We sign the company and so on. So I think that we're in a very good place. We still have work to on costs and opportunities that I think we're in a very good place. And so what is interesting for me is last year, we were in our guidance of sales for the first time because the year before were not.
And this year, we're predicting growth. And if you look at how good our Q1 was based on our outside the U.S. strategy, especially U.K. was a big driver in Q1. Even if we are flat in Q2, Q3, Q4, you will have sales growth compared to last year as you can run the math.
So I'm quite excited about where we're going. I think we stabilized. We're going to back this year and sales growth and with a very diversified product portfolio now. So four products approved, maybe five by customers, maybe six by next year. and a great geographic diversification, which is, of course, very helpful.
So I'm very excited about Noro because Noro has no vaccine on the market. Everybody in the room, I'm sure, knows of Noro from personal experience, it's not a fun experience to go through. I know doctors that have told me, when you have a Noro vaccine, I'm sure you're going to get every year, even though I don't get through every year, and I know I should. I get no way very because I would rather have a flow that we can be having no from doctors working hospitals, protecting all of us.
And so if you think about Noro the market is clearly people at high risk, age, obviously, comorbidity, usual, cancer, cardiac comorbidity, autoimmune disease, allergy and other things that I would know those infections are very bad for.
Development is going to be interesting is health care workers. Like I just mentioned the doctor to have heard it from nurses, nursing home with the elderly and then teachers, because same go talk to kindergarten teachers or lower school teachers, and they tell you, yes, I would like a Noro virus vaccine. They might not be at the full shot of a COVID shot, they take the Noro vaccine because they get Noro regularly because of just all the little kids that take off every year. And that's how we parents get Noro going back from school.
So I think Noro was going to be quite an interesting opportunity from a marine standpoint. I think is going to be very interesting opportunity for product building with customers because if you look at the margin the retailers are making on vaccines.
Again, for people who don't know they make profit from a discount they get from us and our competitors compared to list price. They get reimbursed by the payers, but to get an administration fee. So when you add those two numbers, it's actually a very large number. And if you do the math, you need to sell a lot of [ Kitkats ] to the same EBIT margin are selling one vaccine, which is where you get text from CVS and Walmart over time to get more vaccines and so on, that's why. So when you go to a pharmacy, pharmacist will ask you, are you here for food, you want COVID, are you for COVID, you want RSV or you on [indiscernible] because they get cash bonus, the pharmacist. So I think the bit to bundle products is really important for us in terms of share.
And if you think about the growth of our customers, we arcane for product. We are the only one with combo approved at IDS, but Phase III data in the U.S., Noro. So we're going to be at a stage that was really handicapping us before where we didn't have a lot of unique products. Moderna is literally in '26, '27, '28 going to flip to a company that has not one, but several products that you're going to want for your growth, that I'm going to be the only one we're able to provide to you.
So it's going to be quite interesting what happens to us in the next couple of years. The good news for us from a P&L standpoint is I don't need to add on a rep. So think about the cost leverage because I still have the same team going to CVS and the same team going to Walmart. I don't need to get the ones crop in U.S. and the manufacturing is all [ gravy ] because it's volume. I have a platform company able to spend $1 of CapEx to launch Noro or the combo. It's the same manufacturing equipment, the same people in the same factory. So what we're going to see -- and by the way, the cost of good infectious disease -- sorry, the R&D cost of infectious disease is going to come down because those Phase III studies, sunset. And so I'm going to have a very interesting P&L leverage at every line because of good R&D and SG&A.
So a I love the vaccine business. And by the way, I love a [ tale ] as well of a vaccine business. Those products last forever. I mean, you used to work for Merck, those products are in the market forever. Because the buy to entry is a $1 billion Phase III.
Absolutely. And some of those products can grow for 40 years.
And plus, as we update them all the time because the COVID is different from core last year and core 2 years ago. And so there's also that aspect to it. So I love [indiscernible]. I know what everybody does, I love it.
You touched some a few things that sparked my interest and I do want to get to cut some of the cost cutting you've been through and where there still is areas to cut in, I think you made some comments about not needing to add to generate some of this revenue, which I think is interesting as well.
There's also a question that's come in from the audience that builds on some of the vaccines topics. So I'll hit that first. which is we've seen an announcement on Tuesday this week that [ Eli Lilly ] has become a vaccines company again three acquisitions in one morning. Can you perhaps tell us how does this sit with your strategy? How does -- how do you see them now as a competitive set?
I think there was actually some commentary from Lilly that actually echo some of the things that Moderna commented on in terms of EBV and the potential for [ Sequele ] and long-term health impacts. But it would be great to hear how are you internalizing kind of this new news.
So I think it's great news. I think first, it's a great news for the world because we need more vaccines. They are more than hardware barriers that helps human. There is vaccine for less than [ 30 ]. So having a couple of serious vaccine players is a good thing for humanity, number one. Number two, I think for everybody was running away from vaccine 2 years ago and we stuck to it because we believe there's a medical need. If you add just the depth of COVID RSV, flu and Noro, it stacks in the top 5 deaths in this country. Will you take a vaccine to not have cancer. We will take a vaccine to not a hard attack. Yes and yes, I'll take both. We see why every year, I take my true shot, my COVID shot, I got in my first [indiscernible] because I'm more than 50 in the fall.
Like table stake, you want to go for sleep and run and it's healthy and you don't think of vaccines at rally. Okay. And then as you said on EBV, we believe so deeply about EBV. We believe EBV is one of the nastiest virus that hurts human. Of course, we know it mononucleosis. But it's most probably the #1 cause of [ MS ]. Many cancers are caused by EBV.
A virus that stays in your body forever. It is not a good thing. It is not a good thing. Look at the new data coming on [ Shingrix ] with [indiscernible] and potentially slowing down dementia. It's only observational now. GSK is running a study, a prospective study. It's not surprising that virus stays in your brain. It inflames your brand. It's a piece of the. It was a DNA virus. It's a piece of DNA in your human cells. We does it do it creates inflammation. If anybody likes inflammation, I don't think you're feeling hard about biology.
And so the one is an EBV vaccine. We have one right now. Actually, we have two, sorry. When in Phase II has a [ prophylactic ] vaccine, we're going to necrosis. And hopefully, we'll have to prove when they proven [ MS ]. Think about the nickel impact of that. And then we have an EBV vaccine as a treatment for MS patients. It's in the clinic right now in MS patients as we speak, and it's trying to manage the viral load of EBV, the quantity of copy of EBV virus, like people have managed beautifully HIV. If you think about HIV, you try to manage your copies of the viral load of HIV to keep it undetectable. So the virus doesn't do damage in your body, same EBV.
And so I'm delighted that Lilly is going after EBV. And I think Lilly coming at this moment after what has happened over the last couple of years around the vaccine hesitancy post-COVID and what has happened around some vaccine misinformation the biggest pharma company in the world that is saying, "I want to deploy capital, not in one, not in two, not in three companies, I want to be a vaccine business, like, alleluia.
And I'm waiting for [indiscernible] for the patients are on the product.
Absolutely. Absolutely. Prevention is one of the best interventions that we can have. Perhaps diving into that kind of costs and scaling side of the equation. I think in 2025, you took something like $2.2 billion of costs out of your business year-on-year. You're tracking to, I think, $4.2 billion in cash costs for this year.
And kind of laid out a target for that even being lower by 2027, somewhere, I think [ $3.5 billion to $3.9 billion ] is the goal. Can you talk a little bit about where have you taken out cash costs? Where are you planning to continue to take out cash costs? And most importantly, where are you cautious when it comes to risking cutting too close to the bone ensuring that, that revenue content.
A lot of questions in one, Courtney. I am going to take them in pieces. So first, we came from $9 billion of cash cost. Last year, we had [ $4.3 billion ]So the first wave was really cutting down manufacturing because we need less volume. So we've had built a very large partner networks for filling. We closed most -- we stopped most of them, but [ Rovi ] in Spain now. And we had a big partnership with [ Lonza ], which did roughly half of the drug substance for the mRNA and the lipid product during the pandemic, and we also ended up a partnership with a big write-off for all those costs. And the raw material that we had purchased because we didn't know the shape of the curve, we want to make sure we can provide vaccine to protect people.
And then it went down to prioritization of a portfolio of R&D. So we cut in R&D. What also helped us is some of the, as I say, infectiously studies tailed off because a lot of people don't appreciate that for regulatory reason our Phase III study in infectious disease failed, last longer than the end of your Phase III. Because for safety reason, and it's a good thing for the world, we have to monitor people in the studies several years after launch. But when those costs are to tail off, of course, it helps you in terms of R&D cost.
And then we took cost across the business. We restructure the whole business to rightsize it for the work, which was a streamlined portfolio. And then -- so we worked a lot with suppliers on cost because during the pandemic, as you can imagine, given we had no time, we didn't go every time we throw an [ RFP ] process because in process takes time. And sometimes suppliers will tell you, yes, if you on this, you to sign now, this needs to sign now for 3 years or you don't get product because I want to go to say to AstraZeneca, [ Myviles ] or to Lilly to somebody else.
And so we knew as we went into the pandemic that there's a lot of work that unwind that cost structure that made no sense, but was the pandemic price of doing business. Because nobody of a supplier, I'm not trying too many rocks at the suppliers just for.
But nobody if you are running a supplier company, whether you make vials or anything else, you add in your business plan for 2020 that there was going to be a pandemic. So of course, in no manufacturing infrastructure, you have not -- do not have people, you own the raw material to make those products. So it was ready. That's what I can do and the capital system, right? And so we structured a lot of that cost and we're still doing it because I was just with the procurement team a couple of years ago, and they're looking at the work they are doing for '26 savings into '27 for contracts that are expiring in '26. So we still have contracts that we have work to do to improve the construction.
I say cost across the whole P&L, whether it's material cost or with some consultant or other things. So cost across the whole P&L, the R&D cost, as we talked about as our RSV comes out. So this will help as well. And then the AI impact is going to be very profound because like most companies, we still have a lot of what we call AI gaps, meaning base data in e-mails and in PowerPoint and our smart sheet and in an [ ERP ] system. Sometimes it's not the same data and sometimes humans have to check out what's true.
It's happening in every company I worked for. And it's even more acute in Moderna because we built the company so fast. If you think about Moderna in 2020, January 2020, we had no late-stage clinical capability 0. We had 0 commercial employees, 0. So what we have to build in 2020 is all those functions, and we build them a lot in stacks parallel to each other right? Because I heard the head of safety of Merck Rose as a safety system in 3 months. So just through one body is, great expertise, we went to still to the industry, hired those people. We paid some suppliers for some [ ITSM ] we needed that we didn't have, [indiscernible] and other companies.
And so all that now we are using actually AI to go and to fit if you could start everything from scratch and do it with today's technology, even last year technology or 2 years ago technology, how will you design the business process? And we're doing it in business process by business sales. I'm personally sponsoring several business process in the company. And we are a business process across the enterprise and some business process within functions for [ Jamie ] in finance, our CFO, he is working with his finance team on things within finance, how can they use technology to streamline how they do work in finance.
I'm also challenging a lot of people about how we organize across functions. So moving things also between functions, consolidating work. So there's still work to be done. I would not surprise if there's still a couple of years of work to be done. I'm not thinking you're going to see everything in cost because I'm going to reinvest some of it into product of science that you will not see at the P&L level because this work reinvention that we're doing right now is, of course, massively enabled by AI and by vibe coding, obviously.
And it's going to impact every business process of the company. Like I cannot think of a business process, and you think about, please, [indiscernible], that is not going to be impacted by our ability to reinvent it with much more digital capabilities, not only AI, I mean software that we can write ourselves with an LLM for vibe coding, that we can plug to our system like SAP and so on. And then if we need a layer of LLM [indiscernible] it to use AI on that data. But to do things even in accounting. I think we can improve accounting tremendously. I think we can improve [indiscernible] in, we can improve [indiscernible]. There's not one business process at I cannot think of I've not spent time with the team that I think we can improve in the next 2 or 4 years.
So because I want to pace things because if I do everything at the same time, we're not going to get a good outcome. And we need a good outcome because we're launching so many products. And we have so many good things happening at the company. So we are just doing waves of business process, and we are very senior people sponsoring them, including me, as I said, for some of them to make sure that the work gets done and that we really challenge more junior people about what really drives the value.
Because like in any company, I still have people doing work that is interesting. That doesn't drive value. So I'm using that also as the moment was okay. Let's really think about everything to build more than half or tomorrow because we have a platform company in terms of the science, the manufacturing. I don't think yet I have platformized the company in all the functions of the company. That's what we are doing there.
And to that point, I mean, just continuing this AI part of the conversation, you're obviously embedding kind of this way of working and perhaps this operational lens to deployment of AI, how can we do things more efficiently. There's also a lot of talk around drug discovery and kind of can we kind of crack new problems in biology. Can we design targets or interventions that are much more likely to succeed in Phase II and Phase III? What's your kind of philosophy or thesis when it comes to the potential for the industry at large, but especially from Moderna comes to?
I want to talk about Moderna because I think the industry will depend how quickly people adopt it, how we are able to change how we do business. So can you talk about the industry with [indiscernible].
I'm extremely excited about AI for science, but I want to be realistic, investors want it next year in the sales, right? Because when the business we need to do our product and take it to [indiscernible] so for context, we have done machine learning in biology since 2016, '17. So this is not new to Moderna. We have actually invented enzymes, which are protein enzymes that we use in our factory, in our reactors that came out of silicon. And when this happened, the first time I remember vividly, the team put it. You're okay in the computer covenant we have not thought about there's going to be better than the one that exists in nature. Somebody was crazy enough to make it with their bare hands and tested. And he was doing exactly as advertised by the computer and he was optimizing the feature that the scientist that coded in the machine learning system.
We've had the time data scientists because my scientist is had no ability to write the machine on algorithm. And but they had achieve what they wanted. They have improved enzyme that exist in today by basically in my own view accelerating time. In just mutating amino acid on the enzyme solving for the chemistry they were looking for, while preserving a part of the enzyme that was doing the job they need to evolving another part of the enzyme that was doing something that didn't want happening in the reactors.
And that was a huge AHA moment for me because then as an engineer, I have heard about AI since encouraged, which is a long time ago. And it was this type of thing will never happen always later. And that moment was a huge AHA moment for me. I was lucky it happened before, COVID because at the time I set up on a academy with in Moderna to start earth one. Half my team for that was nuts.
Then, of course, COVID was a bit of a distraction to us. And then, of course, OpenAI happened, with Chat GPT. And when Chat GPT came out, I read about it a little bit, but a good friend of mine with a software guy, told me early December, you have to try the thing. [indiscernible], you have to try this thing. So as Christmas calmly we had a bit of time. I went hiding somewhere of a computer for a couple hours and [indiscernible] because I was doing science and biology and then physics and then engineering and then [ French ] port tree and then in [indiscernible], this is insane.
And again, I think led the story of Moderna, where I leave the S curve of mRNA technology from day 1. And the piece that shocked me and it was a use so for me because I've read in business book when I went to business school, I read about S curve. But I never lived the one because when I was at Lilly or at [ Boer ] that year, I was on the top of the S curve. So 3% improvement per year was great.
But I've never leave the steep curve myself. I've read [indiscernible] in books. But I was a modern and my scientist will come and say, we have a 5x improvement. Like what? You have what? A 5x improvement. You really show me the data, go redo the experiment, take back 5x, I said, okay.
And then after another team will come, we have 2x improvement. But that's uncorrelated to the 5x. No, it's not. So that's an exit those 2 pieces of science. So we have AHA [indiscernible]. And this had never seen before. And the piece for me about AI, and now we know because we're a bit of a few years behind us, if you talk to people the hyperscalers and so on and people at OpenAI or Entropic or [ DeepMind ], they'll tell you, as you've read doubling of compute every 6 months. Well, I can do math. You guys can do math, right, you can compound on your computer, right? So I have that moment that December when Chat GPT came out, oh geez, this is going to be a big deal. Not necessarily now, but this is the worst version I will ever see in my lifetime. And it has been true every time I've got a new version.
And so when we did that, I reached out to some Sam Altman say, "We need your thing, but I cannot teach everybody else with my data". So we did something which basically we've got a license for our product on AWS, but only for more than I use. And then we help them develop GPT Enterprise, which is now the product we use for all the employees of the company.
And in science now, I think it's going to change two big things for us. One is, let's talk about the field. I think we are going to accelerate the pace of learning about biology. Keeping about immunotherapy that changed the life of so many created so much value but what we do with Intismeran and so many of the biology insights, we have -- we are accelerating as a field, the pace of biology insights. And we can now do because barges very complex systems with negative feedback loop in very complex biology.
If you knit the biology we have done a human so far in the last 50-plus years is one gene, one target. Most of the biology in our bodies don't work like that. Which is why I'm excited about MRNA-2808, one of our products in the clinic, multiple myeloma, for mRNA in the drug going after full target in one chart. That's the future of medicine. You cannot do that if we're not [indiscernible]. But you can know that by mRNA. We've done already the mRNA with 11 mRNA in monkeys.
So I think the [indiscernible] tailwind we're all going to get is going to be amazing. And those are going to be able to catch it, which will go back to comment but the industry, the company is going to be able to catch it. And change how they work and have the workforce to change how they work and be humble to sometimes say to stop this job it will structure a job differently. I need a different skill, I need to upgrade people. So it's going to be a very painful process to adapt the workforce it's really like when you work into the factory when you went from people looking at from by hand and having machines 100 years ago. It was a huge change. It's a huge change management test. So people are going to have the courage to do it and the skills to do it are going to benefit it tremendously.
The second piece that's unique to Moderna is mRNA technology know-how. So what we're building now is a huge flywheel where AI generated hypothesis on M&E technology. I'm not talking biology, mRNA technology, build the mRNA, build the lipid, we can do fazed at the same time, a fatality time, we take me several years before. [indiscernible] in 1 run. Do the in vitro testing, go in animals, go in humans, feedback learn and keep going.
I would argue there's no company in the world that has -- or public institution that has as much human data as Moderna. Same thing for monkeys. Why not scale Moderna to go run a 100 monkey experiment when we have to. With six or seven arms in the study too long. We're obsessed about learning about mRNA. It's one thing that has been since day 1. We believe this is a very long game over several days. We want to be the company we know the most about the mRNA on the planet. And we want to use data we have now an AI to learn even faster because I want nobody to be able to catch up with us.
And to bring that accelerated learning to patients from new medicine. And my goal is to be able to combine two things. So we're developing internal AI machine learning on mRNA, partnering with the best on the biology, whether it's Anthropic or an OpenAI or DeepMind, Google, the best biology and access to all the platforms, I'm not abated to any platform in biology on the best platform. And within the platform of changing each other. We have already processing in a company where you ask the system, the same questions, and you haven't debate the same question in front of your eyes. It's fascinating. About very complex biology and sometimes scientists I didn't think about it.
A bit like remember we [indiscernible] came and people are protonated you, the competitor made a move had no human that they were recorded, we [indiscernible] in biology. We sent to see insights that no human scientists that we're aware of published on or documented.
And so combining those two things to design drugs. So the scientist of Moderna starting today because I have pieces of those two vectors. I don't have the full vectors yet. But getting those two vectors to be able to design your medicine is going to be fascinating.
So then, of course, we have to take them to a clinic. The piece I think the development process will be accelerated is like all my peers from GLP talks to filing an IND to Phase I and Phase II, Phase III data BLA, it's all a business process, sorry. It's all hundreds of business poses all of them, you can apply AI vibe coding to shrink and shrink and shrink.
The ultimate thing which most will take here is, can you start doing some clinical trial simulation in silicon I think it's for tomorrow, we need the FDA stability as described and so on. But given there's a finalized number of cells in the human body, given we have 20,000 genes, given we have 40,000 metabolites. It's a very big math problem. -- but it's not an infinite math problem.
That's why you see us partnering with IBM in quantum 2 or 4 years ago? Because quantum is going to happen. I don't know precisely, it's happened in '29, in '30, '40, it doesn't change anything for our trajectory. But when it starts working, when I can buy compute IBM or Google or Amazon on quantum, I want my team to know about quantum to understand quantum to have very for how do we use quantum that we're doing. We've already had several problems that the team solved with quantum that we couldn't absorb before -- that has really happened. But I want to be ready for when we do run with quantum because I don't want to discover, we need to do quantum now. It's not how we think about technology. I told you AI 2018, AI academy at Moderna for all the employees, 2016, first machine learning. So I'll do the same thing on quantum because I cannot even understand but my brain cannot understand what quantum and will do together. Put on compute quantum I want to be able to solve a very big science for. So I think 1 day will look clinical trial, not necessarily a full thing, but we do negotiate in [indiscernible].
Much better prediction.
Yes. You can predict all the biology. It's just -- it's all science and math. What happened in our body is not black magic. A lot of things we don't happen, but it's not black market. It's chemical interaction. It's molecule binding to which, it's all physics and chemistry.
Sometimes it's quantum physics. We've done quantum Moderna to sort some problems. Sometimes you have to go there science bigger is solvable. You just need enough compute. That is why I am more excited.
It's a very exciting future and kind of particularly when you sit here and think, and I think others have said maybe it's 1%, maybe it's 5% of biology that we understand the amount of potential unlocks that exist in the future.
And maybe just a side note because it's public information. I'm on the board of General Bio. General Bio has a Phase III drug that came out of a computer. The team designed it with some features they wanted on half-life. The computer design the antibodies. You went into the clinic. It's in Phase III now, and it's working in patients in Phase II as advertised. It's in Phase III now. So the notion that can we make a drug using AI, I think, is a question already answered, yes. The question is what type of innovative drug, but you cannot even think about today, you can make with that.
I mean we had a town hall after an earning call, and I told the team because I spent 2 days deep in science before that, as [ Levina ] was preparing the call and everything. And that's sort I'm convinced we have not invented our best drug yet. I'm deeply convinced, I believe in this brand should be amazing for patients. [ PA ] already the patient stories we're getting from parents for where these are unbelievable the Christmas stories and so on that they never had a Christmas story like this. All the isolation and deaths were preventing with vaccines, but I'm convinced in every set in my body, we have not yet invented besides.
That's an amazing place to end this conversation, perfect timing and a very exciting kind of path towards innovation for the industry as a whole, but also kind of Moderna's journey within that industry. So thank you so much.
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Moderna — Bernstein 42nd Annual Strategic Decisions Conference
Moderna — Bernstein 42nd Annual Strategic Decisions Conference
Bancel skizziert Moderna als reife mRNA‑Plattform mit wachsendem Produkt‑Portfolio, ausgeprägtem AI‑Fokus und Intismeran als zentralem Katalysator.
🎯 Kernbotschaft
- Strategie: Moderna wandelt sich von Forschungsspitze zu einer produktiven, kommerziellen Plattform: mehrere Impfstoffe zugelassen, breiterer Produktmix und verstärkte Kommerzialisierung.
- Prioritäten: CEO-Allokation: je ≈25% auf Kommerz/Sales, Forschung & Entwicklung und Künstliche Intelligenz; Rest auf Talent und Investoren.
🚀 Strategische Highlights
- Onkologie: Intismeran (individualisierte Neoantigen‑Therapie) zeigt 5‑Jahres Phase‑II‑Daten mit Hazard Ratio ~0,5 und verbesserter p‑Value; Sicherheit vergleichbar mit Impfstoffen.
- Partnerschaften: Merck finanziert Phase‑III‑Programme 50/50 (Kosten‑ und Gewinnteil), inklusive Studie in frühstadialem Lungenkrebs; Mercks schnelle Rekrutierung als positives Signal.
- Vaccine‑Franchise: Portfolio erweitert (COVID, RSV, Grippe, Norovirus in Phase III) – Ziel: Bündelangebote an Apothekenkunden zur Margen‑Hebung.
🆕 Neue Informationen
- ASCO‑Timing: Vollständige 5‑Jahresdaten von Intismeran als Plenar‑Präsentation; translationaler Poster/Tiefenanalysen vorab.
- Studienstart: Neue Phase‑III‑Studie in Stadium‑I‑Lunge mit Merck angekündigt; Norovirus‑Phase‑III bei positivem Ausgang schnelle Einreichung und mögliches Zulassungsjahr 2026.
- Guidance‑Update: Keine neue Finanz‑Guidance im Call; Management signalisiert Stabilisierung und Wachstum gegenüber Vorjahr, aber keine konkreten neuen Zahlen.
❓ Fragen der Analysten
- Regulatorik: Sorge um FDA‑Führung und Policy‑Stabilität; Management sagt: Review‑Teams sind stabil, kurzfristig keine Impact‑Einschränkung, langfristig Bedarf an Klarheit (z.B. AI‑Regeln).
- Intismeran‑Risiken: Analysten fragten nach Übertragbarkeit auf andere Tumorarten und dem möglichen Effekt in früheren Stadien; Management betont Sicherheitsprofil und biologischen Mechanismus, bleibt bei Wirksamkeitserwartung datengetrieben.
- Kosten & AI: Nachfrage nach Details zu Kostensenkungen und AI‑Einsatz; Bancel nennt drastische Kostensenkungen in den letzten Jahren, fortlaufende Prozesswellen und AI‑Projekte zur Automatisierung, gibt aber keine exakten kurzfristigen Einsparungszahlen.
⚡ Bottom Line
- Investment‑Implication: Moderna positioniert sich als Multi‑Produkt‑Impfstoffanbieter mit Hebelwirkung durch Skaleneffekte und AI‑getriebene Effizienz; Intismeran ist der wichtigste klinische Katalysator (ASCO, Phase‑III‑Programme) mit hohem Upside, aber klinische Replikation und regulatorische Klarheit bleiben zentrale Risiken.
Moderna — RBC Capital Markets Global Healthcare Conference 2026
1. Question Answer
And today, they're a great privilege to have Moderna as part of our 2026 Global Healthcare Conference. Representing the company, we have Lavina Talukdar as Head of Investor Relationship here. Lavina, thanks so much for joining us. How are you doing today?
Great. Thank you so much for having us.
That's awesome. Yes. We have a long list of questions here. But maybe before we go into the individual programs, let's start big picture. Can you maybe talk about what progress has Moderna made over the last few months? And maybe most importantly, what's ahead here for Moderna?
Sure. Great question. So I'll start with like the foundations that have been laid in 2025. So we entered that year with a little bit of uncertainty given the change in administration and the transition that was taking place. However, we try to control what we can control and costs came out of the infrastructure pretty significantly. We set a goal to take out $1 billion in cash costs, and we took out $2 billion.
And we also ended the year at the high end of our revenue guidance of $1.9 billion in sales, which I think, again, makes a really good foundation or establishes what we did in the first quarter of this year, also continuing on cost containment and beating sales expectations, mainly driven by where we see growth drivers this year, the ex U.S. strategic partnerships as well as mNEXSPIKE later in the fall to be continuing to drive growth for us.
Got you. Got you. Super helpful. Maybe given this is obviously been some headlines around Hantavirus, -- we continue to see those headlines kind of daily. However, it looks like the risk to the general public remains relatively low. What has Moderna disclosed around what kind of effort you guys are doing around Hantavirus?
So we do have preclinical programs that we're working on with the U.S. Army Medical Research as well as a program that we've had with the Korean Institute of Innovation at Korea University. But again, it's preclinical data, preclinical efforts that are going on there. But as you said, we're watching Hantavirus. It doesn't seem to be posing too much of a risk at this point in time. But the good news is with mRNA technology, should there be an issue, we can spring into action pretty quickly.
Yes. That's helpful. Let's pivot to INT. You're going to obviously have some data at ASCO. Maybe just walk us through -- this is the Phase II data, melanoma. I think you're going to have the 5-year data. I think we already have seen the hazard ratio for progression-free survival. However, I'm assuming you're going to present some data for OS. What should be the expectations for OS into ASCO?
Again, I think you presented data a couple of years ago. There was only 9 events at that time. I'm assuming we have more events now. But do we have enough events to have a meaningful OS Kaplan-Meier curve here? Or how should we think about that?
So you're right, we will be presenting data at ASCO, and it is the 5-year follow-up data to the Phase II study where we're testing intismeran plus KEYTRUDA versus KEYTRUDA alone. And the big news is really that the recurrence-free survival hazard ratio has remained the same. So we're really seeing a durable effect there.
And -- good question on OS. I do want to talk about the significance of recurrence-free survival as well as OS. And so with recurrence-free survival, it is a higher bar than OS is, in terms of you're asking 2 questions with recurrence-free survival, you're asking, did the cancer come back? And is the patient alive?
And so that bar is a little bit more stringent and higher, which is why recurrence-free survival is the gold standard. And as you just mentioned, the fact that it held at a hazard ratio of 0.51 is very impressive. On OS, we are following OS as well. It still may be immature data. However, we will potentially have a full data set at ASCO, which will include OS as well as DMFS.
Got you. Got you. That's helpful. Maybe just a quick follow-up on recurrence-free survival, which to your point is obviously the primary endpoint in the Phase III trial, right? So are you going to show us the p-value, both one-sided and 2-sided? I think in the press release, you have showed the p-value of one-sided. Is there -- are we going to share both at ASCO or still TBD?
I think you'll see the p-value and the one-sided versus 2-sided is literally, you can just multiply it by 2.
Okay. Okay. That's helpful. Maybe let's talk about the Phase III interim for melanoma. The company is obviously not committing to whether data is going to come this year or next year. It's possible this year, obviously it depends on the number of events and how those events will accumulate. Just maybe walk us through what's your latest thinking there? And how are you spending the alpha between the Phase III versus the Phase II?
So in a scenario where the trial failed the interim look at Phase III, does that mean that the data is worse than the Phase II? Or are you spending the alpha differently so we can't compare one to the other? Any thoughts there?
So we -- you are correct that this study is event-driven. And we do expect that 2026 is a pretty good estimate of when we will see that data set. However, we haven't commented at all on any of the statistics. So I'm afraid I can't answer any of the questions around the statistics.
Got you. But the 2 scenario at this point is that either the trial continues to the next interim or it hits on efficacy. Is that the way to think about it?
If there was an interim analysis, yes, the SMB will be looking at the results of that analysis, and it can either go on to the next analysis or we can stop the study for efficacy.
Is there a look for futility as well? Or is it just for efficacy for Phase II?
The Phase II study was very strong, as we just talked about. And so there isn't just a futility analysis.
Got you. Got you. That's helpful. We've seen this move in oncology over and over again with some time the standard of care evolves when you're kind of mid-trial, if you will. And obviously, the NADINA trial suggests that maybe PD-1 and CTLA-4 should be used in the neoadjuvant settings instead of the adjuvant settings of your trial is in the adjuvant setting.
So is there a scenario where by the time you read out your trial, maybe the standard of care has moved and everybody has moved to the neoadjuvant setting and your trial is less relevant? Or is that maybe not the right way to think about it?
So my understanding is that the NADINA study was an investigator-run study and the results were impressive. It may take some time for it to actually become more of a standard of care. In any case, having an armamentarium of medicines and products that physicians can prescribe for their patients is important. And the other thing that I'd like to point out around the combination so far with intismeran and KEYTRUDA is the remarkable safety profile there. We don't see any overlapping safety, which makes it a pretty powerful offering should this be a positive Phase III trial and make it to market.
Got it. Got it. That's actually helpful. Moderna commented on price should that drug ultimately become a reality? We're all obviously rooting for patients here. How should we think about pricing in the context of where IO is today, in the context of where CAR-T is today? Like any big picture thoughts on that side?
So it's a little premature to talk about price. We'd like to see the data first. And so unfortunately, we won't have any comments on price. But as you pointed out, there are IO-IO programs and products on the market that can give you somewhat of a proxy of what pricing may look like, but it will also be data dependent as well.
Okay. That makes sense. You also have 2 additional Phase II trials that are fully enrolled for INT, obviously, both renal cell carcinoma as well as bladder. Maybe just talk about timing of when those data sets could come out. Again, my understanding is that the melanoma Phase III trial enrolled, finished enrollment before the renal cell carcinoma trial. And I think if I look at the Kaplan-Meier curve for the PD-1 monotherapy, it looks like events are accumulating faster in melanoma than RCC. So would it be fair for us to assume that no matter what, the melanoma trial will come before RCC?
A couple of points for you. You're right that the melanoma study was fully enrolled in September of 2024. So there has been more time with that study being fully enrolled and events accruing. The RCC trial was fully enrolled as of the second quarter of 2025. So less time with that study being fully enrolled.
And if you were to compare the Kaplan-Meier curves of IO programs or checkpoint inhibitors by themselves, you would probably see that melanoma patients recover quicker than RCC. So when we say that 2026, we feel pretty good about the melanoma readout despite it still being event-driven, there is a possibility maybe RCC could read out, but it is event-driven, but we haven't committed to a readout in 2026 at all.
Got you. Got you. That's helpful. We also have seen some interesting data published in Nature Biotech, where essentially patients that received -- that were on PD-1 and actually received COVID actually had better responses than patients that did not receive COVID. So in your Phase III for melanoma, are you stratifying in any capacity, the number of patients that are going to receive COVID on both arms? Should we -- or is there a scenario where maybe you have more patients that receive COVID in one arm versus the other and that imbalance can kind of skew the statistics, if you will? How should we think about that?
So we -- I don't believe we are stratifying for COVID vaccination. What I can say is that we are very keen on seeing the mechanism of action really shine through in intismeran with intismeran plus KEYTRUDA. And there is some data that's been presented on the neoantigen selection at AACR earlier this year. We hope to have additional data on the neoantigens in our intismeran product, where we're seeing an effect of the selected neoantigens and recurrence.
And so very much in line with the mechanism of action that we expect to see. Whereas with the COVID vaccine, it's really hard to pinpoint what exactly is happening there. That study that was published, I believe, in Nature, also could have many confounding issues there in terms of the type of patients that would get COVID vaccines are likely to be more healthier. So a lot to be kind of still serrated out from that study. But we will have our data, the Phase III data, hopefully, at some point in the future that should give us a good answer on the mechanism of action that's happening with intismeran plus KEYTRUDA.
Got you. Got you. That's very helpful. What about the metastatic settings? I mean, so far, obviously, the data that we've seen is primarily in the adjuvant setting. We have seen some data in the metastatic settings from basket studies from back in the days, ASCO, I think maybe 18 or something.
Just however, I believe that you and Merck have yet to commit to run a registrational trial in the metastatic settings. What's holding you back? Is there anything in the biology that makes you believe that this is much more likely to work in the adjuvant settings versus the metastatic settings?
So we do have a study, a Phase II study that's running in metastatic frontline melanoma as well as metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the lung, so non-small cell lung cancer squamous. And those studies have just recently been up and running. And so we are eager to see what the data there looks like. But you're right, the vast majority of the program with partner Merck has been really focused on the earlier settings in the adjuvant setting as well as potentially going even earlier as we just announced our non-small cell lung cancer study in Stage 1 patients.
So yet to be determined if it is something the mechanism of action is really the driver of that selection. We want to see the data both in the metastatic setting as well as the adjuvant setting before we rule out any area where intismeran plus KEYTRUDA doesn't show a benefit.
Got you. Got you. That's helpful. I think in non-small cell lung cancer, which is obviously the largest potential commercial opportunity in the metastatic settings, I think the only trial that you have started is actually in the squamous histology, not in the non-squamous histology.
In the metastatic setting.
Metastatic setting, the squamous histology, not non-squamous. Can you just maybe talk about why that's the case? Is that because squamous is more driven by smoking? And so patients have higher tumor mutational burden. And so this mechanism of action is more likely to respond in that histology or what?
I'm sure there's multiple reasons why we selected going into the squamous cell setting. I'll just remind you that there is a joint steering committee with both the Merck scientists and the Moderna scientists when we agree and move forward in the development and in the different areas of development. So there are probably multiple reasons why they decided to go with squamous in the metastatic setting.
Got you. Got you. That's helpful. Maybe pivoting to flu, never a boring day with the FDA these days, right? Maybe at a high level, is the fact that Makary and Prasad are no longer at the FDA, a good thing or a bad thing for Moderna?
I would just really think about how Moderna has worked with the FDA and the review staff, the scientific -- career scientists that are there all throughout 2025 and remind folks that the relationship that we've built with the FDA based on the science and the products that we take through is a really strong one. And that's really evidenced in 3 different programs that were approved by the FDA last year.
And that includes our new COVID vaccine, an expansion of the RSV label for high-risk individuals 18 to 59 years old as well as the pediatric vaccine that was approved, a full approval on the pediatric vaccine. And we are the only ones that have a COVID pediatric vaccine in the setting of 6 months to 5 years old. And so I think that shows that strong relationship rooted in the science, and we expect that to continue given that it's really started and it is with the review staff and the career scientists that are at the FDA.
Sure. That's helpful. I think PDUFA date for flu is the upcoming, right, August 5, if I recall it correctly. What's the latest thinking there? Have you had any back and forth with the FDA? Are you already in label discussions? Like how should we think about that?
So that review is ongoing. And you're right, August 5 is our PDUFA date. We typically don't talk about back and forth with FDA, but we are looking forward to a decision on that date.
Got you. Got you. That's helpful. How should we think about the commercial opportunity for flu? Obviously, it's an established market. There's a lot of players out there. Probably the most intuitive competitor here will be Fluzone HD from Sanofi, which is obviously doing pretty well commercially. Like just walk us through how should we think about the ramp of the flu vaccine from here in the United States? And are there any lessons learned from RSV? Obviously, the launch of RSV hasn't been maybe what some of us were hoping for. So what are some of the key lessons learned from RSV that you're hoping to apply here for flu? And how should we think about the trajectory of this market going forward?
Sure. So the flu market versus the RSV market, there are some marked differences there. Flu is a very established market with players competitive. But RSV was a relatively new market when we entered that market. And it also had a number of recommendations that actually didn't happen for that RSV market.
So I would characterize RSV as a competitive market. And so we entered a very competitive market where the market wasn't established as well as the lack of having a revaccination schedule that really impacted the market. Whereas with flu, again, a very established market, we'll be entering that market with a strong product profile should we get approved. And I'll just remind you that the head-to-head study that we did with standard flu vaccine showed a 27% relative vaccine efficacy. And so we think we're entering that market with a very strong profile despite the fact that it's a competitive market. We would like to position it as one for that enhanced market that Sanofi is in as well, as you mentioned, for the older adult population.
Got it. Helpful. What about the combo? Obviously, you filed in Europe, and hopefully, there will be a combination of flu and COVID available in Europe soon. However, what's the latest thinking on filing in the U.S.? It's my understanding that for a period of time, you guys were hoping to file them together versus now the FDA has come back and says like, hey, we want to first approve flu before we consider the combo. Where do we stand in the conversations with the regulators to get the combo over the finish line here?
All right. So a couple of corrections there in your question. We are approved in Europe with mCombriax. That approval came through pretty recently in this past quarter. So we're looking forward to starting discussions with NITAGs and getting it ready for the fall of 2027. In the U.S., we first filed for the combination last year, and we were asked to withdraw that filing so that we can add in the flu filing. And now that the flu filing is on track, we're still awaiting guidance from the FDA for the next steps on the combination in the U.S.
Okay. Okay. That's helpful. Maybe COVID and the guide for the year. Again, you're still guiding for potential revenues up to 10% for the year. Obviously, your competitor, Pfizer, has a little bit of a different outlook, they're actually guiding, I think, their COVID franchise more broadly. This is both the vaccine as well as their therapeutics approach, I think, down 23%.
So like what's kind of the best way to rationalize that dichotomy? And maybe just talk us through what are your expectations for vaccination rate in the U.S. I know you guys have guided that vaccination rate is expected to further decline. However, there's got to be some other dynamics that are more than offsetting that vaccination rate coming down. You already mentioned ex U.S. But yes, how should we think about the outlook for COVID for the rest of the year?
Sure. So you're right, we guided to up to 10% growth for 2026. And that growth is going to be driven by our strategic partnerships that are outside of the U.S. in the U.K., Canada and Australia as well as growth of mNEXSPIKE, our new COVID vaccine, which also showed a better relative vaccine efficacy, so higher vaccine efficacy by 13% versus Spikevax. Those 2 drivers are what will be contributing to that growth. And so while I can speak to our growth coming predominantly from the ex-U.S. strategic partnerships as well as continued growth of mNEXSPIKE, it's hard for me to say what Pfizer was thinking about their own guidance.
The visibility we have with those strategic partnerships is pretty strong. And so most of our growth is coming from that -- the international markets. In the U.S., as you pointed out, our guide of up to 10% growth, if you took the midpoint of that instead 5% off of the $1.94 billion of sales last year, you get to roughly $2 billion. And we said that ex U.S. versus U.S. would be a 50-50 split. which would then mean that our U.S. outlook would look for a 20% decline. And there could be multiple factors that go into why we see that U.S. declining.
One of them is vaccination rates, anticipating another potential decline in the number of people getting vaccinations, but it could also be additional competition, for instance. We wanted to be -- take that into account just in case, but still we see growth. And so if we are flat on vaccination rates or flat to the U.S. versus last year, then we would see growth closer to the high end of that up to 10%.
Got you. Got you. That's helpful. Maybe related to it, how should we think about the long-term floor for COVID? Obviously, numbers have come down. And however, there is now some stability, especially ex U.S., to your point. However, again, the timing of the ex U.S. orders and whatnot can be lumpy, and it's kind of hard to fully model that. So what do you think is the floor here? Is it fair for us to think that maybe $1 billion to $1.5 billion floor going forward is the right number here? Or would you guide us against that?
So COVID specifically, last year was, again, on access was a pretty tough year with the transition in leadership at HHS, for instance. And so last year could serve as a pretty good proxy in terms of what we're looking for on the go forward, particularly since those folks who wanted to get their COVID vaccine showed up and got their COVID vaccine. But as you know, we'll just have to kind of go through the years to see if, in fact, last year's rate of vaccination is somewhere in the floor.
But again, these strategic partnerships that we have that do give us visibility into international markets does provide a good sense and visibility on what the COVID and vaccines market will look like, which just gives us confidence in our projections going forward.
Got it. Super helpful. Last question. I know we're already out of time here. But what's the latest on the IP dispute with Roivant and Genevant. Obviously, you settled for a big chunk of money upfront. However, you're still in the hook for $1.3 billion potentially. You're obviously appealing that decision. Maybe just remind us what are the timelines? And I think in your press release, you mentioned that you believe that, that $1.3 billion additional payment is not probable. Why did the legal team concluded that, that $1.3 billion was not probable?
Yes. So a couple of points there. On the appealing, this is actually -- it's going to the court. We do not believe it is probable, and there isn't much more than I can say other than it is not probable in the eyes of our legal team, which is why there isn't a reservation or any kind of reserve on the cash.
Got you. Lavina, I have a lot more questions, but no more time. So I appreciate you joining us here at RBC. Thanks, everyone, for joining, and we'll talk soon. Thanks again.
Thank you.
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Moderna — RBC Capital Markets Global Healthcare Conference 2026
Moderna — RBC Capital Markets Global Healthcare Conference 2026
Moderna betont Kostenabbau und Wachstum über internationale Partnerschaften sowie mNEXSPIKE; klinische Daten zu intismeran und ein Flu-PDUFA sind zentrale Trigger.
🎯 Kernbotschaft
- Kurz: 2025 starke Kostendisziplin (Cash-Kostensenkung von $2 Mrd.) und Umsatz am oberen Guidance-Ende ($1,9 Mrd.); Wachstum 2026 soll von ex‑US-Partnerschaften und dem neuen COVID-Impfstoff mNEXSPIKE getragen werden; intismeran‑Daten (ASCO, 5‑Jahres) untermauern Wirksamkeit (RFS HR 0,51).
⚡ Strategische Highlights
- Koststruktur: Ziel war $1 Mrd., realisiert wurden $2 Mrd. Einsparungen – verbessert Liquidität und Flexibilität.
- Onkologie: Intismeran (neoantigenales mRNA‑Therapeutikum) zeigt anhaltende Rekurrenz‑freie Überlegenheit in Phase II; Phase‑III ist ereignisgetrieben, potenzieller Readout 2026.
- Regulatorik & Produkte: Flu PDUFA am 5. August; EU‑Zulassung für die Kombi (mCombriax) liegt vor; US‑Kombi‑Pfad wartet auf FDA‑Leitlinie.
🆕 Neue Informationen
- Was neu ist: Konkrete Zahl zu Kostensenkungen ($2 Mrd.) und Bestätigung, dass 2025 Umsatz $1,9 Mrd. war; ASCO‑Ankündigung: 5‑Jahresdaten inkl. möglicher OS/Distant Metastasis‑Follow‑up; PDUFA‑Datum und EU‑Kombi‑Rollout‑Ziel bestätigt.
❓ Fragen der Analysten
- Phase‑III‑Timing: Management nennt 2026 als plausiblen Readout‑Zeithorizont, verweigert Details zur statistischen Planung und möglichen Futility‑Analysen.
- Standard‑of‑Care‑Verschiebung: Sorge, dass Neoadjuvant‑Trends die Adjuvanz‑Relevanz verändern könnten; Moderna sieht Zeitbedarf bis zur breiten Adoption und verweist auf Sicherheitsprofil und ergänzende Therapiewahl.
- Kommerz & Risiken: Diskussion zu Flu‑Kommerz (27% RVE vs. Standard), US‑Kombi‑Strategie unklar bis FDA‑Leitlinien; COVID‑Ausblick bis +10% 2026 mit starken ex‑US‑Treibern; rechtliche Kontingenten ($1,3 Mrd.) bewertet Moderna als nicht wahrscheinlich.
⚡ Bottom Line
- Fazit: Operativ stärkt der aggressive Kostenschnitt die Bilanz; der Kurs ist jedoch stark von drei Binärereignissen abhängig: ASCO‑/Phase‑III‑Onkologie‑Daten, Flu‑PDUFA und US‑Kombi‑Regelung. COVID‑Umsatz bietet kurzfristige Stabilität durch internationale Deals, langfristiger Floor aber unsicher. Aktionäre sollten Liquiditätsvorteil und klare klinische/ regulatorische Trigger im Blick behalten.
Moderna — Bank of America Global Healthcare Conference 2026
1. Question Answer
All right. I guess it's quiet, so we'll probably get going then. Thanks for joining the session with Moderna Therapeutics, and thanks for attending the 2026 Bank of America Healthcare Conference. My name is Alex Stranahan. I'm a senior biotech analyst at Bank of America covering Moderna. And I'm pleased to be joined by Lavina Talukdar, Head of Investor Relations. Lavina, thanks for being here.
Thank you so much for having me. That was the best pronunciation of my last name.
Been practicing. But just for this.
But maybe just to start, you've got 4 approved products. You've guided to revenue growth for 2026. You've already beaten your own reduction targets ahead of schedule. I guess, is 2028 still the breakeven target? And is this now maybe conservative? And I guess what are the key variables that could accelerate or delay this?
Yes, great question. Thank you for asking it. we did guide to up to 10% growth in 2026. And there are 2 contributors to that growth that I would focus you guys on. There's increased growth of mNEXSPIKE, which was approved last year and participated in the fall 2026 -- 2025, 2026 season as well as our strategic partnerships in the U.K., Canada and Australia, where we have very good visibility to the growth coming from those 3 markets, owing to the fact that we've built facilities there, and those facilities have been online since 2025.
So the full year effect of those contracts or those strategic partnerships come into play in 2026. We've also, as you just highlighted, beaten our cost guidance that we gave for 2025. The beginning of the year, we guided to taking $1 billion out of our infrastructure costs within Moderna, and we came in at taking out $2 billion in cash costs. So already ahead of the game. 1Q we are on track to meet our cash cost guidance of $4.3 billion for the remainder all of 2026. And so what we can control, we've been really controlling. And there are factors that aren't necessarily fully under our control that will contribute to growth in '27 and '28 to ultimately get us to that breakeven. Those include approvals. I mean we do have a flu PDUFA date coming up later this year, which I'm sure we're going to talk about.
The data there looks great. We're working very well with the FDA, so there are approvals that will also play into that growth, reaching that growth as well as continued cost containment. So for 2027, we've guided to $3.5 billion to $3.9 billion in cash costs, so another reduction in 2027. So those are the things we'll control and make sure that we do get to that breakeven in 2028.
Okay. And I believe intismeran is not contemplated in the breakeven. That would be an additive.
Intismeran, we're expecting to hopefully see data from the Phase III study there are approval time lines that go into effect as well, as you know. We do think there's a possibility we'll see the approval there in 2027, but the first year of launch won't be a meaningful contributor in '27 to get us to the '28 breakeven. But there will be -- hopefully will be some sales from intismeran as well.
Okay. Maybe circling back on flu that you mentioned. So you've got your PDUFA date later this summer. It got an RTF and then that was pulled back. Now Makary is resigning not saying that there's a direct line to be drawn there, but it did create, I guess, some uncertainty around the U.S. revenue build here. I guess what are your expectations around when this could become available in the U.S.? And how do you sort of see this playing out in terms of approval sequentially thinking about a combo in the U.S. as well?
So you're right, there was some uncertainty with a change in administration every year. Any time there is a change in administration and changes at regulatory bodies, one should expect some uncertainty. And I think 2025, when we entered 2025, there was a tremendous amount of uncertainty that we had to deal with, and yet we got through 2025 pretty well. We have 3 products that were approved, and we came in at the higher end of our guidance that we gave on the third quarter earnings call. So I would characterize that as Moderna really having a strong collaboration with reviewers and scientists at the FDA, including higher -- those that are higher up as well.
And so to see some more of that continue in 2026 is something that we will try and stay ahead of, but going back to that very strong relationship with FDA, the career FDA folks that are there, I think, is testament to us navigating through some of this uncertainty. Coming back to flu, as you mentioned, we do have an August 5 PDUFA date. We're on track to hopefully see what that result is in terms of a thumbs up or thumbs down on the approval. The data speaks for itself. We showed 27% better vaccine efficacy versus the standard of care there, so we're hopeful that August 5 is when we'll see that PDUFA date go positively for us. And that will be another data point that suggests that our relationship with the regulator is pretty strong.
Okay. I guess how have your interactions with the agency evolved over the past year? And I guess, are there any near-term PDUFA time lines or review interactions that are being affected in practice?
So as I just mentioned, it's been a pretty collaborative 2-way street with the FDA. And other than to say that we have that PDUFA date on August 5, will -- there isn't much more to say on that. I think the collaboration is something that I just talked about is one that we're pretty proud of.
Okay. And in terms of, I guess, sentiment, and this is going to be a Hantavirus question, Moderna's technology has always been or has had the capabilities to be kind of first mover for any emerging pandemic. I feel like that's just being reiterated with Hantavirus. Obviously, you had something in the works, I think since 2024 I believe. Maybe you can just speak about that program and sort of what we're seeing, understanding that it's still sort of an evolving situation.
Yes. So you're right. We do have an early program. It's preclinical and that's in collaboration with the U.S. Army Medical Research as well as through our mRNA access program, we've allowed for access to our technology to major institutions around the world. In the case of Hantavirus, it's with the University of Korea, they have an innovation center. And Hantavirus is one of those viruses that the WHO ranks as potential for becoming an epidemic pandemic. So the whole realm of pandemic preparedness is what mRNA access is also trying to accomplish through that program. And so this early stage program that we have, I think, could be something that gives us a leg up should Hantavirus turn into something a little bit more serious than what we're all reading about in the headlines.
I mean we see a lot of things in the headlines about Hantavirus. Is this another COVID? I mean it's a fundamentally different virus in terms of the RNA and spreadability and how it's transmitted. I guess, how are you thinking about this as being a potential public disaster like COVID was? Or is it maybe something that's a little bit more isolated?
So that's a great question. I think we're still learning a lot about Hantavirus. There is some speculation that there is human-to-human transmission once somebody does have or is infected with Hantavirus. It is particularly from rodents is my understanding because they are the carriers of the virus. And once you have exposure to their experiment, then it could be something that you have to worry about. But then we have heard from the recent headlines that there is a possibility of human-to-human transmission. So all of those things, I think, are going to be what regulators and health agencies around the world monitor, and we'll continue to monitor that as well. But the key point you brought up, which is being ready for something like this is what the -- where the world is today, owing to what happened with COVID. And having a technology like mRNA technology as well as an early program in development, again, preclinical that gives the world a leg up on potentially avoiding something like a major pandemic in COVID.
Well put. I want to circle back sort of on the European combo approval. That was a recent positive update for the company. And the European market does have the potential to be a large growth driver with the pandemic era contracts expiring. I guess with mNEXSPIKE and mCOMBRIAX approved in the EU, how are you sort of seeing the European market evolving in terms of your up to 10% revenue guidance this year? And then when does the combo kind of add to that top line growth?
Yes. Great question again. So for 2026, we do not have mCOMBRIAX contributing to -- or even mNEXSPIKE from the EU contributing to the 2026 top line. And so you shouldn't expect any contribution from the EU for 2026 growth, that up to 0%. You did mention the competitor contract that lapses later this year. And so it will make 2027 an open opportunity for us. And it's a fairly large respiratory vaccines market in the EU. So based off of demand, we believe the COVID market is $700 million in sales for the EU, $1 billion for flu and roughly $100 million or so for RSV. We'll be entering 2027.
As you just mentioned, mNEXSPIKE is approved in the EU and mCOMBRIAX, the first approval in the world for a combination flu plus COVID vaccine is also approved in the EU. We have RSV approved. And the flu standalone program is actually being reviewed by the EU regulators. So we may be in a position to have that product approved as well, and that would be our fifth product that's approved globally. And so it gives us 2 things. One, the competitor contract lapses, so the market opens up for us. And then we'll have a full portfolio to offer the EU territories. And so we're looking forward to competing in that market. As of the end of 2025, sales from the EU was less than $100 million. So even if you assumed a fairly modest penetration or market share in the EU, you would see still meaningful growth coming from the EU once 2027 hits, and we're competing in that respiratory market.
Okay. Great. And I appreciate the color on the timing piece. I guess when we think about the launch preparedness in flu, this feels like kind of bread and butter for you guys, but it's is kind of an established market, right, whereas RSV was like you're building that out. COVID was like the pandemic funneling into an established market, but flu feels kind of like the first established market launch. How should we sort of think about the trajectory there? And how does this get positioned versus, say, some of the approved flu vaccines?
Yes. So you're right, flu is a competitive market. We feel we're entering that market with a very strong profile in our vaccine. So I'll remind everyone, we showed roughly a 27% relative vaccine efficacy relative to standard flu vaccines that are on the market. So that already positions us pretty well for that enhanced market for that highly vulnerable population, older adults and people who have medical issues that might want a little bit better coverage in their flu vaccines. And so we'll be entering that market, which wouldn't include the standard flu vaccines and so a little bit more limited in terms of who's competing there.
And given the profile of this vaccine, plus having it be part of a portfolio of vaccines that we'll be selling to our customers, I think, will position us well for that market. It's a fairly large market, the flu vaccine market. It's $6 billion worldwide with the U.S. making up roughly half of that. And so we look forward to the launch. But you're right, it's competitive. So we'll see what we can do there.
Okay. Okay. Great. I do want to shift gears and ask about oncology now. We're all eagerly awaiting the intismeran adjuvant melanoma update. The 5-year data look pretty compelling, roughly a 50% reduction in relapse or death. I think this is kind of the context for the ASCO presentation later this month. For the Phase III interim expected later this year, I guess, what is the sort of statistical framework? What are the hazard ratios that give you early success versus continued finding?
Yes. So our partners, Merck and Moderna have not discussed the statistical plan for the trial. So unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to say anything about that. We do think on timing, it's going to be in 2026, and that's been the guidance all along. So we look forward. We're just as anticipatory and anxious about that data and want to see that data as all of our investors are as well.
Okay. And I think the Phase IIb showed a median RFS of like 19.4 months, if I'm remembering correctly. Would that be kind of a win?
The Phase II data was an absolute home run. And so that would definitely be a win. Is it the hurdle you need to have in a product that could be successful on the market at the end of the day, probably not. And so I would like say, if you looked in the sea of other oncology products that are approved, you'd often find hazard ratios of 0.8 as products that are approved. And that's oftentimes in relation or with a control arm with a placebo. So not an active comparator, which hazard 0.8 means there's a 20% reduction in an event or death happening.
And in the case of our Phase III at the end of the day, if we had a 0.8 hazard ratio, would it still be a meaningful clinical impact for patients, we believe so because it's on top of a very good active comparator in KEYTRUDA. So that would still be a meaningful result for patients.
Okay. That's helpful. I guess, in a few weeks at ASCO you'll have, like I said, a 5-year data, I believe. Anything specifically that you think bodes well or sort of informs what we should be looking at from the Phase III.
So we've already released the top line data of RFS, and we said the hazard ratio was sustained at the 5-year mark as well. So a 49% reduction in having a recurrence or dying if you get the combination of intismeran and KEYTRUDA. So that already kind of tells you. When I get that question, Alec, I often think to myself, other than the durability now out to 5 years, continuing to see that hazard ratio, which we all know and it is going to be presented at ASCO as well. Do you -- can you glean any more from that Phase II? I feel like the Phase II results in of itself at 3 years and the top line at 5 years kind of tells you a lot of why we're and our partners, Merck, are excited about potentially having that Phase III readout.
Is there anything more you'll learn? I know that outside of the Kaplan-Meier curves, and this has already been released with the abstracts, there will be some translational data. So this is speaking to the mechanism we've announced is fully enrolled and has been now fully enrolled since the second quarter of 2025. And it is one, as you mentioned, where KEYTRUDA also works. So a lot of the development programs that are under this broad development program within intismeran is to really exploit that synergy, if you will, with INT plus KEYTRUDA because we do believe there's that synergism in terms of how the 2 act together or behave together. And so KEYTRUDA has shown positive results in RCC as well. So it felt low risk to go after that type of a tumor because KEYTRUDA has shown a benefit already.
And if this is true synergism with intismeran, then we would expect to see that follow through in RCC and all the other cancers that we're developing this intismeran program in. And so despite being less tumor mutation -- having less tumor mutational burden, we do think that's one that could be interesting. It's a Phase II randomized study, as you pointed out, an end that is nearly twice the end of the Phase II in adjuvant melanoma. In terms of whether or not it serves as a registrational study depends on the strength of the data and also conversations we have with regulators. But we're looking forward to that data readout as well at some point in the future.
Okay. And on your 1Q call, you disclosed that your partner, Merck recently launched a new study in Stage I lung cancer. That's basically the very earliest population in combination with KEYTRUDA. I guess does this, in your view, kind of signal confidence from Merck in the program or continued confidence? Obviously, they've been confident in it. But how should we be thinking about this new study start in the context of all the other studies you have ongoing?
Definitely continued confidence because it already was a very broad development program. As you know, we have -- this is our third non-small cell lung cancer study that we've started. I think it does speak to how committed Merck is to this intismeran program. It is a 50-50 joint venture with Moderna. And so they're splitting the costs and resources, all of that evenly with us. The other thing I'd say from -- personally, I'm actually super excited about this study because it gives intismeran 2 opportunities to win. And so what do I mean by that? This is a 3-arm study where you've got in one arm, intismeran plus KEYTRUDA, in arm intismeran monotherapy and then the final arm, the control arm of placebo because in Stage 1 nonsmall cell lung cancer, the standard of care is watchful waiting.
So after you've resected the cancer, you're just waiting for a recurrence -- hopefully, it doesn't happen, but if it does happen. And so you've got now 2 active arms with intismeran in it. So 2 opportunities to win in that study. So I'm super excited to have the ability through this study to offer patients active and proven through at least the Phase II studies that we've conducted in adjuvant melanoma to show meaningful clinical benefit with intismeran plus KEYTRUDA as well as intismeran by itself. And it also speaks to another thing that both Merck and ourselves have been pointing out, which is the safety profile of intismeran and the combination of the 2, intismeran and KEYTRUDA.
There isn't any overlapping toxicity that you see oftentimes with other IO/IO combinations. You just don't see that with intismeran plus KEYTRUDA. And so that offers us this ability to move earlier into the earliest stages of disease in the case of non-small cell lung cancer in Stage 1 setting. And so the risk benefit there is something also that I think is another reason why Merck and ourselves felt very comfortable moving as early as we did.
Okay. That's helpful. I want to ask about mRNA-4359. This is your 100% owned cancer antigen therapy going after IDO and PD-L1. The IDO component of that, we haven't seen for a little while, but it showed some pretty encouraging, I guess, initial activity at AACR earlier this year. I guess, -- maybe you could walk us through sort of the emerging profile for that therapy. And I guess what sort of efficacy signal would be sufficient to move this into pivotal study?
Yes. Great question. So you're right. This is wholly owned by Moderna, off-the-shelf antigen therapy, cancer antigen therapy. And we are targeting epitopes of both PD-L1 protein as well as epitopes of IDO1. So the mechanism that we're using, I know when I speak to investors about IDO, they recall the small molecule approach back several years ago that did not actually have a successful readout. Here, we are teaching your T cells to look for epitopes of IDO1 as well as PD-L1. And we've learned a lot from INT and how we can teach your T cells to look for neoantigens in the case of INT, here it's epitopes of those 2 proteins.
And so the data we've seen so far, and we've now turned over the cards from the Phase I study at ESMO last year, we showed some pretty compelling early -- still early data in highly refractory patients. So people who have had multiple rounds of therapy, some 3 lines plus. And there, we were able to show close to 2/3 overall response rates in a highly refractory patient population. Most recently at AACR, which is what you asked about, in the Phase II portion of that study in frontline melanoma patients, we've seen the ORR now of 83%. So 11 out of the 12 patients or 10 out of the 12 patients have now had a meaningful response rate.
So again, very encouraging. But this is still a handful of patients of data. I think if David Berman, who just joined us here at Moderna were here, he'd say he'd want to see a little bit more quantum of data in a few more -- many more patients to actually then move this forward. And so we're running the Phase II. So let's see if this data consistently holds up as we've been finding with this program, then it will be ripe to move into the later stages.
Okay. Great. And maybe in the last minute that we have, I want to ask -- in terms of the burn vis-a-vis investing today in the Moderna of the future, do you feel like you've rounded a corner on that kind of seesaw of trimming expenses to a point where now you feel confident in building out the pipeline further, doing external BD or additional partnerships? I guess, what are sort of -- where are we in that continuum leading up to 2028? And I guess what are the investments that you're comfortable making today to build Moderna for the future?
Yes. What a great question, and I'm going to probably take more than a minute to even answer it. But the key thing to note that on that kind of rounding out on the cost side, many of the Phase IIIs that we ran up until the last one that we'll be doing in the infectious disease arena is the norovirus vaccine study that also has a readout in 2026, by the way. Once those Phase IIIs are done, that cost is largely behind you because the maintenance cost for infectious disease vaccines is probably 10%, maybe 15% of sales. And so a lot more manageable. And that large cost that you needed to make in order to get the product on the market is behind you.
In oncology, the cost of a late-stage development program pales in comparison to infectious disease vaccines, Phase III studies costs. And that's largely driven by the end, the number of people you have to have in your studies. In infectious diseases is tens of thousands of patients. A Phase III in INT is 1,000 patients. So even though the cost per patient might be a little bit higher, the number of the N in those Phase III studies are so much lower that you can handle the cost. And so if the future for us is now going into cancer as a big therapeutic area and other therapeutic areas that don't require large clinical studies like infectious diseases do, and now we have this commercial portfolio that's coming to market, all of the R&D costs associated with that is behind us. And so we still can now invest without the quantum of investing being as large as it should be for infectious diseases and have a plethora of opportunity from oncology and other therapeutic areas going forward.
Okay. Very good. Well, with that, I know we're over time. So I really want to thank you, Lavina, for the great conversation, and thanks, everyone, for attending.
Thank you.
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Moderna — Bank of America Global Healthcare Conference 2026
Moderna — Bank of America Global Healthcare Conference 2026
Moderna stellt Kostenreduktion in den Vordergrund, erwartet bis zu 10% Umsatzwachstum 2026; katalytische Ereignisse: Grippe‑PDUFA (5. Aug.) und Onkologie‑Readouts.
🎯 Kernbotschaft
- Kernaussage: Management betont starke Kostenkontrolle (bereits $2 Mrd. Einsparung vs. $1 Mrd. Ziel) und sieht moderates Umsatzwachstum 2026 (bis +10%) getrieben von mNEXSPIKE und strategischen Partnerschaften in UK, Kanada und Australien.
⚡ Strategische Highlights
- Kosten: 2026 Cash‑Kosten guidance $4,3 Mrd.; 2027 Ziel $3,5–3,9 Mrd., aktive Containment‑Strategie zur Erreichung des Break‑even 2028.
- Regulatorik: Grippe‑Zulassungsentscheid (PDUFA) am 5. August; Phase‑III‑/Zulassungsmeilensteine (inkl. Norovirus) bleiben Timing‑Treiber.
- Onkologie: Intismeran (mit Merck) – Phase‑III‑Interim 2026; Phase‑II 5‑Jahresdaten zeigen ~49% Risikoreduktion bei Rezidiv/Tod; weitere Indikationsstudien laufen.
🆕 Neue Informationen
- Beat: Kostenabbau für 2025/2026 übertrifft Guidance ($2 Mrd. vs. geplant $1 Mrd.).
- EU‑Timing: EU‑Zulassung für Combo (Flu+COVID) besteht, trägt aber nicht nennenswert zu 2026‑Umsatz bei; Marktchance entsteht v.a. 2027 nach Auslaufen eines Wettbewerbervertrags.
- Frühe Signale: mRNA‑4359 (IDO/PD‑L1‑Ansatz) zeigt hohe ORR in kleinen Kohorten (Frontline Melanom Phase II: ~83% bei 12 Pat.), aber Stichprobe ist noch klein.
❓ Fragen der Analysten
- Break‑even‑Risiken: Analysten fragten nach Variablen für 2028 (Zulassungen, regulatorische Verzögerungen, weitere Kostensenkungen); Management nennt beides als Schlüssel.
- Grippe‑Regulierer: Fragen zu PDUFA‑Timing und möglicher Unsicherheit nach Personalwechseln bei der FDA; Management betont enge Zusammenarbeit mit Karriere‑Teamern.
- Onkologie‑Design: Statistische Details zur Intismeran Phase‑III‑Interimsanalyse wurden nicht offengelegt; Merck/Moderna halten Plan vertraulich.
🔭 Bottom Line
- Implikation: Kurzfristig bietet Moderna eine verbesserte Kosten‑Sichtbarkeit und konkrete klinische sowie regulatorische Katalysatoren (Aug‑PDUFA, Onkologie‑Readouts, EU‑Marktöffnung 2027). Für Aktionäre heißt das: reduziertes Burn‑Risk, aber weiterhin hohe Abhängigkeit vom Zulassungs‑Timing und der Skalierung neuer Impfstoffe/Onkologika.
Moderna — Q1 2026 Earnings Call
1. Management Discussion
Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Moderna's First Quarter 2026 Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised, today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Lavina Talukdar, Head of IR. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Kevin. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. to discuss Moderna's First Quarter 2026 Financial Results and Business Update. You can access the press release issued this morning as well as the slides that we'll be reviewing by going to the Investors section of our website.
On today's call are Stephane Bancel, our Chief Executive Officer; Stephen Hoge, our President; and Jamie Mock, our Chief Financial Officer.
Please note that this conference call will include forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Please see Slide 2 of the accompanying presentation and our SEC filings for important risk factors that could cause our performance and results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in these forward-looking statements.
With that, I will turn the call over to Stephane.
Thank you, Lavina. Good morning or good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. I will start with a review of our first quarter, jimmy will then cover our financial results and outlook, followed by Stephen on commercial and clinical progress. I will close by discussing our value drivers before we take your questions.
The Moderna team delivered a great quarter all around. In the first quarter, we grew year-over-year revenues significantly to $0.4 billion, driven primarily by execution of our long-term strategic partnership in -- with the U.K. government. With a strong Q1, we are reiterating up to 10% growth in 2026.
We reported a net loss of $0.5 billion, excluding the previously announced Arbutus litigation settlement or $1.3 billion on a GAAP basis. We ended the quarter with $7.5 billion in cash and investments, maintaining a strong balance sheet as a result of continued financial discipline.
Our cost reduction efforts continued in the first quarter, building on actions taken in 2025 and resulting in a 26% year-over-year reduction in adjusted cash cost in the first quarter, excluding the litigation settlement. This performance keeps us on track with our full year objective of approximately $4.2 billion in adjusted cash costs.
We also advanced our commercial portfolio and our pipeline. In our respiratory portfolio, we achieved an important milestone with the approval of [indiscernible] in the European Union. [indiscernible] was known before as amounted 1083 of flu plus COVID combo vaccine. This is the first flu plus COVID combo vaccine approved in the world, and this marks Moderna a fourth approved product. I am very proud of the team for bringing this innovation to patients. This is exactly what Moderna stands for. We also secured approval for [indiscernible] in the European Union. These 2 new approved products in Europe will be important growth drivers in the EU in 2027, and when we anticipate COVID market reopening for Moderna.
In the U.S., our seasonal flu vaccine mRNA-1010, was assigned a pot of August 5. In oncology, for Intismeran, we initiated a new Phase III clinical trial in non-small cell lung cancer for patients with Stage 1 disease. It's our first Phase III clinical trial evaluating Intismeran in a monotherapy arm in patients with early-stage disease. I am very excited about this new clinical development because Stage 1 lung cancer is mainly treated with surgery alone today.
Additionally, we look ahead to our upcoming ASCO oral presentation, where we'll report a 5-year update of our Intismeran in adjuvant melanoma.
We were also pleased to recently present at AACR the new clinical data for mRNA-4359, which is currently in Phase II for patients in Stage IV disease, metastatic disease in melanoma and lung cancer.
Lastly, with support from [indiscernible], our Pandemic flu program, mRNA-1018 has now initiated its Phase III study. I'm very pleased with the company's strong performance in Q1 and very thankful for our team that executive across the board.
With that, I'll turn it over to Jamie.
Thanks, Stephane, and hello, everyone. Today, I'll cover our first quarter financial results and then review our 2026 financial framework. Let me start with our commercial performance on Slide 7.
For the first quarter, total revenue was $400 million, coming in above our guidance and represents a $300 million increase versus the prior year. Our geographic mix was approximately 80% from international markets and 20% from the United States. This strong international revenue performance was primarily driven from deliveries under our long-term strategic partnerships.
For the second quarter, we are expecting revenue of between $50 million and $100 million, evenly split between U.S. and international markets, which would bring our first half revenue to approximately $440 million to $490 million.
Our strong revenue performance year-to-date puts us on a solid path to achieve our full year revenue growth target of up to 10%, which we are reiterating today.
Now I'll round out our full first quarter financial performance on Slide 8. As I just mentioned, revenue was $400 million in the quarter. Cost of sales for the quarter was $955 million. This includes $878 million related to our previously disclosed litigation settlement. Excluding this item, cost of sales was $77 million, a 14% year-over-year decline on a non-GAAP basis, driven by reduced unutilized capacity costs, losses on purchase commitments and inventory write-downs, partially offset by higher sales volume.
Regarding the litigation settlement in March, we announced that we entered into a settlement agreement with [indiscernible], resolving all litigation with them worldwide. Under the deal terms, we will make a lump sum payment of $950 million in the third quarter of 2026, of which $878 million was recognized in cost of sales during the first quarter of 2026, and the remaining $72 million is being amortized over the next 3 years. Under the agreement, Moderna will appeal to the Federal Circuit to argue its government contractor immunity defense, which limits its liability under federal statute 1498. If Moderna ultimately prevails on that issue, no further payments will be due. If, however, the Federal Circuit of firms liability under Section 1498, Moderna has agreed to make an additional payment of up to $1.3 billion. We have concluded that a loss related to this pending Section 1498 proceeding is not probable.
And accordingly, no charge has been recorded. R&D expenses for the quarter were $649 million, a 24% decrease compared to last year, driven by lower clinical development and manufacturing costs as we wind down large Phase III respiratory programs, and our CMV Phase III study, partially offset by higher post-marketing commitments from our COVID products.
SG&A expenses for the quarter were $173 million, an 18% decrease compared to last year, driven by lower spend across all functions, reflecting continued cost discipline while supporting the business.
Our income tax provision was immaterial in both periods as we continue to maintain a global valuation allowance, which limits our ability to recognize tax benefits from losses.
Net loss for the quarter was $1.3 billion or $3.40 per share compared to a net loss of $1 billion or $2.52 per share last year, primarily driven by the litigation settlement. Excluding this item, the net loss would have been $0.5 billion or $1.18 per share, down over 50% versus the prior year.
We ended the first quarter with cash and investments of $7.5 billion compared to $8.1 billion at the end of 2025. The decrease was primarily driven by operating losses as we continue to invest in R&D and advance our pipeline. The litigation settlement did not impact cash in the first quarter as the $950 million payment is due in the third quarter of 2026.
Now let's turn to our financial framework for 2026. As mentioned earlier, we expect total revenue to grow up to 10% in 2026, with a geographic mix of roughly 50% from the U.S. market, and 50% from international markets. Our 2026 revenue guidance factors in potential future declines in COVID vaccination rates, offset by increased penetration of mNEXSPIKE and revenue from our long-term strategic partnerships. As a reminder, this guidance assumes no revenue from our flu vaccine or [indiscernible].
Our cost of sales projection has increased from $0.9 billion to $1.8 billion, and now includes the $0.9 billion litigation settlement charge. Without the litigation charge, our cost of sales projection would have been unchanged versus our previous guidance and reflects our expectation of gross margin improvement from manufacturing efficiency gains and volume leverage. R&D expenses are still anticipated to be approximately $3 billion as we continue to invest in our pipeline while maintaining financial discipline. We now expect the timing of our R&D spend to be slightly weighted more to the second half of the year.
SG&A expenses are still expected to be approximately $1 billion, flat versus the prior year. Similar to 2025, our commercial spend will be more heavily weighted to the second half of the year due to the seasonality of our commercial business.
In aggregate, excluding the $0.9 billion litigation charge, we are expecting total GAAP operating expenses of $4.9 billion and cash costs of $4.2 billion, which excludes stock-based compensation, depreciation and amortization.
Additionally, we do not see any material impacts from the ongoing conflict in the Middle East to our 2026 financial outlook, but we'll continue to monitor geopolitical developments.
We expect taxes to be negligible in 2026. Capital expenditures are still projected to be between $0.2 billion and $0.3 billion, and we expect to end 2026 with between $4.5 billion to $5 billion of cash and investments. Our cash guidance does not assume any additional drawdown from our remaining $0.9 billion undrawn credit facility.
Overall, we are encouraged by the strong start to the year and remain focused on executing in Q2 and beyond.
With that, I will now turn the call over to Stephen, who will walk through the commercial outlook in more detail.
Thank you, Jamie, and good morning or good afternoon, everyone. Today, I'll review our commercial outlook as well as progress across our pipeline. Slide 11 outlines our multiyear revenue growth strategy, anchored in both geographic expansion and continued advancement of our product pipeline. In 2026, as Jamie mentioned, we expect a 10% revenue growth driven by our long-term strategic partnerships in the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, and supported by the continued growth of mNEXSPIKE.
Looking across the 3-year horizon, we are building a diversified portfolio, adding a flu vaccine, a combination vaccine and a norovirus vaccine as well as late-stage assets in oncology and rare diseases, and all while expanding our global footprint into new markets. We made good progress against this strategy in the quarter. We delivered our first shipment under a strategic partnership in the United Kingdom. We secured key regulatory approvals in the European Union, including mNEXSPIKE for individuals 12 and older, and [indiscernible] for adults 50 and above. positioning us well in the large $1.8 billion annual European respiratory vaccines market. We expect both products to contribute to revenue growth starting in 2027 and in the U.S., our flu program continues to advance with a PDUFA date for set for August 5, 2026. Stepping back, our execution in the quarter gives us confidence in our ability to deliver in the near term and to grow over the long term.
Slide 12 highlights our approved products within the infectious disease portfolio. With the recent EU approval of mComvriax, we now have 4 approved products, a remarkable milestone for our commercial portfolio. Starting with our COVID vaccines. We plan to submit annual strain updates across all approved geographies shortly. More than 30 countries for Spike Fax and in the United States, Canada and Australia and now the European Union for mNEXSPIKE. mNEXSPIKE also remains under review in Taiwan, Japan and Switzerland, with additional filings planned for the second half of 2026 to further expand global access to this important vaccine.
Turning to RSV. mRESVIA is approved in the United States, European Union and Canada. Most recently, the European Commission also extended that approval to expanded indications to include adult age 18 and older, broadening the eligible population. For our flu plus COVID combination vaccine, mCOMBRIAX, we recently received approval in the European Union for adults 50 and older. The product is also under review in Canada and Australia, and we are awaiting further guidance from the FDA on the next steps for resuming filing in the United States.
Finally, at ESCMID, we presented new data supporting heterologous vaccination with mRESVIA as well as results from a Japanese cohort from our Phase III mCOMBRIAX studies. Links to both presentations are included on this slide.
Our late-stage infectious disease pipeline also continues to progress. Following with -- starting with flu, mRNA-1010 is under review in the United States, Europe, Canada and Australia, and the U.S. FDA PDUFA date is set for August 5. We recently presented revaccination data for mRNA-1010 at SMED, with a link to the presentation included on this slide. And for our norovirus vaccine, our ongoing Phase III study is now fully enrolled in its second Northern Hemisphere season. Based on case accrual to date, we continue to expect data from this study in 2026.
Turning to oncology, starting with Intismeran, our individualized cancer therapy developed in partnership with Merck. This trial program continues to expand with 9 ongoing Phase II and Phase III studies. As Stephane previously mentioned, we have initiated another Phase III study in non-small cell lung cancer, our third Phase III in lung cancer. This one is in high-risk Stage 1 disease, expanding us to the earliest stage of the disease. The trial includes an evaluation of Intismeran as a monotherapy. This is our second monotherapy study following our non-muscle invasive bladder cancer study announced previously and highlighting Intismeran's safety and tolerability profile as we move into earlier stage disease.
Across the portfolio, we now have multiple late-stage studies fully enrolled, including Phase III adjuvant melanoma as well as Phase II studies in renal cell carcinoma and muscle invasive bladder cancer, all of which are accruing events towards their interim readouts.
We continue to make progress towards completing enrollment in our other Phase III and Phase II trials, including in non-small cell lung cancer, bladder cancer and metastatic melanoma. This broad late-stage portfolio is supported by the strong clinical data including robust 5-year results from our Phase II adjuvant melanoma study, which will be presented at ASCO.
Beyond late-stage programs, our Phase I studies in pancreatic and gastric cancers are also fully enrolled, and we look forward to providing updates on those trials later this year.
Now outside of Intismeran, we continue to advance additional oncology programs. For mRNA-4359, our cancer antigen therapy, Phase II cohorts are enrolling across first-line metastatic melanoma and first-line metastatic non-small cell lung cancer. We recently presented new data in first-line metastatic melanoma setting at AACR with a link to the presentation included on this slide.
And finally, our early stage pipeline includes -- continues to progress, including our T cell engager, mRNA-2808 in a Phase I/II study, a cancer antigen therapy mRNA-4106 and cell therapy enhancer mRNA-4203 in Phase I studies in patients actively dosing. Now in rare diseases, our propionic acidemia or PA program is fully enrolled in its potentially registrational study. We continue to expect pivotal data from this study later in 2026. For our methylmalonic acidemia or MMA program, we have decided to defer the start of a registrational trial for that program until after we receive the pivotal readout from the PA or propionic acidemia program later this year.
With that review, I will hand over the rest of the call over to Stephane.
Thank you, Stephen and Jamie. Looking ahead to 2026, we see multiple value drivers across our company in commercial, in new product approvals and in [indiscernible] pipeline. On the commercial side, we continue to expect up to 10% revenue growth and remain focused on delivering our adjusted cash cost target of approximately $4.2 billion. We'll continue to invest in AI with a number of cross enterprise projects to reinvent work with AI. We will, of course, continue to drive increased personnel productivity across the company.
We also expect potential approvals across the respiratory portfolio in additional geographies. We could, later this year, see our fifth product approved with mRNA-1010 for flu. From a pipeline perspective, oncology remains a key focus with upcoming data for Intismeran and mRNA-4359. We're also waiting for a Phase III data for norovirus, subject to case approvals, and of our PA programs, which should read out this year.
The team remains focused on disciplined execution across these priorities. Over the coming months, we also look forward to engaging with the investment in medical communities at several upcoming events. This includes our investor event on June 1 at ASCO. But also, we would like to invite you in person to Cambridge or via webcast for our Science Day on June 25, where we'll provide a deeper look into our early stage pipeline, also how we're using AI and robotics to accelerate our ability to discover new technology to expand the use of mRNA to new drug modalities.
On November 12, we also hosted our Annual Analyst Day, where we plan to focus on commercial priorities, product launches and expanding late-stage pipeline.
In closing, I want to thank our teams around the world for the progress we've delivered this quarter. We have been executing consistently over the past 1.5 years, and I'm very excited of what is to come in 2016 and beyond. We are advancing our science, expanding our portfolio and continuing to translate mRNA into innovative medicines for patients. Each milestone achieved as important momentum and reconfirms our commitment to deliver [indiscernible] impact to people for mRNA medicine. With this, operator, we'll be happy to take questions.
[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Salveen Richter with Goldman Sachs.
2. Question Answer
So you newly disclosed initiation of a Phase III study for Intismeran as monotherapy and in combination with KEYTRUDA subcu for the treatment of high-risk Stage 1 small cell lung. Can you just -- and you spoke to it a little bit, but could you discuss your strategy to pursue this line and where it fits into the treatment landscape and why pursue a monotherapy here in addition to the combination?
Yes. Thank you for the question, Salveen. We and our partner, Merck, have been really excited by the clinical data that we've seen with Intismeran to date, including the Phase II. And it's important to highlight that the 2 pieces of that, one is obviously the efficacy signal we see, but the second is the remarkable safety profile associated with that efficacy, really no significant increase in serious or Grade 3 events when you get combination IO-IO like benefit. So the real question for us has been could we get that benefit risk profile in a monotherapy context? Could Intismeran provide IO-like protection against a relapse or recurrence of disease with a profile that really looks like a vaccine? And the best opportunity for us to do that, we and Merck have decided is it's across a couple of studies. Now the first I previously discussed was in bladder cancer, but we ultimately decided that in lung cancer, given the incredibly high burden of disease, the right approach there was to go into a Phase III potentially pivotal study.
In that context, as Stephane mentioned, as you referenced, standard of care, more often than not a surgery and then watchful waiting. And so essentially, there is no other intervention. And we're looking at, therefore, INT as monotherapy as opposed to just surgery and watchful waiting for high-risk Stage 1 disease.
Now we're also going to look at whether or not there's an incremental benefit of combining INT with KEYTRUDA in that setting because obviously, the best way to address cancer is to have it never occur after Stage 1. Unfortunately, what happened in the treatment landscape is many of those Stage I patients will recur, sometimes even recur as Stage IV or metastatic disease, and that is when we're fighting very late to try and control a quite progressed cancer. And so our goal, simply put, is to intervene early, prevent the relapse or recurrence from ever happening and in so doing, try and achieve cures in the earliest stages of disease.
Benefit risk there needs to have a very good safety profile, and we really do think that the monotherapy safety profile of INT will be really strongly supportive if we can see in that Phase III study a strong efficacy signal.
So we and Merck have been talking about this one for a while. Our strategy has been to focus on the adjuvant settings, but we have -- and we have started, as you know, some metastatic studies, but we have always wanted to move earlier, signaled that from the beginning because of that benefit/risk profile of INT and we are really excited to see the potential now in Stage 1 disease in a Phase III lung cancer trial.
Our next question comes from Jessica Fye with JPMorgan.
With a significant amount of international sales this quarter, I remember the -- I think the U.K. order from last year got pushed into early '26. I'm just trying to think about those contracts and the right way to think about what more could come from the U.K. for the remainder of '26? Like is it possible this is a double order year? And maybe you could just elaborate on how that works?
Yes, sure, I'll take that. And so the delivery that happened in the first quarter is for their spring campaign. And so for -- in the United Kingdom, there's a recommendation for both spring and fall booster for the targeted population does over the age of 75 or with significant risk factors. And so a second campaign is planned for the fall, and so the third and fourth quarter of this year, and that would be an additional delivery later this year.
Our next question comes from Terence Flynn with Morgan Stanley.
Great. Just wondering if you can be any more specific about the timing of the interim Phase III of the INT and adjuvant melanoma. I know you said 2026, but can you refine that at all at this point? And then maybe talk to the range of potential outcomes there? Are there only 2 outcomes, either the trial hits at the interim and continues as planned? Or is futility also a potential outcome on this interim?
Yes. Thank you for both questions. So I will disappoint in the sense that we won't refine that guidance. We have said we are confident based on the event accrual that we will see interim analysis conducted in 2026. I shouldn't say more, except that, that confidence should indicate where we think we are. On the question of the outcomes, there is not a built-in futility assessment. The interim analysis is either to declare early success or to continue to accrue events in the trial towards a subsequent interim analysis or final analysis both of which could happen in the years ahead. The study is very well powered and has been balanced in terms of its accrual. And so we have continued to accrue events in a way that we would expect, and therefore, we're optimistic about that interim analysis. But obviously, if we have not yet hit the critical hazard ratio to declare early success, we will have the benefit of continuing to look at more events afterwards, but futility is not a part of the current plan.
Our next question comes from Luca Issi with RBC.
Great. Maybe, Jamie, on IP, can you just walk us through why the legal team deemed the additional $1.3 billion charge on 1498 is not probable. I guess the question is what gives you confidence that you will ultimately prevail there? And then maybe just kind of bigger picture, remind us that time line of when the final ruling could come? And then maybe quickly, Stephen, what's the latest thinking on flu in the U.S. ahead of PDUFA? We obviously now have a new acting director [indiscernible]. So I wonder if you have had any interactions with her, and whether you think that having her need is incrementally positive or incrementally negative for you? So any color there, much appreciated.
Yes. Thanks for the question, Luca, I think I may disappoint as well because we're not really going to comment too much on the merits of the trial. So all I can say is our legal team and ourselves, we are confident, and therefore, we believe it improbable that we would lose and therefore, have not recorded anything. From a time line perspective, it's always difficult to exactly read, but we think that it could be perhaps late 2027 maybe into 2028 is where we think that this might be resolved. But again, that's a moving target.
And for the question on the FDA and the -- particularly the flu 1010 program, we continue to progress well in that review in the normal back and forth with the review team and the folks in the office of vaccines towards our PDUFA date, obviously, at this point through a mid-cycle. And we would describe that as a pretty normal course, the kinds of exchanges we're having. And so we're encouraged by that and look forward to that August 5 PDUFA date. Obviously, we'll work hard to answer any questions, any remaining questions that the FDA has as they complete that review.
As to the senior leadership, whether it's [indiscernible] or otherwise, we don't usually interact with them in these reviews at all. Really, this is the review staff, the folks in the office of vaccines, and that is the only place that we've been going back and forth. And we don't expect any impact, certainly didn't before, today or after as a result of the new Acting Director. We do look forward to working with the leadership of [indiscernible] broadly across our portfolio. So the 1010 flu vaccine review continues somewhat independently, but we have a large portfolio of other products from in Intismeran, INT to norovirus to our first rare disease program, the propionic acidemia program, all of which we hope have pivotal readouts this year, and we look forward to bringing those forward. So it's an exciting time for us, hopefully, for the field, and we are very grateful for the partnership across FDA and CBER as we try to bring these medicines forward to patients.
Our next question comes from Tyler Van Buren with TD Securities.
Congrats on the quarter. For the Phase III Intismeran adjuvant melanoma top line data, can you remind us what it is powered for? And perhaps more importantly, can you give us your latest thoughts on what constitutes success from a clinical standpoint? And what you need to show in RFS on an absolute basis or as we think about relative benefit there?
Thank you, Tom, for the question. So we haven't disclosed the powering assumptions for the IA. Suffice it to say, we -- the Phase II data had a really strong hazard ratio, very narrowly missed and a substantially smaller powering 150, 160 participants as opposed to 1,100. And so we're -- we think we are well powered -- very well powered if we see a similar hazard ratio. That would obviously be a huge success. But to your second part of your question on sort of the range of things that we would be pleased with, obviously, anything looks like the Phase II would be spectacular. But candidly, we think the opportunity for benefit could be anywhere between that 1.5% that we saw in a number like 0.8, where there's a significant benefit still in terms of survival and treatment of melanoma -- adjuvant melanoma, Stage II melanoma. Now across that range is a wide range of outcomes that we want to understand the raw data in what's happening. If you see really strong RFS and really strong eventually overall survival, as we've seen so far in the Phase II study, that's encouraging. If you saw maybe the overall survival or just a [indiscernible] data was better even if the RFS was not, that would probably equally be encouraging. And so there's a range of outcomes for how we would declare success that will depend upon the different clinical benefits that we see in the study.
But for now, we feel like we are well powered going into that interim analysis. If not, we look forward to the subsequent analysis. And we think there are a range of outcomes here ranging from the Phase II results to a whole bunch of events that are much more modest, that could still be really meaningful patients and move forward successfully commercially as a treatment for Stage 3 mono.
Our next question comes from Ellie Merle from Barclays.
Curious what your expectations are for timing for data from RCC and muscle invasive bladder cancer. And can you elaborate on what good data would look like in these indications? And then what the next steps would be in those indications if the data are positive?
Yes. Thank you for the question. As we've previously said, both of those randomized Phase II studies are fully enrolled, about 300 participants in each. And so we're really excited to to fill in the picture on the strength of performance for INT across a range of different tumors. I would point particularly to the RCC as 1 that we're we're interested to see whether or not we can provide a really meaningful clinical benefit because we still think there is an opportunity, headroom for improvement there that's quite significant.
Now those are event-driven trials, and we did want to protect the registrational possibility for those trials. So we're blinded, and we're accruing events towards that first interim analysis in both. For obvious reasons, we -- if possible, we would want those studies to be registrational. And so we want to make sure we accrue a good number of events and that we treat those analyses the right way. And because that it's hard to guide right now.
We don't exactly know when potentially this year or even early next year that those results could come in because they are event-driven analysis. But when we have accrued sufficient cases to conduct that blind analysis, we will definitely be doing so. And all of us are eager to see the results because it will help not only guide whether or not those products or those indications are reasonable to move forward more quickly, again, potentially to a registrational study or towards a Phase III pivotal study, which we would look to start quickly. But also, they feel in that picture of how broadly INT is going to play. And in some ways, if you think of RCC as an example of a place where it's relatively far from melanoma in terms of mutational burden, and therefore, an opportunity for us to demonstrate a potential benefit that would then widen the aperture of where we think INT might have a role.
So we're keen to see that data, but we are blinded at this point. We're following those events, and we are eager to provide updates once we have more. But for now, we can't guide on when that timing would be.
Our next question comes from Michael Yee with UBS.
We have 2 questions on INT. The first was on the melanoma study. Would we expect that, that's a similarly designed protocol as it relates to the interim? I recall that the Phase II strongly hit at the interim. And so just trying to understand if a similar type of standard interim was built in here such that if it doesn't stop at the interim, it would imply some sort of different hazard ratio for the first term versus the second room?
Similarly, on the renal study, we understand that this is a much slower progressing tumor if you look at the KEYTRUDA adjuvant studies, just trying to understand how it would be possible that a potential interim would come this year, or that's a much differently designed study in terms of an interim?
Yes. Thank you, Michael, for both questions. So first, we obviously haven't given any statistical guidance on the Phase III interim analysis. But suffice it to say, I just did a moment ago. We wouldn't be conducting the interim unless we thought there was a chance of success. And in that sense, we are not defining that as the hazard ratio that existed in the Phase II. There were some differences in the population, but certainly, that would be a situation we would want to have a relatively early look at. And so it's somewhere between there and obviously, not significant that we're looking for.
We are -- we have -- we are really excited, but we also just need to wait and let the data mature and see those results. And so we're optimistic about that first interim. But it's fair to say that if it isn't successful, there's still opportunity in the second and the final. And we definitely have reserved alpha for both of those for what we think would still be commercially important products. So that's Point 1.
Now on the renal, the renal is -- RCC is, as you said, the events can happen more slowly. There is a benefit, obviously, from KEYTRUDA, but there's a substantial headroom still. Even if you look to the combination products, KEYTRUDA plus Bezu, Merck has just had a great success there, with a hazard ratio of 0.72, there's still headroom even above that for improvement in terms of disease free survival. And so we're keen to look at that result. There are about 300 participants enrolled in that study. And I'll remind you as a reference, that's about twice as large as the Phase IIb adjuvant melanoma study that we've all been speaking so much about.
We're not intending to power that as a registrational study, but it has registrational potential. And what that means is we could have a lower statistical threshold for declaring that there's a strong result there, a strong signal, I think, again, like what we saw in the Phase IIb with melanoma. The key there though, would be we would not want to unblind that study if at a lower threshold, call it 0.1 -- alpha 0.1, we wouldn't want to unblind the study if it was trending towards statistical significance and registration potential. And so that's the key unknown in that RCC study in terms of timing is we will hit a trigger for conducting human analysis based on events. The DSMB will look at that result and then advise us whether it's appropriate to declare early success or whether to remain blinded or alternative outcomes that are more like futility, but that would cause us to want to look at that data and quickly determine whether or not we want to run a Phase II.
And so it's a high degree of uncertainty of what that looks like, but it's all about trying to make sure that if we have a drug here, a strong signal in RCC with registrational potential, we did not disrupt that. Or if it's strong, it needs a Phase III more powered analysis that we get that going quickly. And I think that's the decision that lies ahead of us in partnership with the DSMB.
Our next question comes from Courtney Breen with Bernstein.
Just a couple more on INT. What I wanted to understand as we're getting closer and closer to the kind of it's becoming a meaningful lot of model [indiscernible], but there's obviously still a big [indiscernible], but also on revenue recognition between you and your partner. Number one, can you help us kind of understand the parameter here, and I think through what this might look like to moda kind of realized contribution in the P&L recognizing that it is [indiscernible]?
And then second, in the Stage 1 monotherapy and combination study, can you just again help us understand a little bit about that Stage 1 prevalence of diagnosis relative to later stages? Cancer lung cancer is obviously relatively, compared to other cancers, age quite late. So it would be helpful to understand how you think about this market and potential building if we can see kind of some opportunities for those patients? And speaking of that opportunity, any comments on kind of what the bar looks like particularly compared to a watching and waiting scenario?
Yes. Thanks, Courtney. I think we're breaking up a little bit, but I think the first question was around rev rec as it pertains to INT. So let me take that one. And I'll put a caveat out there that we don't even have the product approved. We're working with our auditors. It's not a traditional joint venture. So -- but this is -- I'll give you to the best of our knowledge, how we think it will work. So it will end up being that we deliver the product to Merck because they're obviously the market authorization holder, and they were sell it on to the customer. So that will be the first part of our transaction. And so you can imagine some amount of our COGS plus some markup. Thereafter, whatever the profit split is, then we will take that share -- Our share of that of 50%. So it ends up being naturally somewhat greater than 50% of the profit share because it's predicated upon first shipping the product and having some markup on that and then taking the margin on top of that. So that will change over time because we -- as we've laid out before, we're working on our cost of goods sold and with that will continue to come down over time as we continue to drive automation. So it will start a little higher as our cost of goods sold. Well, obviously, like any product starts higher and then get more productive over time. But that's the general framework, and I hope that helps. But again, we hope to be in that position next year to be able to start recognizing that revenue.
.
[indiscernible] cancer Stage 1. So lung cancer really represents a pretty unique opportunity because screening through X-rays has actually been an important intervention for identifying early-stage disease, Stage 1 disease. Now the majority of diagnoses still show up later at Stage 3, Stage 4, in particular, but you're seeing an increase almost 1/3, north of 30% of diagnoses are now earlier stage, Stage 1, Stage 2. And that has grown over the last decade and hopefully continues to grow through better screening, including a relatively easy intervention, a chest x-ray that your primary care doctor can provide.
So we do hope and expect that there's a big push on earlier -- catching lung cancer earlier. And that is a natural place, therefore, to try and intercept and intervene if you have a great benefit risk profile, again, to be proven, but we know we have the safety profile. And if we can do that, then we'll be able to dramatically impact the number of Stage 4 or Stage 3 and 4 diagnoses that start to show up.
You've already seen evidence of that, right? I mean if you look in the United States, over the last decade or 2, there has been an increase in the number of diagnoses that have -- the percentage of diagnoses that are happening in earlier stage and a commensurate decrease that are happening in the later stages. And so we do think it's a unique tumor opportunity for us to go demonstrate Stage 1 intervention because of that screening regime around chest x-rays and the overall trajectory in the field.
Our next question comes from Jeff Meacham with Citigroup.
I have 2 quick ones. The first 1 on Intismeran, as you grow the experience and data here, I know most of the trials are in combo with KEYTRUDA are there other I-O combo mechanisms that could also bear fruit, or is that better addressed with the rest of your oncology pipeline? And the second 1 on norovirus. As we get closer to data, do you have any updated view of what success looks like here, just given the standard of care? My sense is a significant benefit is all you need, but want to get you guys' perspective?
Yes. Thanks for both questions. So first, on the alternative IO-IO combinations, we are looking in the adjuvant setting and earlier in many of these Phase III studies. We do have a metastatic melanoma study, as you know. But we -- in that context, generally IO-IO combinations and the toxicity associate has not been seen as advantageous. And so for now, most of our focus is on the combination with the PD-1 and KEYTRUDA because of our partner, Merck.
We would be interested in subsequent studies in exploring alternative I/O combinations. But as you kind of alluded to, that's already something we're starting to do in the rest of our pipeline. And in particular, I'd point to 4359, where we are looking in metastatic melanoma and alternative regimens, CTLA-4 plus PD-1 combinations, EPI, Nivo as an example, have been important intervention showing benefits in those populations. And that's a place where, if we want to add a third I-O agent for hopefully some benefit, we are doing some early Phase I/II exploratory work right now.
So you might see, just as a function of the huge amount of work we're already doing in INT, you might see us first explore those other combinations for our cancer vaccines platform in the other off-the-shelf context first. But that doesn't rule out that in the future, we might explore the use of INT on top of other regimens. Certainly, both ourselves and our partner, Merck are interested in that.
Now on the norovirus side, I think you hit the nail on the head. We we think given that there is not currently an approved vaccine for norovirus, and given that particularly for those at highest risk, those over the age of 75, those that have other medical comorbidities, there really is a high societal and medical costs associated with the profound dehydration that can happen with even just what might feel like a 2-day norovirus infection, not just hospitalization, but the significant exacerbations of underlying medical diseases as well and some death.
And so that population, anything that can be done to reduce that burden would be ultimately value creating for the health care system, put aside the benefits for the individual patient. And so we're -- we think statistical significance is the bar. Obviously, we want to see a vaccine efficacy that's also meaningful and so north of 50%. But on -- but given that there currently is no standard of care or treatment, we would take anything above there as a success.
Our next question comes from Cory Kasimov with Evercore ISI.
I also have 1 on Intismeran. So wondering how critical is it to demonstrate an overall survival benefit in Interpath-001. Given the challenges of showing OS and adjuvant melanoma, do you believe physicians would interpret the data set any differently absent a clear OS signal?
Yes. So I'd make a couple of observations. So first, RFS is a pretty good predictor. I mean this is a relapse-free survival. So again, it's not progression-free survival, it is survival, and tends to correlate. And if you look at our Phase II study, we have released previously the RFS, DMFS and even OS trend data. We look forward to the ASCO presentation to provide the 5-year update and the view on RFS, DMFS and OS. And I would point to that presentation and the data, and we hope that, that will provide confidence for physicians, for health care systems, for patients on that relationship in this case and in the case of Intismeran in combination with KEYTRUDA in the adjuvant melanoma setting, and that, that would provide sufficient confidence to move forward if the Phase III is positive.
Now the Phase III data, we will follow OS. And we're through 5 years in the Phase II. So it will take us some time to get to that same level of data in the Phase III, but it will be a part of the trials going forward and can provide a significant degree of confidence going forward, but again, RFS really is survival in this case.
Our next question comes from Simon Bick with Rothschild & Co Redburn.
Just looking at the Q2 revenues, a couple of quick questions. Firstly, should we -- or could you give us any color on the split? Or should we assume that the entirety is SPIKE vax? And also, Jamie, I wonder if you could give us any comments on phasing. It was a very strong number against our expectations, but I just wanted to know if there was any pull-through of expected revenues from Q2, particularly with some of those governmental orders outside the U.S.?
Yes. Thanks, Simon. So let me address the first question. as it pertains to product split. This was largely, the majority is COVID still. So we have not been -- as we've always said, we don't anticipate RSV being a significant growth driver in the year 2026. We believe that will take a little bit of time for us. So this is still primarily COVID-related.
As for the timing, we laid out the second quarter. So -- and then I think maybe your question is more on the second half. But for the second quarter, we laid out $50 million to $100 million in the second quarter. So that should bring our first half to almost $0.5 billion of revenue. And that, if you look at that as probably $400 million outside the United States and $100 million in the United States.
So let me talk to the timing of the year and give big picture and kind of compare it to last year. Last year, we had $700 million of sales outside the United States, and it was $100 million in the first half and $600 million in the second half. So with $400 million is in the first half of this year, if we repeat last year, that's $1 billion. And we've been talking about saying that our mix between the U.S. and international is going to be about a 50-50 split. So if we just repeat last year, that should get us $1 billion. And then in the U.S. last year was $1.2 billion. I said in my prepared remarks that we're expecting some amount of decline and we've modeled for that.
So hopefully, that gives you a little bit of the phasing and timing here. And the last point I'll say is back to the question that was asked earlier, is in the second half of last year, we didn't have any U.K. revenue. So to Stephane's point that if there is a fall season, in last year, $600 million outside of the United States. We did not have in the U.K. There are other puts and takes that's why we've guided up to 10%. I'm not giving explicit guidance here, but I'm trying to give you the picture and contextualize what the year might look like from a U.S. versus OUS split.
Next question comes from Andrew Tsai with Jefferies.
It's a bigger picture question. I'm just curious what your guys' latest thoughts are on BD and even considering technology or assets beyond mRNA. Does it make sense to add more assets to your pipeline? Or do you think you're right sized for now?
Thanks for the question. So if you think about the company, as you know, we've always focused on building the most impactful mRNA platform to enable modalities, families of medicines to enable them a lot of medicines happening using the same technology components. We've done it with infectious vaccines. We don't it with Intismeran. I look at a number of studies now. We are doing it in rare disease. And as we share more at our Science Day on June 25, we have been investing heavily to keep increasing in new modalities. You see it with a T cell engager that Stephen talked about [indiscernible]. You see it with 1439. And there's many more assets, we're going to walk you through what the science has enabled. So we're very focused on expanding to new modalities to enable new families of medicine.
As you've seen in the past, we acquired a company in Japan a couple of years ago because it was expanding the mRNA operating growth of Moderna. We are continuing to look at science across the board, whether it's from academic labs or from companies, public or private. If we find the right opportunity to increase what we can do, we will, of course, execute on those priorities. But we don't have a pipeline problem like most companies in the industry. We have an abundance of products. As you know, we have been very disciplined on cost right now to get back to breakeven. But we have a lot of exciting science that is waiting to go into the clinic soon, and we'll share more of that on June 25.
Our last question comes from Alex Alexandria Hammond with Wolf Research.
So with the recent approval of the COVID flu vaccine in the EU, can you just walk us through your commercialization strategy? And I guess what is the successful launch of like a year from now and 5 years from now?
Yes. Thank you for the question. So first, I want to start by saying, as is our pattern, our path, we do not expect revenues in the year of approval for these vaccines. And so 1083 [indiscernible] or flu in the United States, none of those are in our guidance that Jamie was speaking about. Now your question is more kind of looking forward in '27 and '28, what does success look like? The first step, the one we're engaging in right now across the major markets in Europe is securing market access and so that is pricing and reimbursement. That is a national process, and one that is underway, even publicly underway, for instance, in France, where they have initiated that, frankly, quite quickly after approval, which we think is an encouraging sign.
It's important to note that across Europe, there's about a $2 billion respiratory vaccine market. We previously sort of summarized that. Flu is a big part of that, and COVID is the second large part of that and it's much more portion reserve for RSV. So we see it as a very large opportunity for our combination COVID vaccine.
Lots of benefits to payers, to health care systems, to patients. Patients appreciate the -- it's only 1 shot and there's a strong preference on that. But payers and health care systems really appreciate the lower burden of work. It's a single product. It's only 1 injection. You don't have to procure both. And the amount of time you get back from a health care provider, be that a physician, a nurse, a pharmacist that they can get back to do other things that are value creating for the health care system is actually a huge part of the value proposition of the product.
And so what we've been doing with those governments, and we will do throughout the back half of this year, is help build that economic value story. We've got real-world effectiveness coming -- data coming out from our products, and we hope to be able to show their benefit for the individual, but we also want to help the health care systems understand and value the savings that they will get from a respiratory combination vaccine. And so that's the big push really over the next 12 months. We do hope for a successful launch in '27 in the first markets where we can get pricing and access. And in some cases, in Europe, that takes a couple of years as a process, and it would really be 2028 when you'd start to see that more significant uplift.
Our hope is that we end up with a very large share of that $1.8 billion to $2 billion respiratory vaccines market because we really do think we have a unique product that can save the health care system money and deliver better value for patients and providers. And so we're -- we'll have more guidance as we move forward. But rest assured that we are spending the next year securing that market access pricing and reimbursement and helping people understand the value of that combination. Patients get it quickly, health care systems are also getting it quickly, and we've got the work ahead of connecting those dots so that we can have a successful launch in '27 and really drive growth of the business in '28.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the question-and-answer portion of today's program. I'd like to turn the call back to Stephane for any further remarks.
Well, thank you very much for joining us today. As you can see, we're excited about 2026, returning to sales growth and critical Phase III readouts norovirus, Intismeran and propylene acidemia. We look forward to talking to many of you over the next few days and a few weeks. We're excited to host you more from them Monday, June 1 at ASCO. And on June 25, Han Cambridge for a Science Day. Have a nice day, and have a great weekend.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's presentation. We thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect, and have a wonderful day.
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Moderna — Q1 2026 Earnings Call
Moderna — Q1 2026 Earnings Call
Q1 2026: Starke internationale Umsätze ($400M) und Kostdisziplin, aber GAAP‑Verlust durch $950M‑Vergleich; Guidance bis +10% bekräftigt.
📊 Quartal auf einen Blick
- Umsatz: $400 Mio., +$300 Mio. YoY, über Guidance; ~80% international.
- Nettoverlust: $1,3 Mrd. GAAP (inkl. Litigation); bereinigt $0,5 Mrd. (->50% YoY).
- Cash: $7,5 Mrd. Ende Q1 (vs. $8,1 Mrd. Ende 2025).
- Kosten: Cost of sales $955 Mio. inkl. $878 Mio. Settlement; bereinigt $77 Mio. (-14% YoY).
- Kostdisziplin: Adjusted cash cost −26% YoY; Ziel für 2026 ≈ $4,2 Mrd.
🎯 Was das Management sagt
- Wachstum: Guidance bekräftigt – bis zu 10% Umsatzwachstum 2026, getrieben von strategischen Partnerschaften.
- Kommerz: EU‑Zulassungen für COVID/Grippe‑Kombination und mNEXSPIKE; Flu PDUFA‑Datum 5. August 2026.
- Pipeline: Fokus auf Onkologie (Intismeran: neue Phase‑III in Stage‑1 NSCLC, Monotherapie & Kombi), Norovirus und seltene Erkrankungen (PA pivotal 2026).
🔭 Ausblick & Guidance
- Umsatzgang: Bis zu +10% für 2026; Q2 erwartetes Revenue $50–100 Mio.
- OpEx & Invest: Cost of sales‑Prognose auf $1,8 Mrd. (inkl. $0,9 Mrd. Settlement); R&D ≈ $3 Mrd.; SG&A ≈ $1 Mrd.; CapEx $0,2–0,3 Mrd.
- Liquidity: Ziel Kassenbestand Ende 2026 $4,5–5,0 Mrd.; $950M Zahlung fällig Q3 2026, zusätzlich bis zu $1,3 Mrd. möglich bei unterlegener Berufung (Management hält Verlust nicht für wahrscheinlich).
❓ Fragen der Analysten
- Intismeran: Strategie für Monotherapie vs. Kombi mit Keytruda, Rationale: Sicherheit + frühe Intervention; mehrere laufende Phase‑II/III‑Programme.
- Studientiming: Interim‑Readouts (adjuvante Melanom‑Studie) erwartet 2026, keine Futility‑Gate geplant; RCC/MIBC event‑getrieben.
- Litigation: Fragen zu Wahrscheinlichkeit der zusätzlichen $1,3 Mrd. unter §1498; Firma appelliert, Finale wohl 2027–2028.
⚡ Bottom Line
- Kernaussage: Operativ deutlich stabiler (bereinigter Verlust, geringere Cash‑Kosten) und Pipeline‑Momentum; kurzfristig belastet durch strukturierte Litigation‑Zahlung Q3 2026.
Moderna — Barclays 28th Annual Global Healthcare Conference
1. Question Answer
Hi, guys. Good morning. Welcome to sunny Miami. I'm Ellie Merle, one of the biotech analysts here at Barclays. Very happy to have Lavina Talukdar here with us today, Head of Investor Relations at Moderna. It's been a very eventful year for you. So maybe if you could start with an overview of some of the key highlights from Moderna over '25 and into the first quarter of '26.
Sure. Thank you so much for having me, Ellie. This is great to be here. So for 2025, I'd characterize 2025 as a year of execution, and we really executed on all fronts. On the revenue side, we came in at $1.9 billion, which is towards the high end of the revenue range we gave on the third quarter call. And that was really driven by execution from the commercial teams. We were very happy to get mNEXSPIKE, our second COVID vaccine approved in June, and they really executed and made sure that, that was available on the market for the fall season.
We also brought down costs. We set out in 2025 to take $1 billion of cost out, and we ended up achieving in excess of $1 billion. So in total, $2 billion of cost that came out in 2025. And that's really a testament to the finance team setting targets and the broader Moderna teams taking cost out of the system. So it really positions us nicely for 2026. It led to a cash balance of $8.1 billion, which also includes $600 million that we took down from a credit facility with Ares that we executed in 2025 as well.
And that brings me to the pipeline, which was also a lot of progress that we saw. We had mNEXSPIKE approved. We had 2 other programs approved. RSV 18- to 59-year-old high-risk individuals saw a broadening of the indication there. And we also were able to get our COVID vaccine approved in the pediatric setting. We're the only ones that has an approval in 6 months old to 5 years of age.
Aside from the approvals, we had positive data from our Phase III study in flu, which then led to the filing of the flu application in the U.S. and other territories around the world. So we're looking forward to that approval. And we also advanced our cancer pipeline, intismeran, which is already in a Phase III for adjuvant melanoma continues to accrue events there. But we -- in that program, we also fully enrolled the renal cell carcinoma study in 2025. PA in rare diseases was also fully enrolled. So it really sets us up nicely for 2026 as we look forward to pipeline readouts.
Yes. Certainly, a lot of exciting pipeline readouts, which I'm sure we'll get into. But maybe first, just starting with the respiratory vaccine franchise. So you're guiding for up to 10% revenue growth in 2026. I think that number may be surprised some investors given some of the trends that have been seen in the COVID landscape. I guess, what's underpinning your confidence in the potential for a return to growth this year?
Yes. So we have 2 contributors to growth that we see in 2026 that gets us to get up to 10% revenue growth that we've guided to. And the 2 major growth drivers is continuation of mNEXSPIKE penetration in the U.S. We have 24% market share as of the end of the fall season in 2025. So we expect that to continue to penetrate into the U.S. and also some approvals outside of the U.S. as well. And then the other major driver for that up to 10% growth is going to be from our strategic partnerships with the U.K., Canada and Australia. And in those partnerships, we've built facilities to make vaccines and other products. And so those facilities all came online in 2025 throughout the year, towards the end of the year. And they will go into full effect this year, those agreements. They are multiyear agreements that provide us visibility. We expect to see a major step-up in revenue from those 3 countries because of these strategic partnerships.
Interesting. And yes, I mean, the ex-U.S. revenue, I think that's particularly interesting considering a lot of that is essentially locked in through contracts.
That's right. And we'll have visibility for multiple years. The step-up in revenue from our guidance last year, we did $700 million in ex-U.S. revenue. The bulk of that $700 million was made up of Canada, Australia and the U.K., both the 3 strategic partnerships. This year, we're expecting international revenue to be $1 billion. So the key step-up in our up to 10% growth is predominantly coming from ex-U.S. revenues. In fact, in the U.S., last year, we ended the year with $1.2 billion in sales. And this year, we are planning for another decline in U.S. sales down to about $1 billion, which is a 20% decline to be prudent. Obviously, we're not aiming for a decline. But to be prudent, we don't actually need the U.S. to grow in order for us to meet the up to 10% growth.
That's interesting. And congratulations on the positive CHMP opinion with the flu, COVID combination. I think that's a very interesting program. It certainly differentiated from Pfizer-BioNTech, where you have the combination. I guess maybe starting first with in Europe, how we should think about the opportunity for this combo vaccine and when we could potentially start seeing revenues from these programs?
So we are very excited about the combination flu plus COVID product. In Europe, you're right, we just received the CHMP positive opinion. So we do expect an approval later this year. However, it will be contributing to revenue in the 2027 time frame. I'll remind you that, Europe, is right now a territory that we're not selling in because it has been locked up by a competitor contract in COVID. And that contract will lapse later this year, opening the territory up to us in 2027. So we'll be ready with the approval in flu plus COVID with that product, but it won't contribute to revenue until 2027.
Okay. Makes sense. And the U.S., a little bit more of a complicated situation. Sort of -- and I'll leave it to you in terms of what you can or can't say here. But how should we think about the latest in terms of the 1010 filing for flu, got the RTF, now the filing is accepted. How are you thinking about the outlook for this in the U.S.?
So you're right. We did have the RTF reversed and it's now accepted to have a PDUFA date of August 5 later this year. So we look forward to continuing the engagement we have with the FDA review staff. They've been phenomenal with all of our applications in the past. And so we look forward to continuing that collaborative work on the flu application. For the combination flu plus COVID, we still are seeking guidance from the FDA in terms of when we will refile that program. So as we have more information, we will update you.
How should we think about the uptake of the COVID flu vaccine? I mean I think just there's more investor skepticism on sort of the vaccine landscape. But then again, you'd be the only ones with this combination. How can we think about how this could impact, say, market share from a pricing dynamic, how this might play out?
So I'll answer that question ex-U.S. and in U.S. as well. So ex-U.S., we've received a lot of feedback from health ministers about the combination of flu plus COVID. They're pretty excited about that program. It's mainly because in countries outside of the U.S., you have single-payer systems, and it's those single-payer systems that are very incented to make sure that their populations are protected against pathogens that could lead to bad outcomes or hospitalizations, because it ends up costing the system more -- it's more expensive for the system, for the medical system. Preventing those hospitalizations is something that health ministers are very keen on. And when you can do it through one vaccine and you're protecting the individual against 2 different pathogens, it actually is -- leads to better compliance, lower administration costs. It's something that health ministers are looking forward to. So internationally, we think it's going to be a great product.
In the U.S., we also think there's a place for a combination flu plus COVID vaccine that could be competitively advantaged. And that's because, again, you have compliance, you have lower health care costs and potentially a better economic backdrop for the customers as well. In terms of the pricing, we're still strategically thinking through what that might look like. It's a little bit premature. But obviously, there's lots of ways to think about that. We can just price it some of the parts or we can price it at a premium to some of the parts and possibly even at a discount. It's still yet to be determined.
I think an interesting contributor potentially to keep an eye on in the coming years. So in terms of the pipeline, an incredible amount of focus on the upcoming melanoma data. Maybe can you frame for us first sort of just how we should think about from a timing perspective? You said 2026. I think a lot of investors are curious as to the confidence that it will come in 2026 or if you have any granularity on when in 2026, we might see this data?
So it's really difficult to pinpoint when we think the data is going to read out because it is an event-driven trial. The confidence around 2026 really just comes from using the Phase II data set as a proxy. And the Phase II data read out 18 months, you started to see the separation in the curves around the 18-month time frame after the last patient was enrolled. And so since the Phase III study was enrolled in September of 2024, we hit the target enrollment. If you add 18 months to that time frame, you get to about the first quarter of -- early second quarter of this year. However, there are differences in the study. First and foremost, it's a Phase III study, so much larger, you'll need more events to actually get to the point where you can look at the data. It also has patients that are Stage II patients, which may lead to longer time frame before we start seeing recurrences. And so when you put all of that together, you're still solidly in that 2026 time frame, but it is event-driven. So it's impossible for us to know exactly when in '26 or possibly even in early '27, it may read out.
Makes sense. I had to try. Can you frame for us maybe what the relevant benchmarks are here from a data perspective and what you would consider, I guess, good data from this Phase III?
So I'll remind everyone about the Phase II data set. We had a hazard ratio at the 3-year follow-up of 0.51, which is remarkable and on the recurrence-free survival endpoint. That continued and sustained itself at the 5-year mark, which we just reported earlier this year. And that data is really remarkable. In terms of benchmarks, we would be thrilled to see data like that, but I don't think it's necessary.
If you were to look through the oncology landscape, you would quickly realize that there are products on the market that have had hazard ratios in the 0.75, 0.8, that are now successful products on the market. So that hopefully gives you a sense of what may be necessary to have a meaningful benefit. And the other thing I'd say is this is intismeran plus KEYTRUDA, which is above and beyond a very active drug in KEYTRUDA monotherapy. And so even seeing a 0.8 hazard ratio, I think, would be a clinically meaningful result.
And how should we think about the market opportunity in adjuvant melanoma?
So in adjuvant melanoma, the way we characterize the market opportunity there is worldwide, it's a multibillion-dollar opportunity. We are 50-50 with our partners, Merck. And in that scenario, we would still consider our share as a multibillion-dollar opportunity at peak worldwide.
And I guess if this data are positive, how should we think about the read-through to other indications?
It's a great question. We believe that there is a synergism between intismeran and KEYTRUDA. And we've seen that in a number of tumor types during our Phase I study, the basket study, where we saw data in adjuvant melanoma, in non-small cell lung cancer. But again, it's a Phase I study. So the synergism we think, is there. However, we do have to run these studies to see what the magnitude of benefit there may be in all the different tumor types and the different histologies. So we're running a pretty extensive development program with our partners, Merck.
We have 8 late-stage studies and the different cancer types, obviously, are adjuvant melanoma as we just talked about, renal cell carcinoma in a Phase II study. Muscle invasive bladder cancer also in a randomized Phase II study. All 3 of those studies are fully enrolled. We continue to enroll 2 studies in Phase III for non-small cell lung cancer. And we just initiated Phase II studies in first-line melanoma and first-line non-small cell squamous lung cancer. So we're active in the program for sure and really eagerly looking for additional histologies that may read out in the future.
And I know you mentioned some of these studies are fully enrolled like RCC. How should we think about the cadence of readouts after we get the melanoma data?
So the Phase II studies, RCC as well as muscle invasive bladder cancer, our Phase II studies. So the number of events you need there are lower than a Phase III study. They also have different rates of when recurrences happen. So I would say that after the adjuvant melanoma data, you should think a cadence of several months for each of these potential programs to read out. And then when we update you on full enrollment for non-small cell lung cancer, then that's when the clock starts ticking for when that particular histology reads out as well.
And how long from when non-small cell finishes enrolling, should we think about when we would get data?
It's really hard to speculate on that. But I think the key thing to hear -- to listen for is when that study -- when those 2 studies are fully enrolled.
Great. Well, certainly an exciting program. I know a lot of eyes are on it this year. Turning to some of your other pipeline programs. So, norovirus, we could potentially see Phase III data this year. I guess, can you help frame what you're looking for in the data and what benchmarks would be for good data here?
Sure. So norovirus, we just announced that it was fully enrolled in that second Northern Hemisphere season. And we're accruing cases. So this is another event-driven or case accrual dependent readout. We do anticipate that, that will happen in 2026. In terms of what we expect on the vaccine efficacy side there, because there aren't any products or any vaccines approved for norovirus, we do think that a minimum of a 50% vaccine efficacy rate would be needed to get this product through and on to the market. And that's because you've had other vaccines come to market with a 50% vaccine efficacy rate. Obviously, we're shooting for better than that, but a minimum of 50% is what we think you would need to come to market.
And obviously, a huge opportunity, but it's been challenging from a vaccine development perspective. What are some of the reasons why Moderna could be successful, whereas our focus in the past have faced challenges?
Great question. So we are targeting the adult population with a predominance in our clinical study of the older adult population. I think other programs that have failed in the past we were looking at children or infants. And in that population, I do think you need to vaccinate people multiple times in order to get them primed against the pathogen. And so having the benefit of going into seropositives in that adult population, I think, gives us a benefit. The other thing is that it is an mRNA therapy that we're using versus some of the others that have failed, our recombinant protein. So there is something to be said about that as well.
Great. Turning to operating expenses and your assumptions for breakeven. This is another area where we get a lot of investor questions given sort of the degree of investment in R&D. Maybe can you walk us through what your current assumptions are in terms of time to breakeven and what some of the levers are in terms of the ability to ramp down spend if, say, some of these Phase III trials are not successful?
Yes, great question. So obviously, we're planning for many of the Phase IIIs to be successful. But there are Phase IIIs that will be rolling off, particularly in the seasonal vaccine space. So norovirus is the last of the Phase IIIs in the seasonal vaccine portfolio that we're still running and that will run through 2026, and it will start winding down after that. So we do anticipate the anniversarying of the data sets in Phase III to be a big contributor of why our R&D spend comes down. We're going to continue to spend in oncology and invest in the clinical programs there, both with our partner, Merck, on the intismeran programs, but also our emerging oncology programs.
The cost of oncology Phase III development or Phase II development is much, much lower than the cost of developing vaccines because of the sheer number of participants in vaccine studies versus the patients that we treat in the studies for oncology. And so all of that being said, we do anticipate that costs overall, cash cost for the company will be coming down to the tune of $3.5 billion to $3.7 billion in 2027, which would mean that we would need to be in that range for revenue in 2028 to breakeven. And we've got multiple growth drivers, 2 of which we talked about for 2026. Next year, we have Europe opening up, and that's a $1.8 billion respiratory vaccine market where currently, our sales are less than $100 million. So that's a big opportunity for us in 2027.
Flu is a big opportunity as well in 2027 around the world, should we get the approvals as they come through later this year as well as partnerships now internationally in Lat Am, Latin America as well as Asia Pacific. So we just announced a deal with Mexico and Taiwan. Brazil was one that we announced last year. Those are also multiyear contracts that start to go into effect in 2027. And in 2028, on top of all of that growth, we anticipate the combination flu plus COVID coming to market as well as norovirus, both of which could be multibillion-dollar products at peak.
How should we think about the time frame for when the strain selection might vary for your flu products, I guess, thinking ex U.S. now because we'll have to wait to see what happens in the U.S. But I mean, there's so much data that shows that better strain selection and strain selection closer to the season leads to better efficacy. So I mean, now that you have the approval in Europe, how should we think about when we could potentially see you targeting different strains?
Yes, I think that's an excellent question. So one of the advantages of mRNA vaccines is that we can make a vaccine very close to the flu season. In fact, we've already demonstrated that in COVID, where we typically just need 2 months of heads up on the strain selection for COVID before having enough product to supply to the market. And indeed, for COVID, selections for the strain are happening in the May, June time frame, and we're able to have product on the market by late August.
Similarly, with flu, we'll be able to do that as well. The difference between mRNA technology and traditional flu vaccine technology is that traditional vaccine makers require 6, maybe 9 months of lead time to make the product for the fall season, at which point you may have the flu virus mutate away from what's in those traditional vaccines, which leads to this mismatch that you're talking about. If you can minimize that mismatch because you're closer to the flu vaccine season, then that should, in theory, lead to better vaccine efficacy. And mRNA vaccines are the only ones that can actually achieve that at the current time. And so we look forward to that opportunity. There are many years. Last year was a big year where there was a mismatch in terms of what was in the flu vaccines versus what was circulating that, another opportunity like that could really help mRNA technology shine in that respect.
Yes, it's really interesting. On the rare disease side, you mentioned the PA study being fully enrolled. Can you talk about sort of how we should think about the opportunity here and the landscape for treatment?
Sure. So yes, we fully enrolled that study in 2025. We're expecting the readout later in 2026. It will be our first rare disease program, knock on wood, that comes to market. And we recently had some news, in a partnership with Recordati, who is already a major player in the PA landscape, which is our first rare disease that we're bringing to market. So we're thrilled at this partnership with Recordati, because they have a commercial presence, have the infrastructure already set and in place, identify the patients already. So it could be a very quick launch. And from that deal, we expect $160 million in milestone payments and then a royalty rate based on tiered sales. So we're looking forward to the data set first, and then this partnership with Recordati on that program.
Great. Well, an exciting year ahead. So Lavina, thank you so much for joining us, and thanks for everyone in the room for attending.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
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Moderna — Barclays 28th Annual Global Healthcare Conference
Moderna — Barclays 28th Annual Global Healthcare Conference
📣 Kernbotschaft
- These: Moderna setzt 2026 auf internationales Wachstum über strategische Fertigungs‑ und Lieferverträge; gleichzeitig stützt eine konsequente Kostensenkung die Liquidität.
- Wichtig: Umsatzwachstum "bis zu 10%" beruht vor allem auf Ex‑US‑Schritten; US‑Sales sollen konservativ schrumpfen, sodass internationales Geschäft die Erholung trägt.
🎯 Strategische Highlights
- Zulassungen: mNEXSPIKE (COVID) und mehrere Indikationserweiterungen; CHMP‑positive Meinung für Flu+COVID‑Kombi.
- Pipeline‑Fokus: Intismeran (adjuvantes Melanom) event‑getrieben, weitere späte Studien in RCC, NSCLC, Norovirus und seltenen Krankheiten.
- Kapazitäten: Fertigungswerke in UK/Canada/Australia online; multiyährige Verträge erhöhen Umsatzsichtbarkeit ex‑US.
🔭 Neue Informationen
- 2025 Zahlen: Umsatz $1,9 Mrd. (oberes Guidance‑Band); Cashbestand $8,1 Mrd.; >$1 Mrd. Kostensenkung in 2025.
- 2026 Guidance: "Bis zu 10%" Umsatzwachstum, Ex‑US‑Umsatzziel $1 Mrd.; US‑Verkäufe geplant ≈$1 Mrd. (−20% YoY, vorsichtig kalkuliert).
- Regulatorisch: US‑Flu PDUFA‑Datum 5. Aug. 2026; EU‑Zulassung für Kombi erwartet, Europäische Umsätze realistisch erst 2027 wegen bestehender Verträge.
❓ Fragen der Analysten
- Flu+COVID‑Uptake: Nachfrage ex‑US wird als hoch eingeschätzt (Single‑Payer‑Anreize); Preisstrategie in den USA noch offen.
- Melanom‑Timing: Phase‑III ist event‑getrieben; Management sieht 2026 als möglich, aber unsicher; als Referenz nennt man HR‑Werte ≈0.75–0.8 (Phase‑II HR 0.51).
- Kostendruck: R&D‑Roll‑off bei saisonalen Programmen soll OPEX senken; Ziel‑OPEX 2027: $3.5–3.7 Mrd., Break‑even‑Pfad 2028 bei erfolgreichen Produktstarts.
⚡ Bottom Line
- Fazit: Positives Risikoprofil: starke Bilanz und substanzielle Kostensenkungen geben Zeit, während Ex‑US‑Verträge und mehrere potenziell blockbusterische Readouts (Flu, Melanom, Norovirus, PA) 2026–2028 Upside liefern; Anleger bleiben aber von regulatorischen Terminen und event‑getriebenen Daten abhängig.
Moderna — TD Cowen 46th Annual Health Care Conference
1. Question Answer
All right. Okay. Good afternoon, everyone. Tyler Van Buren here, senior biotech analyst at TD Cowen. Thank you very much for joining TD Cowen's 46th Annual Healthcare Conference.
For this next session, it's a privilege to be hosting a fireside chat with Moderna management. And from Moderna, it's my pleasure to introduce Jamey Mock, Chief Financial Officer of Moderna. Jamey, so great to have you. Thank you for joining me.
Thanks for having us, Tyler.
So we'll start at a high level before we get into some of the more detailed programs or specific programs. But for the full year 2025 product revenue came in at the high end of the guidance, which I think surprised some given the COVID normalization concerns and macro factors throughout the year and volatility on that front. But maybe you could just talk about what drove the resilience of the COVID franchise and the great result you guys ended the year with?
Sure. Well, thanks, everybody, for your interest in Moderna. So yes, I would say, obviously, a lot of things going on from a macro perspective. That said, I think the team executed extremely well, number one. And I also think it tells you that there's still plenty of people that want to get vaccinated. So in the U.S., for example, there are over 30 million Americans that got vaccinated against COVID last year.
But if I break down and kind of go through the numbers, we had guided $1.6 billion to $2 billion of revenue, and we came in at $1.9 billion. And if you double-click on that, we had said the U.S. would be about $1 billion to $1.3 billion. And 2 things happened there. Vaccination rates were on the better end of what we thought they would be. And then mNEXSPIKE, which is our latest COVID vaccine, performed very well. So we did well from a share perspective, particularly in retail.
And then outside the United States, there wasn't a lot of volatility left. We just had to execute. There was a little bit around vaccinations, but we hit the high end of that guide. So we had guided $600 million to $700 million. So we had $700 million outside the United States and $1.2 billion inside the United States. And we're really pleased with the execution. So that's a little bit about how we hit the high end.
Great. And mNEXSPIKE, which you mentioned, 24% of the U.S. retail channel, impressive early uptake for that product. Is that the penetration that we should expect moving forward? Or ultimately, what share of your franchise -- COVID franchise do you expect mNEXSPIKE to take?
Yes. We were -- thank you for saying that. We were really encouraged by what we saw. So I think the product was approved in mid-June. So for 6 months of the year, having a product that was just approved going into the season, we thought have performed extremely well.
And I think it really just comes down to the product profile. It has superior efficacy versus Spikevax, particularly in older adults, which is really who we're targeting. It's high risk and older adults. I think that's where the large majority of vaccinations are targeting. It's 13.5% better from an efficacy perspective versus Spikevax. And so that got in the marketplace and performed extremely well. So looking forward, that is one of the growth drivers we're hoping for, in 2026 as well and beyond, and that we do hope that it takes up a larger share of our -- of the market overall and of our proportion of the market as well.
So for '26, another recent surprise was the up to 10% growth guidance. I guess that means anywhere from 1% to 10% over the course of the year. So how should we think about the potential outcomes within that range, swing factors? What gives you confidence that you can potentially hit that up 10%?
Yes. I guess it's 0.1% up to 10%...
Decimals.
But I think the other important thing that we've said about that, and I'll come back to that, but I think it's telling when we break down and as I talk about what is going to drive growth is we also said that the geographic distribution was roughly 50-50 inside the United States and outside the United States. So I'll speak to each geography and talk about the upside to your point or the range of outcomes.
In the United States, I just mentioned in 2025, we had $1.2 billion in sales. So if you take a 50% midpoint of our guidance, that's about $2 billion. So that would imply $1 billion in the United States and $1 billion outside the United States at the midpoint of up to 10%.
So that means that we are expecting or planning for -- not expecting, we're planning for the United States that could potentially drop from $1.2 billion to roughly $1 billion. That's based on vaccination rates or -- and/or market share or competitive forces, whatever it might be, but that is our planning assumption in this guidance.
Now what could be the upside to that? mNEXSPIKE could continue to perform well and take a larger share or vaccination rates might not be done as much. So if it's another $1.2 billion overall, that would be on the higher end. If it's down to the $1 billion, that would be towards the midpoint or lower end.
And then outside the United States, I said we had $700 million of revenue in 2025. And again, that's going to go to $1 billion. And that's really based upon we've been talking about these large partnerships we have, primarily in 3 geographies in the United Kingdom, in Canada and in Australia. And those we started to execute against in 2025, particularly in Canada, but many of them, particularly, in the U.K. and Australia, we had very nominal revenue.
So as those annualize and they can continue to grow over time and we can get into that, we're getting a big uptick. So that is why international revenue mix growing. And you'll see it in the first half. We mentioned back in 2025 that some revenue that we thought might land in 2025 slipped out to the first half of 2026 for about $200 million. So we expect that you'll start seeing the fruits of that in the first half of this year.
Great. And Moderna has stated that its path to cash flow breakeven in 2028 is dependent on flu outcomes where we've seen some volatility lately and cost discipline. And you have levers to adjust across '27, '28. So can you outline what sits under your control bucket versus what's external?
Yes. Well, maybe I'll start with cost because that is in our control. And we had guided, if I just look at 2027, we haven't guided 2028. We guided 2027 to a midpoint of $3.7 billion. So that means by 2020, we either have to be at $3.7 billion from a revenue perspective, which I'll talk about in a second, or we're going to have to take down cost a little bit or have a mixture of both growth and cost. And this breakeven story is both a growth and a cost reduction story.
So just to kind of talk a little bit more about cost because I think the bigger story is really the revenue side. Costs, we have great line of sight to this $3.7 billion. There are some trials ongoing in the year 2026, specifically in our infectious disease with norovirus as that completes and some other things going on with COVID. Those will roll off, and we have terrific visibility to the $3.7 billion.
After that, it's really a bunch of capital investment choices that we've made and have made over the last 3 years. So we've always had the high-level strategy of investing behind the business, but monitoring the revenue line and '26, '27 and '28 are no different than that. So costs very much in our control.
I think the bigger story is, and we try to lay this out at Analyst Day, is we have 10 shots on goal of what we call growth drivers that we -- that are all several hundred million dollars. And there's no revenue item that is perfectly under our control. Even the solidified contracts with the 3 geographies I just talked about, it's not -- I mean, we have obviously greater control, and it's more on our execution. But at the end of the day, it's still 2 parties for any kind of revenue. So we've got that.
We've got -- and it's really a mix of international expansion as well as new products. So international expansion, we've got the contracts I've mentioned. We've announced additional partnerships in Mexico and Taiwan recently. Europe will open up in 2027, and that's a rather sizable market, not just for COVID, but for all infectious disease. So we plan to grow there.
And then on the new product side, we'll talk about flu, I'm sure. We've got flu and plus COVID from a combination perspective, both inside the United States and outside the United States. We've got norovirus. And so that's kind of the, I'll call it, infectious disease or vaccines portfolio. And on top of that, I'm sure we'll get into it, but hopefully, our INT product reads out well and is approved, PA reads out well, 4359. So we have a lot of shots on goal. But getting back to answer your question, cost is in our control. We have a good line of sight to it to bring it down to at least $3.7 billion. And revenue, we've got a lot of shots on goal to get that up to some level like that.
Great. And maybe related to the cash flow breakeven plan and thematically, you all have been clear about reallocating capital towards area with better risk-adjusted returns. So before we get into respiratory franchise and vaccines, just talking about potentially oncology, autoimmune, rare disease and, of course, partnered vaccine. So can you elaborate on these recent comments? And also if that means that you might explore other modalities outside of mRNA as well?
Yes. I don't read into those comments as much. Let me just step back for a second. Over the last 5 or 6 years, we've probably invested 80% of our research and development into infectious disease. And we've been very conscious about doing that, and we knew we wanted the full portfolio. When we have the full portfolio, we think that brings a lot of value to our customers and what is the full portfolio? That is 2 COVID vaccine, that is RSV, that is flu, hopefully, that is flu plus COVID and that is norovirus, which can also sell through the retail channel.
So those investments will largely be done. And that's not to say that there can't be more, and we will continue to invest in more. But after investing all that capital, we've got to make that business a profitable, growing, sustainable business. And that's really been the strategy. And I think you'll see that over the next coming years as each of those products grow and as I talk through the international expansion as well.
But that said, we've always been trying to diversify into oncology. We've always said mRNA is not going to be a one therapeutic area company. It's going to be many different modalities and therapeutic areas. So we're excited about what we have in oncology, INT, which we'll talk about, I'm sure, which we think can break through on cancer vaccines broadly should INT do well. It's kind of the bellwether for cancer vaccines, and we have numerous ones behind them.
And then we've got other mobilities in vivo CAR T therapy, T cell engagers. And then there's rare disease as well and an entire pipeline in our research and preclinical behind that as well. So I think it's just the time that we are kind of completing some very heavy investments. We have to make that business grow and be profitable. And it's the time to diversify the company as well.
And my final general questions is actually going to be on AI. I think this is the first time I ever asked about AI at our conference. But I can't include a line item in my model in AI yet. But can you just talk a little bit about that, what we might be underappreciating and when might the fruits of that labor become more obvious?
Yes. It's a great question. It is a total game changer. And we are obviously in inning 1, and we believe that we are very far ahead at Moderna, across all areas, which I'll get into. But there is so much productivity, not just from a cost perspective, but from a speed-to-market perspective, from a working capital perspective in terms of materials management, from a scheduling perspective for patients, which really affects our INT business.
There is an enormous amount of returns, and we've been very broad across all functions, very methodical about it. I had -- I just walked out of a 2-hour review with our entire digital team walking through exactly what we've got going on. And AI is one thing that it has to be backed by a terrific set of software and data, and we have that. So there's back office productivity. There's front office productivity. There's -- we've got -- and I think we've actually started to realize some of those benefits in 2025.
So if you remember, we entered 2025 believing we would be $5.5 billion of cash cost and ended at $4.3 billion. Not all of that is AI and probably a small portion of it, but it's still yielding benefits. It is difficult to model. I can totally understand that. But I think you can see -- you will see the productivity through what is our operating cost and what are those metrics? What does it look like from a margin perspective? What is our working capital? Our working capital last year ended at $150 million. So it's very capital efficient. And you'll see that over time as we grow that the cost of the infrastructure of our company does not have to grow nearly as much and which is why we're still confident in our overall breakeven and our ability to impact costs in the coming years.
That's great. So we'll get to the specific programs, starting with mRNA-1010 and flu, an unusual regulatory sequence with the RTF and then the BLA acceptance a few days later to say the least. So maybe you could walk us through that briefly and also touch on the post-marketing confirmatory study in adults 65 plus and how you plan to fund that?
Yes, it was -- what happened was certainly unexpected to be specific about it, the refusal to review our application was related to the control arm and whether it was at the right standard. And so that was surprising to us because we had years of dialogue with the FDA.
So when we reflected on that, we said we've got to dig in and understand a little bit more, and we requested a Type A meeting. And through that Type A meeting, worked through it with and we came to a good spot. So what is that spot? That spot allows us to be fully approved from ages 50 to 64. And then 65-plus requires a -- will be accelerated approval, should this all be approved. And then we will -- what is required is a post-marketing commitment, which I'll talk about, which was one of your questions.
But I mean, the PDUFA date we got is August 5 or 2, which is now 5 months away, which is terrific. That is probably faster than we originally anticipated, frankly. So we're excited about the opportunity. It is in the near future. We're working well the FDA on it. So that's what I'll say about that overall then.
In terms of the post-marketing commitment, this is a pragmatic real-world evidence study that will take place over several years. So it is much more cost efficient than what one might think is a typical Phase II or even Phase III trial. So it doesn't affect our breakeven or our cost estimate at all. We always had some ability -- we always knew that we would need some real-world evidence over time and had already positioned and planned for this. So we're excited about what's coming.
And remind us briefly in the 50-plus age group, what percent of the flu market that is in terms of vaccines roughly? Is it similar to COVID?
I think COVID makes up a larger majority of 50-plus. So I think 150 million patients or people vaccinated in the United States. I think it's probably not the same split. I think it's more [indiscernible]. I think it's a little bit less than that. So COVID has, I think, 55% ,65% plus, 65%, 70%, 50% plus. It's not at that level. It's more split 50-50.
Got it.
But it's 5x the market.
Yes. And then for ex U.S. regulatory reviews, can you elaborate on that? Has it been -- has your experience been a little different there than the U.S.?
I'll just say that they've all been approved for a review in Europe and Canada and Australia.
Great. And the flu/COVID combo, just remind us the time lines there for ex U.S. how meaningful that is for the opportunity ex U.S. over the next few years? And then maybe you could touch on your U.S. plans for the flu/COVID combo.
Yes. So on Friday, actually, we announced that we received a positive CHMP opinion on our flu plus COVID combo, which is exciting. And so therefore, we believe that it could be approved in Europe in the coming months. So that's terrific and would be the first combination vaccine in that market as it pertains to infectious disease.
And we've also filed -- if you think about the U.S., the U.S., we are still waiting now that we have a discussion on flu. We need to understand what is required on flu first. So I think that will take a few months and be further along into what the FDA is seeing. But I'll remind investors that none of this is planned as revenue in 2026, not any stand-alone flu revenue and not any combination revenue. So we really are not expecting this to be a 2026 revenue driver whatsoever. We think it's a substantial growth for both of them or a substantial growth driver, come 2027.
And the combination, particularly in Europe, as Europe opens up, it happens to coincide with Europe opening up. And what do I mean by opening up? We've been basically locked out of Europe for the last few years because a competitor has a contract there, which ends by the start of 2027. So we'll be able to compete ideally with both a combination product, with a flu product and with a COVID product, RSV, obviously.
So we're excited about what that means to 2027, particularly in Europe. We're excited for flu in the U.S. in 2027. It remains to be seen what it means for the combination vaccine, which we had planned really to be a 2028 revenue driver. So none of our plans have COVID in the U.S. or the combination in the U.S. in 2027 or 2026.
Understood. RSV quickly, any -- should we start to get a little bit more excited about that with a potential flu approval? Or do you think you need further maturation of your portfolio to -- in terms of contracting for RSV? should we keep expectations low?
Yes. We intentionally tried to keep expectations. There will be growth, but it is nominal growth. It's coming off a low base and any growth is helpful, but it is not to the tune of 10 growth drivers that I've been speaking about. And I think what's really required there is clarity around what is the revaccination schedule. So in the first year, I think there were 12 million Americans that got vaccinated. This is back 2023 and that's down to, I think, $2 million or less last year.
And we were third to market. So therefore, you kind of need another revaccination period for it to warrant us kind of breaking in. And that comes at a time, ideally, in the next years here, where we will have a fulsome portfolio and think we will be able to compete very well. So -- but in 2026, we're not counting it as -- actually in the next few years, we're not counting it as a growth driver. But should there be a revaccination year that is in this time period, that would be upside to what we are planning for.
Great. And norovirus, you're now guiding the 2-season interim data in '26, which was earlier than prior expectations. Have you provided any granularity on that timing? And what would a successful interim readout look like with that program?
Yes. We're -- basically, we -- what we've said is that we are enrolling a second Northern Hemisphere cohort, and there will be a readout in 2026, and we haven't really adjusted the timing of all that much. So we're excited about it. I mean, just stepping back from norovirus, I think it's getting more and more press nowadays, actually. But it is a significant unmet need out there and does impact many lives, again, particularly older adults.
And so what we're -- I think what most people -- most FDA or most agencies look for is at least a 50% vaccine efficacy. And based upon the data that we saw from our immunogenicity studies, both in Phase I and Phase II, we're encouraged, and we're a whole optimistic that it will be a terrific vaccine and read out well. And so then it actually enters a pretty large market. So the market for occupational health and health care workers and lifestyle travelers, we think it could be rather substantial. I think we put this one also as of 2028 revenue driver, just to be clear.
So we're hopeful that it is a terrific interim readout this year. But right now we're planning on a 2028 launch. And that really does pair well. We believe it will go into the retail channel where many are sold and going back to this whole portfolio approach. That's why 2028 is such a difficult year to call from a revenue perspective. That's why we've only guided through 2027, but we know that we can get to 2028 with a lot of these growth drivers and the ability to take down cost. So we're excited about it.
Great. Transitioning to oncology with Intismeran, INT and several other programs now. Possible pivotal readout for adjuvant melanoma in '26. If this hits, could transform the entire company. You made a recent hire in terms of -- on the R&D front, Head of R&D, David, who has a tremendous background who I'm a big fan of. Can you -- so I guess the timing of this readout is it's very -- it's impossible -- it's event-based, right? So you can't give perfect granularity. But what do you think is the probability that it comes in '26 versus '27 and slips into '27? Can you give us anything on that front?
Yes. I mean, all I'll say is everything -- I'll just echo everything you said. I can't give a probability, but it's obviously enough that we said it could come in 2026. So therefore, we don't control that, obviously, because it is event driven. But obviously, the last thing -- maybe the other thing I'd say is just to remind investors, the adjuvant melanoma trial was fully enrolled in September of 2024.
And what we're looking at the shape of the curves on the Phase II versus this Phase III, which was fully enrolled in September 2024. And if you look at that, if it performs similarly, then you should see some kind of readout in 2026. So I can't assign a probability to that. I would just say that we've obviously said that it could read out in 2026, which must mean that there is some additional confidence in that.
Yes. If it similarly to Phase II, it's going to be a huge success, clearly. The data were really impressive. But maybe you could just talk -- have you guys said anything on powering? Or kind of what's the minimum bar in RFS or DMFS that you guys need to meet in the Phase III to be successful? And can you give us your latest thoughts on the size of that market?
Yes. Let me back up and talk Phase II and then I'll answer your question on Phase III and then the market as well. So the Phase II, just to replay the results at year 3, RFS, so no recurrence or death was 49%. And so really, obviously, a remarkable impact on patients. DMFS was at 62%, I believe, at year 3. And then, I guess, it was January. January, we just came out with -- it's a lot going on.
So in January, we came out with our 5-year data on Phase II, and that basically replicated. We only came out with RFS data, but it was exactly 49% again. So remarkable durability through 5 years Phase II, which we're encouraged by. If we saw close to that on the Phase III, we'd be thrilled.
And I think more importantly, patients would be thrilled. And as a reminder, it was one of the fastest Phase III trials ever enrolled. So we are -- I think there's a lot of -- we know there's a lot of excitement about it. We're excited about it. And if we see something even remotely similar to what we saw in the Phase II, I think many stakeholders will be quite pleased.
As for the market size, the market size, there's, I think, 100,000 patients that have melanoma and I'm just talking United States here -- in the United States. But when you whittle it down to what phase are they in, have they been resected, it's down to -- I don't know if we've given out specifics, but it's in the lower thousands, let's call it, 10,000 to 20,000. That is the market opportunity. And so -- and then you have to apply a price to it. We think it brings substantial value to patients. So it's a pretty significant opportunity for us. Even 1,000 patient, which we just enrolled in 14 months or whatever it was, in the first year would be phenomenal.
5-year OS data from Phase II expected later this year, I believe. Is there anything you could say about that? What level of benefit would be meaningful or what we should expect?
Yes. What we saw in the Phase III was early. It was promising, but early from an overall survival perspective. So we're excited to release what the Phase II data will be through 5 years at an upcoming conference, both -- for both DMFS and for overall survival. But we were encouraged by what we saw 3 years in.
Great. And beyond melanoma, let's see lung, RCC, bladder, others. When -- can you lay out the time lines for readouts in those potential indications? Which ones could come sooner than later? Could we get some of those this year?
Yes, great question. So I think first, it speaks to just how excited both Merck and Moderna are to invest behind this. We now have 3 Phase III trials and I think 5 Phase IIs or 2 Phase Is. So we've got a lot going on. To speak to what you just asked. So I would follow when these trials fully enrolled. So we had previously announced that renal cell carcinoma was fully enrolled sometime in the second half of last year. I forget the exact date.
And then in our recent earnings call, we said muscle invasive bladder cancer was fully enrolled. So that starts ticking to when are the events and when can we have a readout similar to what I just spoke about from a melanoma perspective. And so that's what I would track.
And then same thing with non-small cell lung cancer. We are still enrolling. But once it enrolls, then the events start ticking. But there's clearly a lot of investment behind this. They are enrolling rather rapidly. We now have 3 fully enrolled, and I would track enrollment is the best thing I would tell investors.
Great. In the last couple of minutes, maybe we'll touch on rare disease. You made the decision to out-license the PA program to Recordati. So maybe you could touch on that decision as well as also the decision to keep MMA in-house and the status of that program and the future of the rare disease portfolio.
Yes. I mean it really -- it's -- so we're thrilled to have Recordati as a partner. They already sell into PA with a different type of therapeutic. So they already have that commercial infrastructure to really rapidly identify patients that have proprionic acidemia. So this was a capital allocation decision. We think that's the most efficient way to have an impact for PA patients and obviously, impact as many as we can as pet quickly as we can. Not -- but it's also we don't have to invest in advance. So we can wait to see the data. We already have a commercial partner. And there are many numerous rare diseases behind that.
So before going and investing ahead of hopefully, a positive outcome, then we can do this with somebody that already can do it, accelerate that program and then hopefully, MMA and many numerous ones behind them, we can make that choice whether we're going to create our own infrastructure. But then you'll have a data point.
So they have a data point on is this performing well? First of all, did a read out well? Is it commercially performing well? So we really -- we're excited for patients, but it was also a capital allocation and I think a prudent one to not advance our investment before you actually have a readout on this.
Great. And maybe related to rare disease, but you mentioned a continued focus on nucleic acid technologies. So outside of mRNA that would include RNAi potentially or DNA. Could we see something like a new program on that front anytime soon? Or is that a very long-term statement? What's the latest there?
Yes, nucleic acids includes that. And we've -- I think that's a long-term statement. I think we -- I know we have a lot on our plate to execute and a lot of opportunity, which we are enormously excited about, including in the very near term, next 3 years. And so we have enough with mRNA technology to keep us busy for the coming years, and we're excited about it.
Fair enough. In closing, maybe I'll ask you, Jamey, what aspect of the Moderna story do you believe is most underappreciated by investors right now?
It's a good question. Well, the first one, I'll just put in the plug, and I'll answer it in 2 ways. One is the people. I think the people at Moderna are incredible. I think they are extraordinarily accomplished and have an enormous expertise.
I think they are passionate, and I think they are resilient, particularly in a time over the last 2 years that have been challenging for many different reasons. So I'll put that plug in for people. Then I think in terms of the business we're building, I think it is both durable and diversified. So I don't think investors and part of this is us trying to guide investors as well that we have a pretty durable COVID franchise, perhaps more so than others might think.
And I think we look at some of the contracts that we have, particularly outside the United States, that should provide a solid buffer for us for years to come. And then from a diversified perspective, I won't reiterate everything I just said, which is all the shots on goals and the fact that we can grow internationally.
And then you combine that with a pretty strong balance sheet that we just ended the year with, both the cash on hand plus the liquidity we have through the loan that we have at our disposal. I think it's a really exciting story that we can invest behind and be excited about. And we are -- I'm not sure that's always appreciated.
Wonderful. Jamey, thank you so much for your time.
Thank you.
Thanks, everyone, for joining.
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Moderna — TD Cowen 46th Annual Health Care Conference
Moderna — TD Cowen 46th Annual Health Care Conference
🎯 Kernbotschaft
- Kernaussage: Moderna zeigt robuste Ausführung: 2025-COVID-Umsatz am oberen Ende der Guidance dank mNEXSPIKE und guter Retail‑Penetration. Für 2026 bleibt die Guidance breit (bis +10%); Ergebnis hängt von Impfquoten, Marktanteil und internationalen Vertrags‑Timings ab. Management betont Kostenkontrolle und Einsatz künstlicher Intelligenz (AI).
⚡ Strategische Highlights
- Produkt: mNEXSPIKE: frühe US‑Retail‑Penetration (~24%); Flu+COVID erhielt positive CHMP‑Meinung (CHMP = EMA‑Fachausschuss) — Europa könnte 2027 deutlich geöffnet werden; internationale Partnerschaften (UK, Canada, Australia, Mexico, Taiwan) treiben Ex‑US‑Wachstum.
- Portfolio: Fokus auf ~10 „shots on goal“ (Influenza, Flu+COVID, norovirus, RSV, Intismeran (INT) Onkologie u.a.). Selektive Out‑licensing‑Entscheidungen (propionische Azidämie (PA) an Recordati) zur Kapitalallokation; AI‑Projekte sollen Produktivität und Working Capital verbessern.
🔭 Neue Informationen
- Regulatorik: PDUFA (FDA‑Reviewtermin) für mRNA‑1010 Anfang August 2026 (im Gespräch: 2.–5. Aug.); CHMP‑Positive Opinion für Flu+COVID in Europa; Post‑Marketing‑Real‑World‑Evidence (RWE)‑Studie für 65+ als pragmatische, kosten‑effiziente Auflage.
- Pipeline‑Timing: Norovirus: 2‑Saison Interim‑Readout 2026; Intismeran (INT) adjuvantes Melanom: möglicher pivotaler Readout 2026 (ereignisgetrieben, keine feste Zusage).
❓ Fragen der Analysten
- Guidance‑Treiber: Nachfrage nach Details, wie US vs Ex‑US, mNEXSPIKE‑Uptake und ~\$200m Revenue‑Verschiebung ins H1‑2026 die Bandbreite erklären.
- Breakeven: Nachfrage, was unter Kontrolle liegt: operative Kostenreduktion (Ziel OpEx ≈\$3.7bn 2027) vs. externe Variablen (Flu‑Outcomes, Vertrags‑Timing).
- Onkologie‑Timing: Analysten fordern Wahrscheinlichkeiten/Termine für INT‑Readout und weitere Phase‑IIIs; Management blieb bei konkreten Eintrittswahrscheinlichkeiten zurückhaltend.
⚡ Bottom Line
- Ausblick: Moderna kombiniert starke operative Execution im COVID‑Geschäft mit vielen binären Upside‑Events (mRNA‑1010 PDUFA, mNEXSPIKE‑Weiterverbreitung, norovirus, INT). Die 2026‑Guidance bleibt volatil; Kostenkontrolle und AI‑Produktivitätsgewinne sind zentrale Hebel zur Erreichung des Cash‑Flow‑Breakeven‑Ziels bis 2028.
Moderna — Q4 2025 Earnings Call
1. Management Discussion
Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Moderna Fourth Quarter 2025 Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Lavina Talukdar, Head of IR. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Kevin. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on today's call to discuss Moderna's Fourth Quarter 2025 financial results and business updates. You can access the press release issued this morning as well as the slides that we'll be reviewing by going to the Investors section of our website.
On today's call are Stephane Bancel, our Chief Executive Officer; Stephen Hoge, our President; and Jamie Mock, our Chief Financial Officer.
Before we begin, please note that this conference call will include forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Please see Slide 2 of the accompanying presentation and our SEC filings for important risk factors that could cause our actual performance and results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in these forward-looking statements.
With that, I will turn the call over to Stephane.
Thank you, Lavina. Good morning or good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us. I will start with a quick review of 2025, Jamie will present our financial results and 2016 outlook, Stephen will review our commercial outlook and clinical programs, and then I will come back and share our key value drivers as we look ahead before we take your questions.
Let me start with a review of 25%. Our revenues were $1.9 billion, driven by sales of our COVID vaccines, Spikevax and mNEXSPIKE. We continue to make tremendous progress on costs in 2025. Operating expenses were down $2.2 billion or 30% for the year. I would like to thank the entire Moderna team for this great accomplishment in 2025. I'm very proud of this.
Net loss for the year was EUR 2.8 billion, and we ended the year with $8.1 billion in cash and investments.
Before I start a review of 2025, I want to express all this appointment to the FDA, who will be able to file later on our full program, mRNA-1010. The current uncertainty in the U.S. FDA regulatory environment creates real challenges for businesses, patients and the broader innovation ecosystem. When expectations and review time lines are unpredictable, companies face greater risk and can hesitate to invest, slowing the development of breakthrough medicines. This delays patient access and increases overall health care costs.
Sustained regulatory uncertainty frightens U.S. leadership in innovative medicines. This can also result in transformative medicine developed by U.S. companies becoming available to patients outside the U.S. before reaching American patients.
Turning now to the execution on commercial and pipeline. On the commercial side, in 2025, we have 3 products on the market, Spikevax, mNEXSPIKE mRESVIA. Spikevax was approved in the U.S. in 2025. It has an excellent launch, quickly became our leading product in the U.S. In the past 2 weeks, we announced 2 commercial agreements. First, an agreement with record at for the global commercialization of our propionic acidemia rare disease candidate, currently in the pivotal study. We call that he brings deep rare disease commercial expertise and an established global infrastructure with a prophetic acidemia community. We also announced earlier this week a 5-year strategic agreement with the government of Mexico for respiratory vaccine supply. We currently have 2 products under regulatory review in multiple countries. Our seasonal flu vaccine is filed another review in Europe, Canada and Australia. Our flu plus COVID combination vaccine is filed and under review in Europe and Canada.
Additionally, we made strong programs across the pipeline. For [indiscernible], our individuals cancer therapy developed in partnership with Merck, we recently reported positive 5-year Phase II data in adjuvant melanoma, demonstrating the durability of clinical benefit, and we are foreseeing our confidence in the program's long-term potential.
I am very happy to announce that we have completed enrollment in our Phase II study in muscle-invasive bladder cancer. This marks fully stage studies in 3 different cancer tacks that are now fully enrolled: adjuvant melanoma, adjuvant renal cell carcinoma and now muscle-invasive bladder cancer. We look forward to the data with us from these studies. For cancer antigen therapy, mRNA-4399, we announced positive Phase Ib data and the promise now in Phase II. Our Phase III novirus program is now fully enrolled, so we could see Phase III data in 2026. In our peer program is still fully enrolled in this retraction study and with UTC data in 2026.
I am free to welcome to Modena, our new Chief Development Officer and Executive Committee member, Dr. David Berman. He has contributed to the development of more than 1,000 clinical stage immunotherapies at BMS and AstraZeneca. His expertise will serve Moderna well as we continue to expand our oncology pipeline. David served most recently as Head of R&D of Immunocore. We very much look forward to David joining Moderna's team on March 2. I work, of course, to take this opportunity to thank [indiscernible] for her many contributions in over the last 5 years of the company, especially a tremendous leadership during the pandemic.
With this, I would like to take over to Jimmy.
Thanks, Stephane, and hello, everyone. Today, I'll cover our fourth quarter and full year 2025 results and then wrap up with our 2026 financial framework. I'll begin with our 2025 revenue performance on Slide 8. For the fourth quarter, total revenue was $700 million, coming in at the higher end of our recent guidance. Our revenue split in the quarter was $300 million in the U.S. and $400 million from international markets. For the full year, total revenue was $1.9 billion, with the majority generated from COVID vaccine sales, along with approximately $100 million of other revenue.
From a geographic perspective, U.S. revenue totaled $1.2 billion, while international revenue was $700 million. In the U.S., while overall COVID market demand declined year-over-year, we had strong market share in the retail channel, supported by the successful launch of mNEXSPIKE. In international markets, we landed at the higher end of our range, driven by operational performance and vaccination rates, which were above or in line with our expectations.
Turning to Slide 9, I'll review our fourth quarter results. As we discussed on the prior slide, revenue was $700 million. Compared to the fourth quarter of last year, operating expenses were down 31%, reflecting continued cost discipline and execution across the organization. I'll discuss these expense trends from a full year perspective on the next slide.
Our net loss for the quarter was $800 million compared to a net loss of $1.1 billion in the fourth quarter of 2024. Loss per share was $2.11 compared to a loss per share of $2.91 last year.
Now turning to Slide 10. I'll walk through our full year 2025 financial results. As I mentioned earlier, total revenue was $1.9 billion. Cost of sales was $868 million, representing a 41% decrease compared to 2024, primarily driven by productivity and lower inventory write-downs, contract manufacturing wind down costs and sales volumes.
R&D expenses were $3.1 billion, representing a 31% decrease compared to 2024, driven by continued investment prioritization and efficiency gains in the execution of our clinical trials. These reductions were partially offset by increased investment in our neuro virus vaccine and oncology programs.
SG&A expenses were $1 billion, representing a 13% decrease compared to 2024. The decline was driven across all functions, and reflect our continued focus on operating efficiently while supporting the business in a disciplined manner.
Our income tax provision for 2025 was immaterial. We continue to maintain a global valuation allowance against the majority of our deferred tax assets which limits our ability to recognize tax benefits from losses.
Net loss for the full year was $2.8 billion compared to a net loss of $3.6 billion in 2024. Loss per share was $7.26 compared to a loss per share of $9.28 last year.
We ended 2025 with cash and investments of $8.1 billion, compared to $9.5 billion at the end of 2024. The year-over-year decrease was primarily driven by operating losses as we continue to invest in R&D and advance our pipeline, partially offset by the $600 million initial draw of our $1.5 billion credit facility. Excluding the credit facility draw, we would have ended the year with $7.6 billion of cash and investments, which was above our 3Q guidance of $6.5 billion to $7 billion due to lower operating expenses, lower capital expenditures and working capital improvements.
Now let's turn to our financial framework for 2026. We expect total revenue growth of up to 10% in 2026. This growth is expected to come primarily from international markets, and we estimate our geographic mix will be well balanced between the U.S. and markets outside the U.S. in 2026. This is a shift from our 2025 revenue split of approximately 62% U.S. and 38% international. We will begin selling locally manufactured products in both the U.K. and Australia in 2026, which is the largest driver of our international growth. Our 2026 revenue guidance factors in future potential declines in COVID vaccination rates and also assumes no revenue from our flu vaccine or our flu/COVID combination vaccine.
Similar to 2025, we expect 2026 revenue to be weighted to the second half of the year, with approximately 15% of our revenue in the first half and approximately 85% in the second half. Cost of sales is projected to be approximately $900 million. While this is flat year-over-year in absolute terms, we are expecting gross margin rate improvement from manufacturing efficiency gains and volume leverage. R&D expenses are anticipated to be approximately $3 billion as we continue to invest in our late-stage pipeline while maintaining financial discipline. It's a relatively small decline from the $3.1 billion we had in 2025 due to the continued execution of our late-stage trials in infectious disease.
For modeling purposes, we expect our R&D spend to be relatively balanced in the first half versus the second half of 2026, similar to what we experienced in 2025.
SG&A expenses are expected to be approximately $1 billion, flat versus the prior year. We remain focused on driving efficiency and cost savings across the organization, which we will use to fund new commercial investments to support both geographic expansion and future product launches. Similar to 2025, our commercial spend will be more heavily weighted to the second half of the year due to the seasonality of our commercial business.
In aggregate, we are expecting total GAAP operating expenses of $4.9 billion and $4.2 billion of cash costs, which excludes stock-based compensation, depreciation and amortization. We expect taxes to be negligible in 2026.
Capital expenditures are projected to be between $200 million and $300 million. This guidance includes our previously announced investment in building our own fill/finish capacity in the United States at our existing site in Norwood, Massachusetts.
We expect to end 2026 with $5.5 billion to $6 billion of cash and investments. Our cash guidance does not assume any additional drawdown from our credit facility.
In summary, 2025 was a key turning point in our financial story. We improved our commercial execution, exceeded our cost reduction plan by over $1 billion and ended the year with over $2 billion more cash than our original 2025 guidance, all while still advancing our pipeline. I want to thank the entire Moderna team for their efforts over this past year, and we have strong momentum heading into 2026, with multiple levers for revenue growth and a strong commitment to drive additional cost reductions across the company.
With that, I will now turn the call over to Stephen.
Thank you, Jamie, and good morning or good afternoon, everyone. Today, I will review our commercial outlook as well as progress across our pipeline. As Jamie mentioned earlier, we expect 2026 to mark a return to revenue growth for Moderna. This year, we expect growth to be driven primarily by our strategic partnerships and the second year of launch for mNEXSPIKE, which I will discuss in more detail in a moment. But first, looking forward to 2027, we see 3 additional growth drivers. We look forward to significant expansion of our addressable market with the opening of the $1.8 billion European respiratory vaccines market. As a reminder, we have been excluded from this region for several years due to a competitor pandemic contract, which expires in 2026.
We expect to launch mNEXSPIKE, our stand-alone flu vaccine mRNA-1010 and our combination flu/COVID vaccine in the European region by 2027 winter season. adding to mRESVIA and mNEXSPIKE, which are already approved. This broad portfolio represents the opportunity to grow our share in the large European market, which will contribute to meaningful revenue growth from 2027 forward.
Second, we expect growth from our new multiyear strategic agreements in Latin America and Asia Pacific. And third, with the acceptance of our flu filings in Europe, Canada and Australia, we anticipate that our flu vaccine will begin to contribute to revenue internationally.
In 2028, we expect continued new product-driven growth opportunities with both our combination flu/COVID and norovirus vaccines potentially being launched across many of our markets. Recent execution supports this growth strategy with approvals for mNEXSPIKE in Canada and Australia, and the approval of our strain updated Spikevax co-vaccine in the U.K.
We have already shown strong momentum against the 2027 growth drivers. We announced a multiyear strategic agreement with Mexico earlier this week and Taiwan last month and we continue to make progress under our previously announced strategic agreement in Brazil.
Finally, although not a major driver, we also signed a global commercialization collaboration in PA with [indiscernible] as we prepare that potential launch in 2028. The U.K. is both -- let's take a closer look at the key contributors to that growth in 2026, beginning with our strategic partnerships with the U.K., Canada and Australia. As a reminder, these are long-term agreements, under which Moderna has built local manufacturing sites and committed to ongoing domestic research and development. These partnerships are core to each country's national security and public health strategy, strengthening preparedness against current viruses and future pandemic threats.
The U.K. is the largest of these markets, and we expect a $200 million U.K. COVID order to be fulfilled in the first half of 2026 for their spring booster campaign. We also expect to supply vaccines for the U.K.'s fall vaccination campaign, initially this year for COVID, with the potential to expand to other respiratory vaccines such as flu, RSV and our combination vaccine in the years ahead.
In Canada, we are thrilled to deliver a -- we were thrilled to deliver made in Canada COVID vaccines in 2025 and expect to see the full annualized impact of the agreement in 2026. And in Australia, we expect to deliver the full annualized benefit of our agreement in 2026 as well.
Moving to Slide 15. Our second major expected growth driver in 2026 is our new COVID vaccine, mNEXSPIKE. mNEXSPIKE had a very successful launch in 2025. This is especially notable because mNEXSPIKE was approved midyear in '25 and was only available commercially in the United States. We are extremely pleased with the market share achieved in that first season with them mNEXSPIKE capturing 24% of the total U.S. retail market and 34% of the retail market among adults aged 65 and older. As a reminder, the retail market is the largest customer segment, representing approximately 3/4 of the U.S. COVID market, and the majority of that volume is in seniors.
Looking ahead to 2026, we expect to continue to drive the uptake of mNEXSPIKE in the United States. And internationally, we look forward to approvals and launches in multiple countries this year and the years to come.
Moving to Slide 16, which -- this outlines the latest developments in our infectious disease portfolio. Starting with our approved products. The updated formulation of Spikevax is approved in countries around the world. And importantly, in 2025, we received the supplemental BLA approval in the United States for high-risk children as young as 6 months. As mentioned earlier, mNEXSPIKE was approved and launched in the U.S. It was approved in Canada in 2025 and recently approved in Australia as well. We are targeting further approvals in -- of mNEXSPIKE in Europe, Japan and Taiwan this year. mRESVIA, our RSV vaccine has been approved for adult age 60 and older in 40 countries and approved for high-risk adults, age 18 to 59 in 31 of those 40 countries. In addition to those 3 approved vaccines, we filed for 2 additional approvals. MRNA-1010, our flu vaccine has been accepted for review in Europe, Canada and Australia with the first potential approvals coming late in '26 or early 27.
We were disappointed with the FDA's refusal to file letter for mRNA-1010 and have requested a Type A meeting to understand the path forward for the program in the United States. mRNA-1083, our flu plus COVID combination vaccine is under review in Europe and Canada, with first potential approvals in 2026. And finally, our norovirus vaccine is in an ongoing Phase III trial, which is fully enrolled in its second Northern Hemisphere season and is accruing cases towards its interim analysis.
Now turning to our therapeutics pipeline. [indiscernible], our individualized cancer therapy developed in collaboration with Merck has a total of 8 Phase II or Phase III studies ongoing. The most advanced of these is our Phase III adjuvant melanoma study as well as our Phase II randomized adjuvant renal cell carcinoma study, both of which have been previously announced as fully enrolled. As Stephane mentioned previously, we are very excited to announce that we have now fully enrolled our Phase II randomized muscle invasive bladder cancer study. Bladder cancer is the third cancer type now in a fully enrolled late-stage study.
In addition to these 3 trials, we are looking forward to completing enrollment in our ongoing Phase III studies in adjuvant non-small cell lung cancer. We also look forward to completing enrollment in our ongoing Phase II trials in non-muscle invasive bladder cancer, first-line metastatic melanoma and first-line metastatic squamous non-small cell lung cancer.
Beyond these Phase II and Phase III studies, we are fully enrolled in our Phase I studies for adjuvant pancreatic cancer and perioperative gastric cancer. And we look forward to data from these studies in the year ahead.
Aside from -- aside from our collaboration and Intisarin with Merck, we continue to make progress in additional oncology programs. In the Phase II study of our cancer antigen therapy, MRNA-4359, cohorts are enrolling in first-line metastatic melanoma, second-line metastatic melanoma and first-line metastatic non-small cell lung cancer. In mRNA-2808, our T-cell engager in multiple myeloma, we are dosing in our Phase I/II study. We're also dosing in the Phase I study of our cancer antigen therapy mRNA-4106. And rounding out our early-stage oncology programs, our Phase I study is also dosing in our cell therapy enhancing program, mRNA-4203, in collaboration with [indiscernible].
In rare diseases, our proprionic academia or PA program is fully enrolled in its registrational study. And in methylmalonic acidemia, or MMA, we expect our registrational study to start in 2026.
With that, I'll hand the call back over to Stephane.
Thank you, Stephen and Jamie. Looking ahead, we see multiple commercial, pipeline and financial value drivers that will move Moderna forward in 2026. Commercially, we believe the market share gains from mNEXSPIKE will continue in 2026 and beyond. We will also benefit from a full year contribution from our strategic partnership in the U.K., Canada and Australia. That will be an important growth driver for Moderna in 2026. And we expect up to 10% revenue growth in 2016.
From a pipeline standpoint, we look forward to potential regulatory approval of mNEXSPIKE in Europe, in Japan and in Taiwan. We also expect potential approval of our combination flu plus COVID vaccine in Europe and Canada, where regulatory filings are under review. In the U.S., we plan to refile planning further guidance from the FDA.
For seasonal flu vaccine, we look forward to an approval in Canada this year. This is going to be an important year for oncology patients and for Moderna. We also expect continued clinical momentum from our Intismal program, as Stephen just described. Last month, we reported positive 5-year Phase II data in adjuvant melanoma. Potential clinical milestones from [indiscernible] program include Phase III adverse melanoma data, Phase II adjuvant renal cell carcinoma data and Phase I data in adjuvant pancreatic and perioperative gastric cancers, all of which have been fully enrolled for quite some time.
We also look forward to a Phase II result for our cancer antigen therapy mRNA-4459, the Phase II results for norovirus and the pivotal data readout from our PA program. That will be a busy year.
From a financial standpoint, teams across the company continue to make progress on cost discipline, and we expect cash costs to decline approximately to $4.2 billion in the year. As part of our cost efficiency program, the adoption of AI tools as such every part of our business, and we expect further productivity improvement in 2026.
Moderna has a strong momentum as we head into 2026. We are poised to deliver up to 10% revenue growth as we continue to reduce costs. We expect to see approvals of infectious vaccine that will expand our commercial portfolio. And we foresee multiple potential clinical data catalyst, driven by our [indiscernible] oncology programs in rare disease and infectious disease.
In closing, I want to recognize the entire Moderna team for their [indiscernible] drive. Our progress, clinical, commercial, operational, is dedicated to one mission, delivering the greatest possible impact to people for [indiscernible].
With this, operator, we'll be happy to take questions.
[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Terence Flynn with Morgan Stanley.
2. Question Answer
I had 2 parts. I guess the first 1 is just on the flu RTF implications for the 2028 cash flow breakeven guidance? And then timing of the Type A meeting like when you might get some visibility on next steps? And then the INT program in adjuvant melanoma. I know that's a very important program and catalyst for the company. And so can you refine at all the timing of that data, whether it's going to be first half or second half?
Sure. Maybe I'll take the questions on regulatory first, and then, Jamie, hand it over to you on any breakeven implications. So we're actually very pleased that the flu file is under review now in Europe, Canada, Australia. We'll be filing in additional countries this year. And all of that is with an eye towards having that start to contribute, as I said a moment ago, in 2027, in the fall of 2027 to our growth. We also are pleased that the flu/COVID combination product remains under review and making progress in Europe for this year.
As it relates to the U.S. timing, it really -- we need to engage with the FDA in the Type A meeting, that's usually 30 days as a process, and understand from them what is going to be required to get that product moving forward in the U.S. We absolutely feel that American seniors should have access to the same innovations. We do think this year, in particular, where there's a potential for a mismatch in one of the strains, it's particularly important that technologies like Moderna's mRNA platform are used to advance new and potentially improved products. But at this point, until we have that Type A meeting, we won't really know how quickly we can get moving forward with the 1010 file in the U.S. as we've been doing outside the U.S. Jamie?
Yes. Terry, thanks for the question. I appreciate it, and I recognize that it's on investors' minds. As Stephen just said, though, this is a bit of a fresh and fluid situation. And without understanding the resolution of what is next for our flu product, it's a little bit difficult to comment at this time. But here's what I would say. If you go back to the growth drivers we laid out at Analyst Day as well as Stephen had in his prepared remarks, we have 10 large shots on goal to increase revenue over the coming years, all with a wide range of potential outcomes. And Stephen mentioned some of the progress. We announced our long-term partnerships with Mexico and Taiwan. We're excited about -- as I said, we're excited to deliver for the U.K. and Australia this year, which will be substantial revenue growth. mNEXSPIKE had a great first year. We're excited about the second year, both in the U.S. and outside the United States. We're looking forward to Europe opening up. So it's really -- there's still so many scenarios that could happen here, Terence, that it's a little bit too early to tell. On top of that, we have a ton of momentum on productivity and what we're doing from a cost perspective. So we're really excited about our financial profile. We ended the year with over $8 billion in cash. We have a ton of momentum from a cost perspective, and we have a lot of opportunities for growth. So at this point, without knowing resolution to what's going to happen on flu, I think it's a little too early to tell.
And on INT, the second question. We we don't have, obviously, more specific guidance than we previously put out there. I'd highlight, as I said a moment ago, that there are 5 histologies now under review or under different stages of clinical development. So INT for melanoma, the adjuvant melanoma study is 1 that we are confident will read out this year. It is an event-driven trial, and so it will depend upon the accrual of those events. We have RCC, renal cell and bladder are now fully enrolled. And again, those are going to be event-driven and milestone-driven readouts. And so it's possible.
And then the Phase I data that we referenced before for our periadjuvant gastric and adjuvant pancreatic monotherapy cohort. And so it's going to be a busy year for us over the next number of months. But we don't have more specific guidance because some of the most important readouts are ultimately event-driven.
Our next question comes from Salveen Richter with Goldman Sachs.
This is Elizabeth on for Salveen. We wanted to ask about the flu and COVID combination vaccine and just given the RTF for 1010, how should we think about this refiling? And is there any read through from a regulatory standpoint in the U.S.? And then maybe just remind us of the study data that went into the submission initially and with the latest thinking is on what might be needed to be added for refiling? And then a second question on an wanted your thoughts on which of those 5 histologies you just mentioned have the highest probability of success kind of based on the read through from data generated to date?
Thanks for both questions. So first, on the 1083 file, again, I'll underscore that we're hoping for approval of the flu/COVID combination product in Europe first in the this year. And so we'll move forward there. As it relates to the U.S., we were holding back on refiling the combo vaccine until we completed some portion of the review of the flu vaccine. With the refusal to start the review of the flu vaccine, I think that is now gated on, again, the feedback from the Type A meeting, which we haven't had about what more would be necessary for us to refile for the mRNA-1010 program. And then we would be able to provide more clarity on the flu/COVID program and refiling there, again, all of this in the U.S. because all of those files are moving forward internationally.
You asked about the data that was in the file. We had a Phase III study for the mRNA-1010 file, which we have previously presented the results on. And actually, it's out for a peer-reviewed publication right now. But really excited by that Phase III study, which is a randomized 41,000-person study that we had agreed with the FDA and agencies around the world with prior to initiation. In that study, as a reminder, we saw 27% superior relative vaccine efficacy compared to the standard dose control. And just to give you a sense of where that stands relative to comparators, the 2 of the licensed preferentially recommended vaccines for those over the age of 65, had run essentially the same study design, one of them even with exactly the same comparator. And those, if you look at the USPI for Fluzone, they had seen 24% relative vaccine efficacy for flu block. If you look in their USP IOC, 30% relative vaccine efficacy. So at 27%, we felt very good that we were in line in demonstrating superiority in exactly the same way that those standard of cares have in the same population as over the age of 65.
We also ran a Phase III study, an immunogenicity and safety study, comparing our vaccine candidate for flu against [indiscernible] high dose. And in that case, we showed statistical superiority to [indiscernible] high dose on immunogenicity. That study has been published in the journal of Vaccine, and is available, I think, on our website for those who are interested in. So that package was in the initial file. We think it's a very comprehensive data set. We do think if we can get the review initiated, it will support the use of the product. But we do need to understand first from FDA in that Type A meeting what they would need to initiate the review of the file that they previously had agreed to review.
Moving to entismarin. I think it's obvious that you ask where we see the highest probably success. It's hard to argue with the Phase IIb results that we have for adjuvant melanoma. As we announced last month, the 5-year survival data continues to look really strong, approximately a 50% reduction in the rates of relapse or death from melanoma, real stability in those curves through now 5 years. And if you ask me, where do I think the read-through of that is, I think it's clearly, we hope, into the Phase III adjuvant melanoma study that is testing in largely the same population and exactly the same standard of care.
I think if it works, if we see that there, one of the reasons we and our partner, Merck, went in with renal cell and and bladder was we thought muscle-invasive urothelial cell carcinoma is -- we thought those would be places where we might also see relatively quick read-through. And so I hope that those also have positive readouts. But I think if you're asking where we think the probably success is highest, it's clearly in the -- it's in the Phase III adjuvant melanoma.
Our next question comes from Eliana Merle with Barclays.
Just can you elaborate a little bit on how you're thinking about the European COVID vaccination market, and how you see the vaccination rate and pricing evolving there? And also how, outside of the U.S., you're thinking about the pathway for potential flu/COVID combination vaccine approval?
And then also on that topic around flu, just in your filings for flu in Europe and Canada, has there been any discussion around potential strain selection in the future and potentially selecting the strains closer to the season start?
Yes. Thank you for all 3. So first, I'll take the combination question. So -- actually, the COVID question. So mNEXSPIKE is moving forward with approvals internationally, and we're really pleased with the profile of that product. As I'll remind you, we had demonstrated in that Phase III study higher relative vaccine efficacy. In fact, in a post hoc analysis, very high, approximately 25% higher relative vaccine efficacy compared to mNEXSPIKE in older adults with comorbidities. And so I really do think it's got a strong profile as the European COVID market reopens.
Now as to pricing, we haven't issued that yet, but we do believe that the current market is, as we've shared, approximately $700 million today. And that doesn't account for wastage that exists in the market. There are many doses that are being -- more doses that are being purchased under that dynamic contracts that are not getting used. That estimate of approximately $700 million is just what we see as shots in arms. So we do believe that market will be larger than that -- larger than even if we see nothing more than the approximately 20 million shots in arms that currently are happening, and we do hope to get a sizable share. We think mNEXSPIKE will be a very competitive product profile in that market, and we're scaling up for that launch.
As you know, Europe is not 1 market, it is a series of different markets and some places we'll compete traditionally with sales and market activities. Other markets are more tender-driven, and we're preparing for all of that activities really starting this year, but as we said, as a meaningful driver of growth in '27 and beyond.
On the combination product, we actually think that's the next step in that strategy. We're very pleased by the combo products progress in its international reviews. As we've said, based on timing, we do expect a European review to move forward, and we are hoping for approval this year, which gives us a chance to launch as early as this year, more likely in '27, again, it just depends on timing of these events because proximity to the season will make a launch very difficult. But it is clearly a great opportunity for us to move beyond just COVID into a combination product and an opportunity to both expand our share in the COVID space, but also grab share in the flu space. And we are proceeding with the filings elsewhere. I think we referenced in the PR Canada for that combination product as well and hope to similarly bring forward that innovation because we believe there's strong demand from health systems as well as patients for 1 shot or 1 vaccine that does multiple things.
Now as it relates to the flu, we have been having those conversations. So mRNA-1010, as we've proceeded outside of the U.S., there has been strong appetite for the question of better strain matching. And in fact, in some public comments, you've seen some European regulators, but also some from other markets. Vocally advocate for later strain selection and more diverse strain selections happening in flu vaccines, because of the precedent we've shown with COVID vaccines. I'll remind you that in -- we sometimes forget in the U.S., but in this country, we've actually -- the FDA has chosen different strains of COVID vaccine than the rest of the world in 2 out of the 4 past seasons. And the data has shown that, that better matching for the market has led to slightly better efficacy. In fact, we ran a clinical trial once head-to-head back in the bivalent days and showed higher point estimates for efficacy, which makes sense, better match vaccines, you would expect to be better at protecting people.
And what we're hearing from the international flu community, including, as I said, in Europe, is quite strong support for that. It's a real question today. I mean, just to make the point, there is a -- there are a couple of different strains of influenza B circulating around the world right now. In the United States, it is a different strain than is circulating in the rest of the Northern Hemisphere. And there doesn't look like there would be great cross protection. And so it just highlights that the right answer for this fall could be very different from a composition perspective for Europe or North America or other regions. And that's where the technology that we have that has allowed us to tailor and meet regional needs with COVID, we think, can have an impact. There are many other things we need to do to improve flu vaccines, but this is 1 we can -- we know we can do right now.
Our next question comes from Tyler Van Buren with TD Cowen.
This is Greg on for Tyler from TD Cowen. So some investors have been surprised by the higher-than-expected cash balance at year-end. So can you explain why that occurred and what the additional levers to lower cash costs are moving forward?
Yes. Sure, Greg. Maybe I'll just go back to our original guidance. So when we laid out our original guidance, we said $1.5 billion to $2.5 billion of revenue. So $2 billion at the midpoint. And we said $5.5 billion of cash costs. So if you take those 2 together, it's a $3.5 billion usage from a starting point of $9.5 billion, which is why we guided $6 billion. Since then, revenue essentially came in online. We had [ 1.944 ] let's call that pretty close, cash cost came in at $4.3 million. So we beat by $1.2 billion. On top of that, we took $600 million of the initial drop from the loan, so that's now $1.8 billion better. Our capital expenditures were $100 million less than we forecasted at the outset of the year, so that's $1.9 billion better. And then if you look at the working capital, I am really pleased. It doesn't get a lot of attention with how the team has performed. Our receivables are at $180 million. Inventory was flat year-over-year at $270 million, payables at $300 million. We have a net working capital balance of $150 million to which we run this company on. And that is really incredible performance from the team, and that drove the last $200 million.
So I don't think it should be too much of a surprise that it's mostly cash cost for $1.2 billion above our original guidance, the loan, little bit less capital expenditures and then terrific performance on working capital from the team.
Our next question comes from Michael Yee with UBS.
We had 2 questions as well. First, on the adjuvant Phase III melanoma study. Can you remind us that, that study has interims built in and then, of course, a final, and so like other design studies you've done, there's a certain number of cases you crew, you take a look at it and then if it doesn't stop, you move to the next case next interim, can you just describe a little bit of how that works and remind us the Phase 2, I think, did stop at an interim, if I was correct there.
And then on norovirus, I don't think anyone's asked on that, but can you just remind us there you are enrolling or expect to complete enrollment and then there's actually a readout, I think, planned this year. What is your confidence level there? I know there's been a lot of disappointments previously, but I think you are targeting a different approach and using 3 different strains, which I think I assume you believe will capture the majority of coverage. Can you just remind us there and how you think about that result?
Yes. Thanks, Mike, for both questions. So first on the INT Phase III for adjuvant melanoma, you're correct. It's the first analysis that we'll see this year will be an interim analysis, looking at our primary endpoint of relapse-free survival. We have a number of additional analysis. If that -- if you get there and we don't have the statistical power to declare early success then, then we would move forward to subsequent analyses and ultimately, additional endpoints, including things like just a metastases-free survival. What I'd remind you is the Phase II hit essentially a statistical hypothesis at the interim. And then what we've been following since are the others. And we believe we've conservatively designed this study so that if those results are repeated, we would be well powered to see that in this first interim. But if for whatever reason, we're told to continue forward, there would be a subsequent analysis. And that, again, will be event-driven, but presumably would come the year after.
As to the norovirus study, we are very excited to see those results potentially this year, again, a case-driven trial. As you highlighted, there had been some previous efforts in norovirus. Ours are quite different. So first, the composition of our vaccine, as you highlighted, is a trivalent here, and we are looking at strain-matched efficacy, which is important because it does allow us to make sure that we're looking at the performance of the vaccine, which is matched at strains that are in approximately in most years, 2/3 to 70% of the circulating norovirus disease. And so that trivalent composition and the VLPs that our technology make, we think, is a differentiator.
But perhaps the more important one relative to the trial, I think you were referencing is we're looking in seropositive populations, not children. And so earlier studies that have struggled in norovirus have looked at in children in primary vaccination often a couple of doses as opposed to really where the burden of disease is as you become an adult is in older adults, those particularly over the age of 65, where the threat of really profound dehydration can lead to hospitalization and complications of a whole number of medical comorbidities. And so there's a actually even bigger need in that population.
And in that case, it's more of a booster trial. It's much more like -- it's a bit like primary vaccination for whatever it is, RSV or flu or COVID, being very, very different than boosting seropositive people so that they can protect, which is a lot more like what you see with our senior flu, COVID and RSV vaccines, which have obviously been successful. Norovirus is a different one, but we do believe that, that difference in population will make a difference in terms of the ability of a vaccine to help protect them against this disease.
And as a follow-up, do you think that the guidance with FDA or the discussion or regulatory path for this would be very different for an put another way, much more obvious than perhaps what's going on with.
So look, Michael, I'd remind that we have -- we got 3 products approved last year in the U.S. or some label expansions, RSV and a new COVID product and a pediatric COVID. And in those cases, the guidance was different. What we're experiencing with flu is, I think we hope flu specific. Our norovirus study, to your point, is a very large placebo-controlled study. And so the Type A -- the refusal file letter that we have received from the FDA on flu really speaks to a change in their perspective on the comparator used. But in the case of norovirus, there is no comparator to use. And so the comparator in that clinical trial is placebo. If we're able to demonstrate efficacy over placebo, it's hard to argue that there's a problem with the comparator.
Our next question comes from Luca Issi with RBC Capital Markets.
This is Shelby on for Luka. Maybe on IMT. congrats on the recent 5-year data for melanoma, and it's great to see the hazard ratio for RSS is remaining consistent with prior cuts. However, what about OS? I remember at ASCO in 2024, you said some pretty compelling data with the initial separation of the curves, but the press release this time was silent on OS. SP715608970 How should we read that? Does that mean the OS curves are no longer separated? Or are you just keeping the details or maybe an upcoming medical meeting? Any color there? Much appreciate it.
Yes. Let me say it this way. We look forward to sharing the OS curves at an upcoming medical meeting. We -- where you see relapse-free survival holding obviously, included in relapse-free survival is survival. And so we obviously didn't put that out because we want to make sure that we're able to bring that forward to the community in a place where they can see all of that data, but all data from the 5-year interim analysis will be presented at an upcoming medical meeting. Until then, I really shouldn't say more.
Our next question comes from Courtney Breen with Bernstein.
just a couple in building off the conversation around the ITS that you got for the flu 1010. With bench defined kind of an immunogenicity substudy. I think of that Phase III efficacy study, which suggested -- and it was a very small population of that study suggested there was a 50-50 ratio between those under and over 65. Can you just remind us or share with us what percentage of patients in that efficacy study were 65 or older?
And then additionally, as we think about kind of INT and the path to approval and kind of -- have you had any feedback in the design of that clinical trial that perhaps provided some recommendations that weren't followed. Additionally, kind of will it be you or Merck taking that file forward? And kind of can we assume that CIBA will be the FDA group that will assess that particular file?
Yes. Thank you for the questions. So first on the Phase III trial design for our flu vaccine. You're correct, and your memory is right. More than 50% of the population of the study was stratified that at least 50% would be over the age of 65. We also had a very large population, north of 10%, that was above the age of 75. And as we have presented at medical meetings and will be available in the upcoming publication, we've seen really strong superior efficacy across all of those populations. In fact, it's remarkably consistent. And as you add frailty or other risk factors to age, or as you look to severe outcomes such as hospitalization, you'll see those point estimates for superiority go even higher, and in many cases, become even more statistically significant.
So we feel very good about that 41,000-person study which, as you just described, or as I just said, has more than 20,000 people over the age of 65 in it. I did describe a separate Phase III study just to avoid confusion, the P303 study Part C. That has 3,000 people in it, and that was the study that was head-to-head against Fluzone high dose that showed superior immunogenicity. But the efficacy study, I think, was the 1 that you were asking about.
Now as it relates to INT, INT is -- we're moving forward in a very novel field. And so we've had robust and I would say, highly productive engagement with the FDA and truly global regulators around the -- what will be a first of its kind individualized neoantigen treatment. Those dialogues are detailed. And I think broadly, we are very aligned, both ourselves and Merck with those regulators. It is with CIBA FDA, but obviously, other offices are involved because it is an oncology therapy of high import, it gets a lot of attention. And I would just say, generally, we're working closely with regulators to make sure that we're doing everything they want so that they can conduct rapid reviews of the file.
Merck is our partner in this. Merck is the sponsor for the Phase III study. So they -- we and they participate in those discussions and back and forth, and we each have different responsibilities in our 50-50 joint venture partnership. But the BLA submission, if it goes forward, will be from Merck.
Our next question comes from Alec Stranahan with Bank of America.
SP35268589 This is Matthew on for Alex. Maybe for RCC, can you walk us through what makes you confident that Phase 2 could be registrational? And what hazard ratio or benefit you think would be compelling? And then if you do need to run a Phase III, curious whether you think KEYTRUDA be the appropriate comparator arm or whether KEYTRUDA elutipan combo would be preferred pending the LightSpark22 data.
Yes. That's a great question. One of the exciting things in oncology is it's a fast-moving space. And then individual histology is sometimes the standard of care will evolve and you're highlighting [indiscernible] for RCC. Look, first, I'd say the Phase II study is blinded, it's powered. And if we see a really significant or profound benefit. We haven't guided on what that hazard ratio will be, but let's assume it's something that would look really dramatic and highly statistically significant. Then it is structured so that it could be a registrational study. But it wasn't initially intended empowered as that. It's not a Phase III study because our primary goal here was we wanted to confirm the hypothesis that INT works well across a range of tumors and in particular, places that we thought there was an opportunity to improve apron pembro as a standard of care.
And since we started and enrolled that study, there's obviously been the good news of the [indiscernible] result. Again, that's with our partner, Merck. And so if we see equally great response here for INT, we'll have a conversation with Merck about what we do with INT. It may mean going forward, it may mean adding it to those because there's always a desire to improve outcomes in cancer. It will entirely depend upon what the data actually says. And so at this point, we're just excited to look forward to it. But once we have it, the thing that I think we will be most focused on is, does this confirm the opportunity for INT to work across a range of different cancers and other histologies?
Our next question comes from Cory Kasimov with Evercore.
This is Eddy on for Cory. We had a question on the adjuvant melanoma as well, could you share how do you anticipate use across the broader PD-1, PD-L1 class or primarily only with pembrolizumab? Separately as subcu pembro and other options become more prevalent, do you see any impact on regimen selection, logistics or ultimately uptake for [indiscernible]?
Thank you for both questions. So first, I think we will be pursuing a label. Obviously, it's on top of a standard of care in the trial, which is pembro, but we believe that, that label could broadly apply to other PD-1, PD-L1s that are approved in the same indication for adjuvant melanoma. Obviously, that will depend upon discussions with regulators, but I think that would follow the precedent of other approaches. And it's in our mutual interest with Merck. We want to see INT be used for as many patients as possible. regardless of the choice of the PD-1 or PD-L1 backbone.
The -- as it relates to subcu, I think that's really within the PD-1 class question. And so how do those antibodies get subbed out for each other going forward. It really wouldn't really, in our mind, to INT, which would be a category of 1 and the benefit that INT provides, we believe, would apply equally well, although we'll have to see what regulators want to see this, but I think the community would agree that would likely apply equally well whether you're doing a subcutaneous or IV use of PD-1 antibody. But that's really a question about what they're doing in terms of class share there because INT will be in a category unto itself.
Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude the Q&A portion of today's presentation. I'd like to turn the call back to Stephane for any further remarks.
Well, thank you very much, everybody, for joining. We look forward to speaking to many of you in the coming hours, days and weeks. Have a great day.
Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's presentation. You may now disconnect, and have a wonderful day.
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Moderna — Q4 2025 Earnings Call
Moderna — Q4 2025 Earnings Call
📊 Quartal auf einen Blick
- Umsatz (FY): $1,9 Mrd. in 2025; Q4 $700 Mio. (USA $300M / International $400M).
- Ergebnis: Jahresfehlbetrag $2,8 Mrd.; Q4 Verlust $800 Mio.; LPS (Verlust je Aktie) FY $7,26.
- Cash: $8,1 Mrd. Ende 2025; Ziel 31.12.2026: $5,5–6,0 Mrd. (keine weitere Kreditabhebung angenommen).
- Kostendisziplin: Operative Aufwendungen −30% YoY; F&E (Forschung & Entwicklung) $3,1 Mrd.; Cost of Sales $868 Mio. (−41% YoY).
🎯 Was das Management sagt
- Kostfokus: Management betont anhaltende Kostensenkungen, Produktivitätsgewinne und AI‑Einsatz; Cash‑Kosten sollen 2026 auf ~$4,2 Mrd. sinken.
- Kommerziell: mNEXSPIKE starke US‑Einführung (24% Retail, 34% ≥65), lokale Produktion in UK/Australien/Kanada treibt internationales Wachstum.
- Pipeline & Personal: Positive 5‑Jahres‑Daten bei INT (adjuvantes Melanom); mehrere späte Onkologie‑ und Infektionsstudien voll eingeschrieben; neuer CDO David Berman an Bord.
🔭 Ausblick & Guidance
- Umsatz 2026: Bis zu +10% gegenüber 2025, stark H2‑gewichtet (≈15% H1 / 85% H2); Guidance geht von keinem Flu‑/Combo‑Umsatz in 2026 aus.
- Aufwand & Cash: Cost of sales ≈ $900 Mio.; F&E ≈ $3 Mrd.; SG&A ≈ $1 Mrd.; GAAP‑OpEx ≈ $4,9 Mrd.; CapEx $200–300 Mio.; erwartetes Jahresende‑Cash $5,5–6,0 Mrd.
- Regulatorisches Risiko: FDA erteilte RTF (Refusal to File) für mRNA‑1010 (Influenza); Type‑A‑Meeting steht an und beeinflusst US‑Timing/Launch‑Chance.
❓ Fragen der Analysten
- Flu‑Regulatorik: Hauptfragen zur RTF für mRNA‑1010 und Konsequenzen für Kombinationsvakzine; Management erwartet Klärung nach Type‑A‑Meeting (30‑Tage‑Prozess).
- INT‑Timings: Adjuvante Melanom‑Phase‑III ist ereignisgetrieben; erstes Interim 2026 möglich, weitere Analysen folgen falls nicht gestoppt.
- Norovirus & Cash: Norovirus Phase III (trivalent) in seropositiven älteren Erwachsenen fully enrolled; Cash‑Überhang 2025 erklärt durch niedrigere Cash‑Kosten, $600M Kreditabruf, geringere CapEx und Working‑Capital‑Verbesserung.
⚡ Bottom Line
- Implikation: Moderna durchläuft eine Übergangs‑Jahr: klar verbesserte Kostenbasis und ausreichend Cash, mehrere kommerzielle Hebel (mNEXSPIKE, Partnerschaften) sowie bedeutende klinische Katalysatoren. Kurzfristig dominiert regulatorische Unsicherheit in den USA (Flu‑RTF) das Kursrisiko; mittelfristig bleibt Upside durch internationale Launches und Onkologie‑Readouts.
Moderna — 44th Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference
1. Question Answer
Great. Welcome, everyone. My name is Jessica Fye, large-cap biotech analyst at JPMorgan, and we're continuing the 44th Annual JPMorgan Healthcare Conference today with Moderna. First, you're going to hear a presentation about the company, and then we're going to go into some Q&A. So if you're in the room and you raise your hand, someone will bring you a microphone or alternatively, if you're listening on the webcast, you can submit questions on the portal and I can read them off the iPad up here. So with that, let me pass it over to Moderna's CEO, Stéphane Bancel.
Thank you, Jessica. Good afternoon, and welcome to Moderna's presentation at this year's JPMorgan conference. Let me start by reminding you that we're going to be making forward-looking statements. You can find those on our website or on the SEC website. What we're working with the team to do in the next few years is basically to build a respiratory vaccine franchise to generate cash to be able to invest in our oncology and our rare disease assets. And if you look at it, we are quite underway. We have now 3 products approved by the FDA and around the world. We have 2 products that we've submitted to regulatory approval, flu and flu plus COVID. And then norovirus is in Phase III. And in oncology, and we're going to come back to it in a minute, we have a very exciting pipeline full of catalysts in 2026. So we are very excited to see what we can do to help patients.
But let me start by 2025. In 2025, our sales guidance was $1.6 billion to $2 billion, and we're very pleased to report this morning that we think this is pre-audited numbers that we should land around $1.9 billion of sales for the year, which is $100 million better than the midpoint of the range. We got 3 products approved in the year. We filed products for flu and flu plus COVID for approval, and we have quite a number of catalysts in the pipeline. So the R&D team was very busy to build the future of the company and to diversify away from COVID to grow the company.
As you know, we have been marching towards a multiyear process to resizing the company because, of course, of the very high demand we had during COVID is not necessary in the endemic setting, and so we had to do a lot of restructuring. And I'm very, very proud of the work that the team has done over the last few years. In 2024, we had around EUR 6.3 billion of cash cost for the company. At JPMorgan last year, we set the ambitious goal to deliver EUR 5.5 billion of cash cost for a year. Quite a number of people were not so sure we could achieve it. Well, the great news is for an amazing work by the team across the entire company, across the entire P&L and the balance sheet and the working capital. We, in August on the Q2 call, said that we should land around $5.1 billion cash cost. At the Q3 call, we said $4.6 billion. And this morning, we announced, and again, those numbers are unaudited. We are going to go through the audit process. We think we should finish the year at $4.3 billion to $4.5 billion of cash cost. So if you look at it just compared to last year, the team has worked across the board to take almost $2 billion of cost for the company. That is a massive achievement, and I'm extremely grateful for all the team and for Fila CFO, Jamie, to driving the charge across the company. And really, it has been everything, working with suppliers, we making business processes, renegotiating prices, taking down manufacturing, working on the working capital. I mean, everything we left no stone unturned, and we're still turning stones as we speak.
So with the sales in a good place and costs in a much better place, we are very pleased where we're finishing the year in cash. So last year at our Q1 earning call -- Q4 earnings call, sorry, in February, we said we think we should end 2025 with $6 billion of cash. In November, we raised that to a range of $6.5 billion to $7 billion. And if you look at the cash we had at the end of the year before the drawdown from the credit facility, we achieved $7.6 billion. This is all within our control on a like-for-like basis. So it's a tremendous achievement by the team. You add on to that, the line of credit, the drawdown we did from Ares in November, that takes us to an actual cash balance, cash and cash equivalent at the end of '25 of $8.1 billion. And because we still have $900 million we can draw down from the facility, we have actually a credit facility giving us liquidity of $9 billion. So we think we are really in a great place to be able to navigate the growth over the next few years.
So if I now run to 2026, '27 and '28, we are very focused on driving profitability back to the company by 2028. And for that, we see 2 big drivers of growth in '26, '27 and '28 in terms of sales. One is geographic diversification, which I think is really important. And the other one is, of course, new product launches. So if you look at '26, we think we can grow the sales and we can grow the sales potentially up to 10% -- so the first vector of growth is going to be the partnerships we have in the U.K., in Canada and Australia, where we agreed with the government a few years ago to build dedicated factories in their countries in exchange for basically a multiyear partnership in terms of volume commitment. And those are really long-term partnerships. They have also R&D investment across the country, including in the academic labs of those countries. There's also a national defense and the pandemic readiness clause in those contracts, meaning we can any day flip those factories into pandemic factories. If God forbid, there was an H5 outbreak tomorrow, we could in any of those countries at the government's decision, flip any percent of our capacity towards pandemic readiness onshore.
The other thing, of course, is new product growth. So last year, we're very pleased to get mNEXSPIKE a vaccine with a higher efficacy for COVID versus Spikevax approved by the FDA. We're starting to get approval around the world, and that will drive organic growth. And in the U.S., because we didn't have a full year of launch with a full year of launch because we have higher efficacy, we're seeing a very good response from customers. We saw 24% market share in the retail segment. And if you look at the elderly segment, we actually achieved a 32% market share in the first year. We believe that for a full year of contracting, we should be able to achieve potentially better than that. And with the launches in the countries listed on the slide, this should really drive growth.
So if you think about the geographic growth we're going to get from a basis standpoint in U.K., Canada, Australia and the mNEXSPIKE, continued growth in the U.S. and new growth outside the U.S., that will help Moderna grow for the first time in a few years in 2026. Then if you look into 2027, which we're already preparing right now, -- we are quite excited about the opportunities ahead of us. And the first one is in Europe. As some of you know or might remember, we have been excluded from the European market for now several years because of a partnership between Pfizer and the EU, which expires at the end of '26. So we're going to get access again to the COVID market, which is a very big market in Europe. In Europe, you have 90 million people compared to 60 million people in the U.S. above 65 years of age. And the price differential on vaccine is not very, very high. So the volume and the number of people you can treat is actually really important.
The other piece that could be very, very helpful to us in terms of sales growth in '27 is the flu plus COVID combo. If we're able to get an approval of flu plus COVID combo in Europe in 2026 that will allow us to get NittA recommendations, so CDC equivalent recommendations and pricing negotiation to be able for the winter of '27, '28 to be able to be in the market. And most probably given where other products are right now, we will be the only product in the market with flu plus COVID combo. So we think that's really important for '27. The other piece we are doing to continue to drive geographic expansion is to do more partnership with governments like we've done in the U.K. around the world. We are very pleased to announce a partnership with Brazil that is ongoing, and we are discussing several other partnerships to be able to extend those multiyear agreements. And of course, in '27, with a flu already being filed, we should have an approval starting in flu in '26, the balance in '27, allowing us for sales impact in '27.
E in '28, we should have flu plus COVID, including in the U.S., Norovirus if the Phase III is positive. So as you can see, you have this accumulation of new product up to 6 products in the vaccine portfolio of Moderna by 2028, driving growth not only in the U.S., but very importantly, outside the U.S. So that's how we see the growth over the next few years. So with that growth, we're going to see an expansion in gross margin because we have bigger volume, and we're going to continue to work on yield and improvement in productivity and manufacturing. R&D costs, as we said at R&D Day in November, are going to come down because we're not going to commit to new Phase III. So we basically have the sunsetting of the existing Phase III. Even a product like mNEXSPIKE, even though it's launched, we still have Phase III cost commitment for safety follow-up. But as those things sunset, we're going to have a reduction of R&D for vaccines. The SG&A investment should be pretty flat because we don't need to add sales force capacity to sell seasonal vaccine in the U.S. to the retail or to the hospital. And so there's going to be a pretty interesting story in terms of EBIT and cash generation to invest in oncology and in rare disease.
So in oncology, we are very excited about 2026. If you look at Intismeran that is combined with KEYTRUDA, we have now 10 clinical studies ongoing. We have 3 Phase III study. We have 5 Phase II across multiple tumor type, and you have 2 Phase I. And then there are the next wave of oncology products coming, and those are fully owned by Moderna. mRNA-4359, we spoke a lot about this year. We saw interesting signals in the Phase I/II early in the year. And what we did with the team, we very quickly reprioritized the portfolio to not increase R&D costs because we want to be very disciplined about cost. And we basically funded the Phase II in lung and melanoma for 4359. 459 is used in metastatic setting. And what we have seen is patients that were refractory, meaning they did not respond to checkpoints like KEYTRUDA and Durva and the others. And then you give them KEYTRUDA plus 4359, and we saw a pretty high response rate. Of course, it was a Phase II, so the end is small, which is why we are chasing this signal. The patient stories are quite moving when you hear those patients that went through one checkpoint, stage 4 cancer, do not respond. Go to a second checkpoint, do not respond, get our drugs. There's actually a patient who did a testimony in the Guardian, I think, last week. explaining that now she's tumor-free she Stage IV cancer patient. So again, it's early studies. We're doing the right thing, which is chasing the signal. This is an asset we own, but because it's Stage IV cancer, this could go very fast and there's potential readout in 2026.
And then there's some earlier drugs that we are very excited about like mRNA-2808. It's a T-cell engager making free antibody at the same time in multiple myeloma. So we think this should improve care to patients. And again, we are going into the clinic, doing dose escalation. And if we get signal in patients, we'll expand this very quickly to see if we can improve patient care. Then you have a couple of more programs that are early, but they're going to progress pretty quickly. And then on rare disease, PA should read its Phase III in 2026. The FDA endpoint is a 12-month endpoint. We announced at our November earnings call that we were fully enrolled. So you can do the math yourself by the end of the year in 2026, we should have a Phase III data. And MMA is ready to move into pivotal study. Again, we want to be disciplined about investments. So we'll not move this until we have signal on Per, but it's ready to go into Phase III study. And so if you think about it, with Intismeran potentially reading its Phase III in '26, that could be a '27 launch. And then with Pierre reading its Phase III and with 4359 having a potential Phase II in a setup metastatic disease where patients do not respond to checkpoint. That is really game-changing for patients. So that also could be an accelerated approval in '28.
And then there's other products that a lot of people don't pay too much attention to right now, but are quite important. If PA works, the read across to MMA is pretty strong. It's a same lipid. It's also a rare disease in the liver exactly like PA is. And we've had some very interesting data out of the Phase I/II. We have the other oncology asset I started to talk about. And then in vaccine, we still have a few interesting assets. We have currently a Phase II study, multiple sclerosis treatment that is an EBV product. As you know, there's been a lot of progress in the field on the hypothesis that MS is mostly induced by EBV activation. And so what if you could use a technology to control the viral load of EBV-positive patients like you do with HIV, to control the viral load so that you don't have flares of MS. That's what we are trying right now in the clinic in MS patients. We're also working in the clinic on a Phase II study for an EBV vaccine that is prophylactic to be used in teenagers a bit like you have for HPV, a vaccine that could be used with teenagers to prevent mononucleosis. And if positive and approved, you could potentially do a very large study with the government to look at scale. Could you prevent multiple sclerosis? It's a bit like what Merck did very successfully with HPV. This is a very interesting product because we think the unmet medical need is very large, not only for MS, but EBV has been shown to also drive some cancer, which is not surprising, having a virus in your body all your life as you age and the immune system becomes weaker might not be a great thing for our health. We have a Lyme vaccine in the clinic, which is our first antibacterial vaccine before it was only antiviral and CMV ongoing in transplant. So quite a number of products that could also complement the sales in the coming years. And then we have a lot of products waiting to go into the clinic because the team is very active with the platform. And the more they learn about the platform and the mRNA technology, the more they have ideas in infectious disease, in cancer and also we are playing with autoimmune disease.
We've committed to continue to be very disciplined about cost. Our goal is very clear. We want to drive breakeven -- cash breakeven in 2028. So we continue to work on cost to reduce the cost as we increase the top line with those product launches and those geographic expansion. So to close, maybe if you look at 2026, we are quite excited about 2026. The last few years have been difficult, as you can imagine. resizing the company coming from the scale up that the team did an amazing job during COVID was difficult. And of course, last year was difficult with all the changes in the vaccine field. But if you look at '26 commercially between the geographic expansion that is happening because those plants have been approved by their local regulators. So you're going to have a base effect in terms of full year impact of sales in Canada, U.K. and Australia. and mNEXSPIKE growth in the U.S., both market share for the full year and expansion on geographic, we are very excited to go back into sales growth. Then the pipeline, there's going to be a lot of catalysts in 2026. mNEXSPIKE approvals, flu plus COVID combo in Europe and Canada for potential approval and flu in U.S. and Canada and a few other countries, we provided a list last Monday. And then, of course, Intismeran. If you look at the list, there's a world when there is a lot with that on itisiran. What we should get very soon is the 5-year data of a Phase II in melanoma. That should come very soon. That will be really important because 5 years is a very important point in cancer treatment. We've shown the 2 years, we showed the 3 years, the 3 years were better than the 2 years. So we're really eager to see the 5 years and to share it with you. Then, of course, the Phase III in melanoma, but also because RCC, renal cell carcinoma is fully enrolled and has been for a while. We could have data in Phase II in RCC Also, we have several Phase I ongoing in pancreas cancer and also gastric cancer. So those things could read out, and we will share, of course, the data. So I think we could move from a world where a lot of people are quite hesitant about INT or Intismeran to a world where you have a different tumor from melanoma and you have a Phase III and you have duration. So it's going to be a very exciting year. And we are really working hard with our colleagues at Merck to be ready to potentially file very quickly. The factory is ready in Marlborough, Massachusetts. So the product is fully made in America. And we should be able to move pretty quickly as the teams are preparing for BLA filings of the CMC package. We could have because it's in metastatic setting, some readouts in the Phase II of 4359. Norovirus should read this year, as it should, knocking on wood, is last year, we got unlucky with the epidemiology, the strain of the virus. This year, so far in the season is tracking positively. So again, I want to be cautious because we don't control the strain of virus circulating, but we think we have a good chance to read out this year. And of course, the PA is going to have a mechanical readout this year. We're going to continue to work on cost and continue to drive productivity for throughout the whole company. So sales growth for '26, expansion of potentially up to 2 new product approvals, so we could go from 3 products approved today to potentially 5 by the same time next year and a lot of clinical readout in oncology, in infectious disease and also in rare disease. So we're quite excited about '26.
Great. And just as a reminder, if you have a question in the room, just raise your hand, someone will bring over a microphone. But I will start. So for Intismeran, with the potential for that interim readout from the Phase III trial in adjuvant melanoma coming up, what effect size do you need to see to claim success at the first interim?
Sure. It's nice to start by the question on Intismeran. You get the question on COVID right the way. So Intismeran, if you look at what we've done in the Phase II, so just to reground everybody, the Phase II was a randomized study with a 2:1 ratio between Intismeran plus KEYTRUDA to Intismeran. And because it was randomized and it was 157 people -- sorry, patients, it's quite a good-sized study. And if you remember what we saw, we saw -- the 3-year data being better than the 2-year data, which is always encouraging in oncology compared to KEYTRUDA monotherapy. We saw a DFS of around 49%. So 1 in 2 people benefited from a DFS standpoint compared to KEYTRUDA mono. And in DMFS, distance metastasis-free survival, which oncologists think is a very interesting metric for long-term survival because, of course, people die of metastasis, not the primary tumors, was actually 62% -- and the p-values were very strong. And so we're going to get the 5-year data soon. So I think that gives us a better sense of how well does the signal hold. And so as you know, when you go to Phase III, it's really hard to know if you get the same type of numbers or not. But because of the mechanism of action of a drug, which is really -- and we showed that at ASCO in 2018 is really to reprogram the T cell of the patient. We think we should have nice duration and nice effect size. So we have not disclosed with Merck kind of where the goalpost is, but I think if we see a material improvement versus KEYTRUDA alone, if you just look at the number of lives impacted, we think there's a product there. So...
What about a scenario where we don't hear about an interim readout from the Phase III this year? What would the most likely reason be?
Sure. So as I mentioned, this is an event-based study like most Phase IIIs in cancer. So if we don't have data this year, given that now we have reconfirmed '26 several times, if you look at the last few quarters, our statistician look regularly at the data set, what we know number of events and so on. This might be actually a good news because it means that we don't have events, meaning people don't have their cancer coming back, which might be very good news for the drug and for patients. So I will not panic if we don't get the data in '26. We think it should come in '26. But again, it's event-based. And I think every month, it's delayed, it might be a good sign.
Okay. So what about the kind of read across to other settings, right? So to what extent if we do get positive Phase III data in adjuvant melanoma, does that read across to other settings? So how would it?
So with oncology, one always has to be cautious. We will have to do the clinical studies, which is why Merck and ourselves are invested in those 9 additional studies to melanoma. But if you go back to what we showed at ASCO over the last few years, including pre-COVID, we had signal. So again, it was a small sample in the Phase I/II, which was an all-comer study in lung, we had signaled in head and neck -- and so Merck and us believe that because of the mechanism of action and because KEYTRUDA has worked in so many tumors that we should have an incremental patient benefit compared to KEYTRUDA alone. I think, again, given all the things we collectively don't know about cancer and about the drug yet, it will be arrogant or unscientific to actually make any claim about the effect size we could see in other tumor, which is also why we are very eager to see what signal do we get or not in those Phase I. They're going to be, of course, small numbers. But if in gastric and/or in pancreas, you see signal, that's interesting. And then the Phase II like RCC and others and bladder. So we should be -- because a lot of data should come this year, which should potentially be sitting here this year if we invite us with actually quite a number of readouts where we'll be much better informed by the true potential of Intismeran because, of course, -- if it's a drug only in adjuvant setting, melanoma is going to be great, but it's going to be in the many billions of dollars. But if you have multi-tumor responding, if you have metastatic, you might have seen this 2 study in metastatic setting in lung and in melanoma, then you can start to see, okay, this is really like a very impactful drug that's going to save a lot of lives, just if you look at the effect size, and that's going to be a big commercial product.
So I guess related to that, can you just take us through -- so like the 5-year follow-up on the Phase II, we're certainly getting that this year. And then what's the cadence of the updates after that?
So you're going to get it this year because the 2-year and the 3-year data came in December. So because it's a 5-year study, we have to do a lot of cleanup and scans and so on to make sure everything is right before we lock down everything. It's the end of the study. So because he was December of the 2 and the 3 year, we're talking weeks or months, I'm not talking quarters. Then for the other readouts, it's really hard to predict because those are all event-driven. All the studies are event-driven. So could I see a world where we see melanoma sometime this year and before there's maybe another study that has read out? Yes. Could there be studies on both sides of the Phase III melanoma? Yes. It's really hard to predict. We just share the data as we have them. We always do that. When good data like flu, I think shared it 48 hours after we got the data or bad like CMV, we shared also, I think, 2 days after we got the data. We'll get the data out. We want the scientific community to know about the data. We want to be transparent with investors. So as soon as we know, you know probably quickly right after.
Okay. So you mentioned a couple of metastatic studies. What is your latest thinking on the potential for this approach in metastatic disease...
Sure. So I think it comes from what we are learning with our colleagues at Merck, not only about Intismeran, but also the other products of Moderna and also the field. If you look at it, what we have seen with 4359 in metastatic setting is really interesting that mRNA technology can have an impact in metastatic setting. If you look at what we have learned about T cells and all the biomarker we've looked at across all the studies listed, we've learned a lot. We keep learning a lot. We keep digging at data. We keep looking at the new antigen and so on. And so we believe it's a quite interesting possibility that INT because of disability to really reprogram T cell, which again, for those that have not seen the data, I go back to ASCO 2018 or AS Lavina, she'll get you the data. Once you've seen that data that you can see in patients that if you take their blood before starting Intismeran and you look at the antigen coded in the Intismeran drug, the T cell response. And then you look at 4 dose after and you take the blood of those same patients and you see T cells popping up, that's quite profound. And so with a lot of things we have learned, Merck and us because we have to go through GSE process and to mutually agree to do the investment because we have 50-50 cost-wise on those studies. And there's already always more ideas by our oncology colleagues than we have resources that we didn't go lightly into metastatic setting. We think there's a chance for having a signal there. But again, with oncology, you have to be cautious.
And I guess beyond Intismeran, what other assets are you most excited about in the oncology pipeline? And how are you prioritizing them? And just what are the next readouts we should be watching for that aren't Intismeran?
Sure. So one I mentioned briefly is mRNA-4359. We expected signal based on the mechanism of action, but we didn't expect what we saw. And the patient stories we reviewed with the team were very profound. You have people 70-year-old, Stage IV skin cancer, you have metastasis everywhere, get on the checkpoint, go through the whole cycle, no response. Get another checkpoint, go a full cycle, no response, get on to sometimes a third checkpoint, no response and then get on to 4359 plus KEYTRUDA. When if you think about it, the disease is much more progressed. And the immune system, which is a key component of how our technology works, is also weaker, and we've seen responses. So again, it's Phase I/II, it was early data. So the end is small, but it was in melanoma and in lung, which is always a little pin for the Intismeran question across tumor types. And so what we decided with the team is like we need -- look, we need to chase that signal. And so because we're so disciplined on cost, we just look at the whole portfolio, we delayed other things to be able to fund, which was not in our initial 2025 plan to fund the Phase II in lung and in melanoma. And because those are metastatic patients and the control arm, of course, are not getting 459, you have a case where you could have data in '26. And so that's something also that could be quite a surprise because then you could go very quickly to regulators. There is no manufacturing critical path because this is done in Norwood. And because it's metastatic setting for patients who do not respond to checkpoints, what do you have left when you have a patient and you've gone for 2 or 3 or 4 checkpoints and you don't respond. So that's quite exciting. The other one I'm quite excited about is 2808 in multiple myeloma. As you know, the standard of care is you go antibody after antibody when the cancer escape. What if you could have one product with 3 antibodies in a single dose to try to really stop the cancer from evading. It's in the clinic right now. in patients, obviously. And so we get data of this. So this is one that I see as a low biology risk because those are targets that have been used in the field. Some of them are products approved. But it's a good use of the mRNA technology where you can combine all those things, you can go quickly in the clinic. There's incredible manufacturing leverage. We can make that between 2 COVID batches. And so that's another one that I'm quite excited about in oncology. But there is more coming.
Any pipeline questions from the audience? Maybe shifting to kind of the financial outlook. Can you talk about what supports your ambition to deliver up to 10% revenue growth in 2026?
Sure. So I think we need to look at the U.S. and outside the U.S., in the U.S., if you look at this year, there's been a decrease of the COVID volume. A lot of it is due to the start of the season. As you know, the start of the season with the products approved, but with a new AC panel recommendation. In a lot of states, pharmacies could not deliver the vaccine if you walked in a pharmacy and ask for a COVID vaccine. So it took several weeks. Some states move very quickly. But even in a state like Massachusetts, where we live, you could not walk into a pharmacy, I want a COVID shot, I couldn't give it to you if you don't have a script. Of course, you had a script because the product was approved by the FDA with an SBLA, you could get the product. But if you were without a script, you wouldn't get the product. So some states move very quickly to allow pharmacies for local public health decrease for the state to allow this to happen. Some states took like a month. And so that was, of course, not helpful. What is interesting is if you look at the last month or so, the decrease compared to last year is quite modest. Another thing to appreciate is that the guideline for the spring booster is still for COVID shot for the spring for people at high risk, the elderly and people at high risk cancer people, patients and so on. And so even if the U.S. were to go down a little bit in volume, like we've seen in the last month, -- if you think about mNEXSPIKE, which because of high efficacy has a premium price and the share we are potentially going to be able to gain into 2026 because with a product approved, it's a much less risky proposition for the retailers. That should help to potentially even have a flat sales in dollars if we had a small decrease of the volume of COVID. But with what's happening in flu and with COVID right now in the country, people might be more motivated to get a flu shot because I think too many people still do not understand that when you get a viral infection, if you have it for several days and you start coughing and you damage your mucus, you're going to start to have bacteria going down from upper track to lower track and that's how you get pneumonia. And if you get pneumonia for too long, that's how you get sepsis. So if you think about the cascade that we see a lot in people at high risk, that's the cascade, which is why if you're at high risk, you absolutely need to get a vaccine for all those viruses because any one of those can be done. And if you're unlucky, you can come from a through infection and be recovering from it, still not be in great shape. And then you get COVID or vice versa. And that's the second one that really put you down and you get pneumonia and then you're done in downward spiral. And so that's for the U.S. Outside the U.S., as we said, there's 2 things, the incremental from 0 of mNEXSPIKE sales in many countries. And 2 is the deals we have in Canada, U.K., Australia. In '25, you only had part of the years where you had revenues because the factories were not approved until late. But next year, you're going to have a full year effect. So if you just from a basis standpoint, you just want to get mechanical growth from there.
So underlying the up to 10%, which direction is the U.S. going if we think U.S. volume is maybe drifting, but mNEXSPIKE.
Look, it's a bit too early to tell, which is why we're not guiding precisely. The contracting season is ahead of us. We're going to try, of course, to do the best we can to get as much share as we can. I'm sure competitors will be fighting back. The uptake we saw in the first half season is pretty good. And so we're quite optimistic. But until we get the contracts, we want to have more precision. So I just want to stay cautious because there's a lot of contracts to happen in the next 6 months. But as I said, even if the U.S. were to be flat in dollar, we'll grow -- the company will grow outside the U.S. mNEXSPIKE and those 3 countries where we're going to have a very material FX size.
Walking through kind of the flu and then flu COVID time lines. I guess, just first, what season do you expect the monotherapy flu vaccine to launch? And how do you plan to drive adoption of that product?
Sure. So for flu mono, mRNA-1010, we have filed in all the key geographies. There's more coming. The regulatory team like in most companies prioritize and just get going. So there's more coming. But because of the time lines, if some countries approve the product in 2026, which we expect, you should see minimum, if no sales. because by the time you get the product approved, contracting is behind you. The retailers want the product for the season to guarantee their EBIT margin and serving the customers. So there will be some potential tactical sales right and left. But the true impact of mRNA-1010, if it's approved by regulators is really in '27, which is why I talked about it in my '27 growth. Same with COVID plus flu, if it's approved in Europe, given the time line should lead to a '26 approval based on when we filed it. It will have most probably no sales in 2026 because by the time you get it approved in Europe, you need to go country by country to get the CDC equivalent, the NTA recommendations. And then you need to negotiate pricing by country. Pricing is not at the European level, it by country. But what we're really trying to aim there and the timing works really well because remember, in '26, anyway, there's a COVID Pfizer contract, block on COVID and government, given their budget situation, do not want to spewice buying a COVID mono and then buying a COVID flu combo. But what is key for us is to play the time lines, we should be able to do all that to get into '27, early '27 to be able to be in countries where you have tenders like Spain and Italy, be able to participate in all the tenders and in countries where it's negoti with government to be able to do that. So we really expect flu COVID sales if again, the product is approved to really have a big impact in '27.
And what about flu COVID in the U.S.? What's the status of that?
Yes. So as you know, Jessica, it's more for the audience. We had filed COVID flu in the U.S. When we got the Phase III flu data, the FDA so a bit earlier in the press release, they asked us to basically withdraw the file of a combo and refile after we filed flu. So we just filed flu just before Christmas. We just announced it last week. And so we are in active discussion with the FDA of what timing will be appropriate to refile the flu post-COVID combo.
Okay. So that launch season for the U.S.
So that's why we did it for '28 to be conservative. Okay. If you look at the slide I presented, it's not for '27, it's for '28. '27 is really flu U.S. and Europe reopening and flu plus COVID in Europe.
And how long do you expect to be the only flu-COVID combo?
So it's interesting. It's a good question. As you know, Pfizer BioNTech had a vaccine that they shared the data recently that didn't look so great. And by the way, they never showed the data of 65 and above, I don't know why. They're going back to the drawing board into Phase I/II. So we'll see how this one work out. There's another one by Novavax that we're also waiting data. So it's -- for '27 in Europe, it seems like nobody can catch up. Then the question will be, as those other programs progress or not, what happens, what's the timing. So we're going to really use being the first in the market, of course, to really build a lot of brand equity. And remember, the piece that is also interesting is that the COVID component is mNEXSPIKE. So it has a higher efficacy than Spikevax. And as you remember, during COVID, there were a lot of real-world evidence studies showing that Spikevax has a higher efficacy than COMIRNATY. So you're going to basically have a COVID component way better than COMIRNATY. And then the flu component 1010, we've showed has a much higher efficacy than standard flu product. It's in the same ZIP code. There's no head-to-head study, but in the same ZIP code compared to standard flu vaccine to Fluzone High-Dose. And so we're going to be basically coming to market with a best-in-class product in terms of the flu component for people at high risk like Fluzone High-Dose and of mNEXSPIKE better than Spikevax, better than COMIRNATY. So being the first to be able to share that data and to just keep talking about that data all the time should help us a lot in terms of how we set up the marketplace.
Okay. You also talked about kind of once Europe is kind of back on the table, having more volume and that helping you drive better gross margins. How much does gross margin improvement from here hang on top line growth?
So it's interesting. We have not given the split, but if you think about gross margin in the next 3 to 4 years, let's say, you're going to have a few things. You're going to have pure volume, all those product launches in vaccines. Then when we have non-vaccine product to launch like PA, mRNA-4359 in cancer, mRNA-2808, -- those products will be made off-season of respiratory vaccine. Because today, if you think about it, we are really penalized in terms of gross margin because in Q1, the factory is not very busy because we supply the Southern Hemisphere, it's not big volumes. And so you could make PA product or any of those other products that are not individualized in your off-season time line, absorbing your fixed cost. So that will be helping. The other piece is that the team is continuing to work on productivity internally in terms of yield, in terms of reducing deviation, be able to -- and then the third piece is productivity through AI. We're doing a lot of investment in AI across the company. We're still negotiating with suppliers better deals. And the last piece, which we announced at R&D Day is we are bringing for the U.S. market prefilled syringe manufacturing in Norwood. And so this also should improve margin because today, we pay a third party and we pay the margin and we pay the taxes. When we bring this, we're actually going to amortize the fixed cost of Norwood, including the assets, the building which we own and the personnel. So I think that's going to -- so you see there's 4, 5 levers of gross margin improvement. But again, in the next 1, 2, 3, 4 years. It's not a magic one that next year, it's going to be a continuous improvement. I really think year-on-year, it's going to be better and better.
Okay. Great. is it for our time. So we'll stop there.
Thank you.
Thank you.
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Moderna — 44th Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference
Moderna — 44th Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference
📣 Kernbotschaft
- Kernaussage: Moderna baut eine respiratorische Impfstoff‑Franchise als Cash‑Motor, um in Onkologie und seltene Erkrankungen zu investieren.
- Finanzen: Vorläufiger 2025‑Umsatz rund $1,9 Mrd. (Guidance‑Midpoint +$100M); starke Kostensenkungen und hohe Liquidität ermöglichen fortgesetzte Investitionen.
- Ziel: Rückkehr zur Profitabilität/Cash‑Breakeven bis 2028 durch Umsatzwachstum und Effizienz.
🎯 Strategische Highlights
- Produktpipeline: Drei zugelassene Produkte, Flu‑Mono und Flu+COVID eingereicht, Norovirus in Phase III; zahlreiche Onkologie‑Kandidaten mit 2026‑Katalysatoren (u.a. Intismeran, mRNA‑4359).
- Geographie: Multijährige Produktions‑/Lieferpartnerschaften in UK, Kanada, Australien (plus Brasilien in Entwicklung) zur Absatzdiversifikation und Pandemie‑Bereitschaft onshore.
- Kostendisziplin: Cash‑Kosten deutlich gesenkt (vorläufig $4,3–4,5 Mrd.); R&D‑Commitments für laufende Phase‑III laufen aus, SG&A stabil.
🔭 Neue Informationen
- 2025‑Update: Pre‑audited Umsatz ~$1,9 Mrd.; End‑Cash rund $8,1 Mrd. und verfügbare Kreditlinie = $9 Mrd.
- Kostentwicklung: Zielkorridor für Cash‑Kosten auf $4,3–4,5 Mrd. gesenkt (vorher höher angesetzt).
- Kommerzielle Zeitpläne: Flu/Flu+COVID‑Zulassungen erwartet 2026 in Teilen der Welt; spürbarer kommerzieller Impact primär 2027 (Europa) und 2028 (USA‑Combo konservativ).
❓ Fragen der Analysten
- Intismeran‑Interim: Management nennt keinen exakten Effektgrößen‑Schwellenwert; erwartet aber, dass ein „materialer Vorteil“ vs. Keytruda Erfolg begründen würde; Phase‑III ist ereignisgesteuert.
- Read‑across & Metastasen: Lesart: Mechanismus spricht für Potenzial in mehreren Tumorlokalisationen, Management bleibt aber datengetrieben und vorsichtig.
- Finanztreiber 2026: Bis zu 10% Wachstum basiert auf mNEXSPIKE‑Marktanteil, volle Jahreswirkung der Partnerschaften (UK/CAN/AUS) und schrittweiser Europa‑Wiederaufnahme; konkrete Vertrags‑Details noch ausstehend.
⚡ Bottom Line
- Relevanz: Solide Liquiditätsbasis und erhebliche Kostreduktionen reduzieren finanzielles Risiko; 2026 ist ein Wachstumsjahr mit klaren Upside‑Katalysatoren (Vaccine‑Launches, Onkologie‑Readouts). Hauptrisiken bleiben ereignisgetriebene Studien‑Timelines, Epidemiologie (Norovirus) und regulatorische/Vertrags‑Unsicherheiten.
Moderna — Piper Sandler 37th Annual Healthcare Conference
1. Question Answer
Next presenting company, Moderna. My name is Ted Tenthoff. I'm a senior biotech analyst at Piper Sandler. And before I begin, I am required to point out certain disclosures regarding the relationship between Piper and Moderna that are listed at the back of the room and also at the registration desk.
So as you know, Moderna is a leading developer of messenger RNA vaccines and medicines. Moderna shares have been under pressure over the last couple of years after really helping us through the COVID pandemic, in part as a result of decreasing immunization rates. I got my mNEXSPIKE vaccine. I think anyone who gets a flu shot should get a COVID vaccine as well as long as they're recommended by their doctor. And now under the FDA and RFK Jr., it really feels like they've declared war on mRNA vaccines. And then we recently had the setback with the same victory. So it's been a tough slog here. But you guys just recently had an R&D Day and really pointed to all of the new vaccines and medicines that are coming. And I think it's a really exciting time. And Jamie, you always do such a great job going through sort of the financial underpinnings of what Stephane and Stephen and everyone are working on and how you're going to get there.
So I'm pleased to introduce Jamie Mock, CFO.
Jamie, I'm sorry to put you in the hot seat, but I have just gotten overwhelming number of questions, as I'm sure you guys have as well. What's really behind the FDA's claim that COVID vaccine caused these 10 children's deaths there's offsetting news too from experts that are refuting these claims. And I guess, firstly, what's really behind the sort of onslaught on mRNA? And then we can kind of get into what you guys know about sort of the findings.
Yes. Well, first off, thanks for having me, Ted. It's good to see you, and thank you for getting your COVID vaccine. That's always helpful and I think important. So look, I don't know what's behind it, to be honest. We haven't seen any data. We haven't seen the analysis. So here's what I can say. We take safety very seriously at Moderna, as you would expect. We have rigorous monitoring across ourselves, across the FDA, across over 90 countries across the globe that have been looking at it. And there are multiple overlapping safety systems that look for any new data point, any evolving safety consideration. And remember, we've delivered over 1 billion doses over the last few years. And so all those safety monitoring systems haven't really given us anything new or anything undisclosed at this point. And that's really all we can say. We haven't seen the data. We haven't seen the analysis. So it's inappropriate for me to comment on something that we haven't really got with it.
And I think I've seen someone said that 10 out of 96 were related to the vaccine. But then at the same time, I think over 800 children in their teens or below died from COVID in that time frame. So I think it's really -- we're going to have to weigh both sides of this for the 2. So I'll just pause. Are there any questions about that from anyone. Again, I think the answer pretty much is we're going to see what becomes of this and what additional data comes. So Jamie, I mentioned this in the beginning, you always do such a great job setting the framework for the company's commercial and financial performance. Let's start with COVID. Vaccine rates are down kind of high 20%, maybe 30% from last year. You're really now selling both Spikevax and mNEXSPIKE, which I think is a great product, like 1/5 the dose, lower side effects, higher potency. What's the current outlook for COVID vaccine revenues for the remainder of this year and beyond?
Yes. Thanks for the question. So yes, we really think this is a turning point financially for our company. And COVID will be the lion's share of our revenue until flu comes online and hopefully norovirus and our combination vaccine, which we'll get into. But let me just start with 2025 where we guided $1.6 billion to $2 billion. That was $1 billion to $1.3 billion in the United States and $600 million to $700 million outside the United States.
And so let me start with the United States. The only thing -- all the contracting is done, I mean, we're 80% through the season at this point. So the only remaining variable is vaccination rates, as you mentioned. And at the time of our guidance, we provided for vaccination rates that could be down 20%, so that would be on the low end of $1 billion -- or on the high end of $1.3 billion or down 40%, which will be on the low end of $1 billion within the United States. And I think through last week, we're down 27% or 28%, as we said. So we feel very confident in our guide for the United States as well as outside the United States. The only remaining items are delivery timing. So a little bit that could push into the first quarter or maybe it happens this year. And there's only a few markets that are actually vaccination rate driven. Many are just contracted demand, but there are a few. So there's a little bit of variables there.
So we -- for 2025, it's predominantly 99% COVID related. I'm sure we'll talk about RSV in a moment as well. Then when we look out to the next 3 years, I'd really encourage everybody to look at our Analyst Day webcast, which we really laid out, as you mentioned, what are the growth drivers for the next 3 years, which we see 10 of them. I won't get into all of them. But I think the punchline there is it's still largely COVID until flu and norovirus come along. And it's largely outside the United States. And it starts with a few contracts we have with 3 countries across the globe in the U.K., in Australia and in Canada, where these are long-term contracts that we believe we're fulfilling on right now in the case of all 3 of them. But the majority of the revenue, the full year revenue will be in 2026 versus 2025. So that's significant growth for us, particularly in those 3 areas.
And then you mentioned mNEXSPIKE, which we're quite encouraged by. I think it's got 55% of our overall market share out of our Spikevax being the 45%. And we didn't even know coming into this year whether it would be approved. So it got approved in early June. So we had to double produce this year for both mNEXSPIKE and in Spikevax. And we're really encouraged that because of the product profile and the higher efficacy on mNEXSPIKE, it's doing extremely well, particularly in older adults. So we're really excited to go into 2026, knowing that we have this product approved, knowing that it's had terrific uptake already in the year that it was only approved in June, which I think provides another growth driver for 2026.
And then -- and we said we'd grow up to 10%. So that's part of this whole story is that I think moving forward, starting in 2026, we believe we will start growing. And then in 2027, Europe opens up for us. We believe that we'll win in other regions around the world in 2028. We have norovirus coming on. We have the combination vaccine, which could come in '27 as well. And so we're quite excited for the growth rate of the company, and that's really just in the seasonal vaccine business. If we are able to have terrific data in INT, if we're able to have terrific data in our 4359 product, which I'm sure we'll talk about more in PA, that is upside to our overall revenue here. So we're really excited about the future here.
Yes, I agree. I think at the R&D Day, I kept feeling that you guys are turning the corner. So it's what really came through. So we'll go into a couple of these vaccines individually. So for seasonal flu, I believe you guys are preparing to complete regulatory filings by January. Could they be approved this year? And how do you really envision kind of penetrating into the traditional seasonal flu market?
No, we're excited about it. So yes, we will complete our filings for the U.S., Europe, Australia, Canada by January, as you mentioned. And if the filing is done in January, it's really not a 2026 product. This is really the 2027 market that we are shooting for. And we love the product profile, and it really starts with the efficacy of the product and how it compares to standard dose. And so we believe that will play well in older adults, which often have enhanced dose or high-dose flu, and that's where they compete. And if you look at the relative vaccine efficacy of our product versus -- that we showed in the Phase III trial versus standard dose, it's 26.6% better than standard dose.
So we really do think we'll compete in that market well. And that, I think, speaks to our entire strategy here, which is we really need the breadth of products. I'm sure we'll get into the other ones. But in the seasonal vaccine business, you have more power -- purchasing power if you have COVID, if you have 2 products in COVID, mNEXSPIKE and Spikevax, you have RSV and you have flu, perhaps a combination vaccine and norovirus. We think that, that bundling effect is really helpful when we go to market with all of our customers.
I really think the combo product is a game changer, and it combines 110 with mNEXSPIKE right?
That's right...
So it's really the top of the 2 products. When do you think this could get gained licensure? I know it's under review in Europe, which is promising and could start to open up that market again. But what's sort of the FDA waiting on to try to understand?
Yes. So yes, as you mentioned, it's already under review in Europe. So that is 2026 outcome. In Canada, we have refiled. And then for the U.S., we're really -- they wanted to see our flu package and our flu filing first before they can give us guidance on what to do with our combination vaccine. So I think actually, we might see a combination product that is actually approved internationally before the U.S., particularly if Europe goes well, maybe that's a 2026 product or maybe it's a 2027 product, but it is relatively imminent as well as Canada.
So we're -- in terms of the growth profile, I think there's 2 drivers. One is everywhere where we sell a COVID vaccine, if somebody also wants a flu vaccine, they get 2 and 1. So we already have the COVID revenue, but you add that flu revenue as well. And if you look at what we've studied the last 2 seasons, people that go into a doctor's office or retail or pharmacy to get a shot. In 2 seasons ago, I think it was roughly 30% on the same day got flu and COVID vaccines. Last season, it was almost 50% -- so people know they want COVID and flu on the same day. And if we have a combination vaccine, perhaps we can capture some of that flu revenue as well.
I think the second driver is anybody that's getting a flu vaccine, if it is one shot, perhaps it will increase the COVID market. We're not banking on that, but that is something that a combination vaccine, the ease of it and the fact that you're double protected, perhaps that will grow the actual COVID market for us as well.
We got a third driver. So I'm allergic to the adjuvant in the flu vaccine, so I can't get flu. So -- but I will be able to get 110. I'm seeing when it comes to my seasonal vaccine preparedness.
Terrific.
So you guys also gained approval for RSV vaccine mRESVIA. This was last year then had some label expansion this year. It's gotten off to a slow start. You have competition here from Pfizer and GSK who had a solid year at start. How do you sort of see this market evolving in mRESVIA's share within it or within it?
No doubt, it's a slow start for us. And I think that there's a couple of reasons for that. One is in 2023, when RSV launched, that was the highest year. You've seen a contraction in the market since then, every year since then. The second is we were a year behind. So we came out with our 60-plus indication, 60-year-old plus indication in 2024. So we were third to market. And then this year, as you mentioned, we got 18 years old to 59 broaden label. But you've seen that market contract. So that's number one. So I think what -- we think what will happen is we really need clear public guidance around when do people need to be revaccinated. And when those health guidelines are out there, and they could be hopefully in the next year or 2, that will really increase the market again because you'll go back to the original shots and that will have a higher market.
There's other -- a couple of other Moderna-specific items. One is our competitors have some inventory in the channel, so they kind of need to work through that as well as we have to get reimbursement across all of the countries that we want to compete in. And our mRESVIA is approved in 40-plus countries, so we're in the process of doing that. So I think when the revaccination guidance comes out, we'll be well prepared. We'll have a more fulsome portfolio at that time to be able to compete. And so that's what we're kind of hoping for.
The last thing I'd say is if you look at those 10 growth drivers that we laid out, RSV actually wasn't one of them. Now Stephen mentioned, it is part of the contract in the U.K., Canada and Australia. So -- and we will have some growth. But if there is a substantial increase in RSV growth, I would add that actually as an 11th driver to our growth plan.
And you did at the R&D Day show some really compelling data about how the vaccination rates do tail off year 2 and year 3. So the science is there to support revaccination. So I think it will be interesting to see sort of as that comes in. So I'm going to bring in norovirus real quick. This is mRNA-1403. Tell us about this condition first in this vaccine. I think it's gotten a little bit more press recently. It's not one of those that everybody necessarily knows where it is. You guys are running a Phase III trial. I think it may be the only Phase III norovirus trial, if I'm not mistaken. So really not the competitive issues that you had in COVID or flu or RSV. So tell us a little bit about this vaccine and disease and maybe when we could get data.
Yes. So it's one of the leading causes for gastroenteritis out there. And I think in the U.S., we had this at our Analyst Day presentation, there might be 20 million incident rate per year for norovirus in the U.S. and maybe 700 million globally. And when you get it, it spreads quickly and it's not very good. So it can be really tough from getting that disease. So yes, you're right. We -- there is no vaccine. So it's an unmet need that we're excited about. We are in a Phase III trial. We announced recently that we didn't accrue enough cases. So we are starting another cohort in the fall right now, and it will stretch into the spring of 2026.
And so we're optimistic that we'll have an interim analysis next year that will indicate what does our efficacy look like. So that's in terms of the other thing around the product profile is we think it can serve in the U.S., 150 million-plus patients or individuals. And those are people that are in a high risk from an occupation standpoint. So that can be -- think of health care workers, think of school teachers. Obviously, it still serves the older adults. That's where it's most acute and actually, it does can lead to death and hospitalizations. And think of lifestyle like travel, a lot of people tend to joke that it's often caught on cruises. So that's kind of the patient population. So we think it's a material market.
And I think the last thing kind of building on my prior point, it's -- we think it's going to be administered through retail. So yet it's another one of our products that we think we can bring to the retail channel and hopefully, by 2028, if all goes well. And then as I mentioned, we'll have 5 or 6 products by that time that should really allow us to compete very well.
Yes. Great. So I'm going to transition to oncology. We just wrote a big 190-something gauge report on RNA medicines and really talking about RNA medicines being the next major therapeutic class. So if anybody is interested, reach out, we really highlighted a lot of different technologies, including antisense oligonucleotides RNA interference and of course, mRNA medicines. So one of the real things that came out of this was the potential for RNA medicines to move into oncology. And you guys are really leading the charge here. You mentioned Intismeran auto cell, which is the partnered product, the individualized neoantigen therapy with Merck. And you guys are going to report Phase III melanoma data this year. Maybe you can kind of tell us a little bit about this product, about the Merck collaboration and really what this could mean for Moderna.
Yes. So first, it's a 50-50 partnership with Merck, all sales, all investments, all manufacturing facilities, research and development. We jointly go in and decide on which trials we're going to do and what's the development plan. So we feel like we're partnered with a terrific oncology player and with a terrific product. In terms of the product, it is a combination with KEYTRUDA in the market end of this. Basically it tries to train the immune system to target the right cancer cells. So it is individualized. We look for -- we take somebody's blood, and we look for 34 proteins in the blood and try to identify and create a vaccine that is specific to it so that we can target the right cancer cells. So that's a little bit about the product.
In terms of data, so we've been tracking our Phase II trial, which was 150 patients. And [Technical Difficulty] and it reduced the risk of death or recurrence by 49% and it reduced the risk of distant metastases by 62%. So it was terrific 3-year data, which is what's encouraged us, and I'll get into the pipeline and why we continue to invest behind it with Merck. So that Phase II trial is now coming up on 5 years. That was 2 years ago. So we should be getting that data soon. And so we are excited to see what that says at the 5-year mark, and you can really start to see the separation of the curves.
The Phase III trial, we started and completed enrollment in September of 2024. So if you track what happened in Phase II versus this latest first our Phase III, which is over 1,000 patients, it really -- we're optimistic that we're going to see something from a data readout in 2026. So we're excited to see what that has and that's, as I mentioned, given us and Merck confidence to invest in 7 other trials, all Phase II or Phase IIIs in non-small cell lung cancer. Our renal cell trial is fully enrolled, and we might see data on that in 2026, which we're excited about as well. So I think there's lots to come there.
Yes. And that's a Phase II in RCC that we could get data on this year. So definitely, I think, one of the biggest drivers, obviously, for Moderna, but really for the field in general. And you guys also sort of dropped a new program, not as new, but really starting to get data on it, which is your PD-L1 IDO cancer therapy where you're really kind of using those antigens to target cancer cells. Tell us a little bit about this and sort of what the status is?
Yes. So I think one of the other -- there's 2 takeaways for our story is I think we're really turning around the seasonal vaccines business, and I think the next 3 years are quite exciting. And I think the second story as we lead hopefully to breakeven by 2028. And the second story is we're investing a lot more in oncology, which is what you've mentioned. And I think it starts with what we're seeing in cancer vaccines. So INT, which is individualized, is different than 4359, which is more off the shelf, and it attacks both cancer cells and immunosuppressive cells. And we only had a small Phase I trial on this, but it was quite encouraging. I think it was a 67% response rate. But again, a very small end. But it's given us the confidence. And I think in general, as we see INT hopefully unlocks cancer vaccines, we think that we have a handful, but 4359 is the leading one. And so that's like priority #1 in oncology for us.
We are in many other areas. The second one is around T cell engagers. We've dosed our first patient in multiple myeloma. In your report also talked about in vivo cell therapy as well, which is very different than ex vivo from a manufacturing and a disruption perspective. So we're quite encouraged by what we have going on in oncology.
I always have envisioned that being able to produce a protein endogenously makes a lot of sense for enzyme replacement, and there's a lot of different orphan diseases where children basically require lifelong therapies. You guys have been active both with propionic acidemia and also methylmalonic acidemia. Maybe just in a minute or so, you can tell because I think we could get fees or registrational data from the PA program.
Yes, we're excited. Yes, it's fully enrolled. PA, propionic acidemia is fully enrolled. And we believe that we could have a readout in '26 or 2027. And what we said at Analyst Day is we think it could be on the market by 2028. So that is relatively imminent for us, and we're quite excited by everything we've seen thus far. And MMA is just -- is not too far behind that. It's hopefully going to enroll next year on a registrational study. So you can think of it as a year or 2 behind from what might come to market at the right time.
And Jamie, you always do a great job. You guys ended the third quarter with $6.6 billion. You recently entered into a credit facility with Ares and reiterated guidance of breakeven in 2028. Why take down the debt now? And how are you guys focusing investment to get to breakeven?
Yes, it's a great question. So we are super confident in our base plan, which I laid out, and we think we'll end absent the loan 2027 before we break even in the following year with $3 billion to $4 billion in cash. But we -- there's always uncertainties and opportunities. And this is a 5-year loan and a lot can happen in 5 years, both on the upside and on the downside. So we just thought it was the right time. If we were actually in a position of weakness, that's not the right time to borrow.
And in terms of the cost of this, it's actually quite low cost. It's nondilutive. It's very flexible. We can pay it back anytime we want to. The uncalled portion is like a 1% interest rate. We're going to take the cash that we get out of the gates, put it into the bank, and so that really nets down the low cost of it. And so -- and a lot of people have asked why take $600 million upfront. Well, we really can't get a revolving credit facility when you are losing money. Nobody really can. So you have to do a loan.
And the counterparty, Ares, who is terrific to work for, also needs to make a return. And their return, what's traditional in the marketplace is actually 50% funded upfront. They worked with us to only do 40%, $600 million on $1.5 billion. So I know that was kind of lost out there in terms of all the investors asking, why are you drawing it now? Because when you look at -- we didn't think a convertible made sense at our stock price. We weren't going to issue equity at our stock price. You can't get a revolving credit facility when you're losing money. So this was the next best alternative. And I think it is low cost, and I think it positions us well over the next few years to be highly profitable.
Great. Excellent. Well, it's going to be a really exciting 12 and 24 months. I always appreciate you guys coming down, all the support. It's been a long road. It's been a roller coaster ride. So we are starting to go back to.
Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Great to see you.
Thanks, everybody.
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Moderna — Piper Sandler 37th Annual Healthcare Conference
Moderna — Piper Sandler 37th Annual Healthcare Conference
🎯 Kernbotschaft
- Kernaussage: Moderna präsentiert sich als Plattform für saisonale Impfstoffe und RNA‑Medikamente: 2025 bleibt Umsatz überwiegend COVID‑getrieben, ab 2026 soll Wachstum durch mNEXSPIKE‑Uptake, internationale Lieferverträge und neue Indikationen (Grippe, Norovirus, Kombinationsimpfstoff, Onkologie) einsetzen. Risiken bleiben Impfquoten, Zulassungs‑timing und Studiendaten.
⚡ Strategische Highlights
- Umsatz‑Guide: 2025 Guidance $1,6–2,0 Mrd. (US $1,0–1,3 Mrd.; Rest der Welt $0,6–0,7 Mrd.), Annahme: Impfquoten bis ‑40% möglich.
- Produktmix: mNEXSPIKE (Zulassung Juni) gewinnt Marktanteile (55% vs. Spikevax 45%), Signal für bessere Wirksamkeit und Uptake bei Älteren.
- Pipeline‑Fokus: Flu‑Filing bis Januar (Zielmarkt 2027), Kombinationsimpfstoff in EU in Prüfung, Norovirus Phase‑III neu aufgelegt, Onkologie‑Partnerschaft (INT) mit Merck: Phase‑III‑Melanom‑Readout 2026.
🔭 Neue Informationen
- Aktualisierungen: Management bestätigt Impfquoten aktuell ~‑27–28% vs. Vorjahr; mNEXSPIKE‑Zulassung in Juni, Kombinationsprodukt eventuell international vor US‑Zulassung (EU/CA). Norovirus‑Studie startete zusätzlichen Kohortenlauf; Interim 2026 möglich.
- Finanzen: Kreditfazilität mit Ares: $600 Mio. ausgezahlt (Teil von $1,5 Mrd.), nicht‑dilutiv, begründet als Liquiditätspuffer auf Weg zur Break‑Even‑Prognose 2028.
❓ Fragen der Analysten
- Sicherheitsvorwurf: Zu Berichten über angebliche Todesfälle bei Kindern sagte das Management, man habe keine entsprechenden Daten/Analysen gesehen und könne nicht kommentieren; betonte bestehende globale Sicherheits‑Monitoring‑Systeme.
- Uptake & Timing: Kritische Fragen zu Sensitivität der Guidance gegenüber Impfraten und Lieferzeitpunkten; Management blieb bei Guidance, nannte aber Liefertiming als Variable.
- Pipeline‑Risiken: RSV‑Start lief schleppend (Marktkontraktion, Kanalinventar, Erstattungsprozesse); Norovirus‑Akkumulation und Onkologie‑Readouts (INT, RCC) wurden als zentrale near‑term‑Katalysatoren hinterfragt.
⚡ Bottom Line
- Bewertung: Präsentation bestätigt strategische Diversifikation von COVID‑Einnahmen zu einem Multi‑produkt‑Portfolio; kurzfristig bleibt Umsatz von Impfquoten und Zulassungsfristen abhängig. Wichtige Kurstreiber: Onkologie‑Phase‑III, Norovirus‑Interim, Flu/Kombi‑Zulassungen; zentrale Risiken sind Nachfrage, Studiendaten und regulatorische Timelines.
Moderna — Analyst/Investor Day - Moderna, Inc.
1. Management Discussion
Good morning, good afternoon. Welcome to Moderna's headquarter. Thank you so much for taking the time today to be with us in person or to be with us online. So welcome to Moderna 2025 Analyst Day. As you know, our mission is really the North Star of this company. We want to work together with all our stakeholders to deliver the greatest possible impact to people through mRNA medicine. If you think about the near term, our strategy is really set up on two axes. One is to build a large seasonal vaccine franchise for high-risk population, and two, is the cash generated by that franchise to invest in oncology and in rare disease therapeutic.
If you look about the seasonal vaccine franchise, we are already quite underway. We now have three approved products. We have positive Phase III in flu, positive Phase III in flu plus COVID, and Norovirus is currently enrolling in Phase III. And if you look at oncology, 2026 is going to be quite an exciting year with a lot of data in oncology and a lot of new medicine getting into the clinic. PA is now in Phase III, fully enrolled and MMA is Phase III ready.
If you think about the seasonal vaccine franchise, we think there's a lot of positive of that business. One, of course, is the tailwind of a growing older population. If you look at the numbers, there are 250 million people right now in the OECD countries that are qualified as older population, 65 and above, and of course, growing with an aging population. And if you look at Europe, and Stephen will talk a lot about Europe in a minute, there are actually 90 million people right now in Europe that are 65 and above. It's a larger population set of countries. And so it's an older continent. So we think it's quite an interesting opportunity for us in terms of tailwind.
If you look at the burden of disease, which is why we do what we do, we really think that those products, those medicines are really, really important to prevent disease, but even more importantly, to prevent hospitalization and to prevent death. If you look at the numbers, these are just U.S. numbers. They are very, very large numbers. It's up to 1 million people hospitalized every year. Think about the impact on those people, the impact on those families. Many of us being young do not always appreciate how traumatic a hospitalization can be in terms of how it impacts the quality of your life when you are older, when you have comorbidity risk. Sometimes in hospitalization, even if you survive, it might mean a drastic change of your quality of life because of the muscle mass that you lose during the hospitalization.
And if you look at COVID, the numbers are also really high in terms of what we can do. We didn't even spend time on RSV and so on. So if you look at the burden of disease, it is really high. If you look at this franchise, there's some interesting seasonality, which I think is going to be really important for us in the flu plus COVID combo product. We also think it's important with the mRNA technology speed, the ability to potentially go very late in strain selection.
And we see from time to time, as we spoke in the past, that you have a mismatch in flu, for example, between the strain pickup by WHO that are in the vaccines and what is circulating around the world, leading to more hospitalization, more disease, and more deaths. And so we think with the mRNA technology, we have shown now several years in a row that we can be informed by the FDA of the regulators in May or June, a new strain, and we can very quickly get ready in front of a season, which I think is a huge advantage of the mRNA technology.
And then there's a lot of other benefits. One of our platform is, of course, manufacturing scale-up, and Jehr in a minute will give you a lot of details around that is because mRNA is a very flexible manufacturing process. We can literally a week make a COVID lot and then a week after make a flu product. So as you see over the next few years, as Stephen will describe the product launches, as we get more and more volume, we're going to get an incredible leverage of this manufacturing infrastructure that we have. The market access and reimbursement are pretty set up because healthcare providers know the burden of disease.
If you talk to health ministers, they know that with an aging population and respiratory viruses, they have a massive financial challenge ahead of them. The life cycle investment is very manageable because those products have a very long tail. Of course, you need to update them. Sometimes you need to do seasonal studies, but this is very manageable. And in the U.S., we have a very interesting setup where there's a strong incentive from the channel, especially retail pharmacies to drive vaccination every season.
Stephen will discuss in detail why we're excited about the next few years. What you're going to see, we set up a portfolio driving diversification of growth through new product launches, like you're going to see mNEXSPIKE with a full year next year, launches full year in U.S., launches in the rest of the world, potentially flu launches in '27 and then Norovirus flu plus COVID, and then also geographic diversification.
I know sometimes people are worried about the U.S. But if you think about it, we have now a great partnership in U.K., Canada, Australia with full year impact next year. And then the European contract reopening for us the ability to participate in Europe, which is a very large market in '27. So we're going to see product growth through launches and also geographic diversification that's going to drive growth in the next few years. Jamey will walk you through some numbers.
And if you look at that respiratory franchise, you're going to see the next few years growth. The margins -- gross margins are also going to improve because you're going to have additional volume in an existing infrastructure. And as Jehr will share with you, the team has some great productivity improvement, and there's more to come. There's a lot of exciting projects that Jehr and his team are leading, which will drive improvement in gross margin with those two factors.
And then as we've been talking for a year or 2 now, the cost of R&D for respiratory disease are going to go down. And they're going to go down because those very large onetime Phase IIIs that you have to invest to build that franchise are basically concluding. They don't conclude the day of launch because you have a tail of investments as you have to finalize those studies, monitor the safety, which is very important. But when those are over, you have basically a onetime investment, which is very large, which is a great barrier to entry. And then you have many, many years, if not decades, where you can have those products driving revenues.
So when you look at this plus commercial in the U.S., it's mostly a B2B setup where we have direct access to the retailers because we don't go through PBMs in vaccines. We do not need to add teams as we basically grow the portfolio. And actually, as we spoke in the past, a larger portfolio is a strength to our ability to get great contracts and talk about the products with the customers. So if you think about it, growth on the top line, improvement in gross margin, lower R&D cost and very stable through existing infrastructure, SG&A. It's very interesting improvement in operating margin that we're going to see over the next few years.
If I now turn to the future, where we're investing the capital that we are generating through the vaccine franchise into oncology and into rare disease. And again, the team will spend a lot of time on the details, so I want to be brief to start, 30,000 feet. You're going to see potentially Intismeran with a launch in '27. As we talk about, the first IO readout is in '26. And if it's positive, we are working very closely and diligently already with the Merck's colleague to be able to file very quickly, which could lead to a launch in '27.
If you think about PA in rare disease, PA is now fully enrolled for his registration study. And so we could see PA launch in '28. And then for those of you that have not followed at ESMO or were not at the Analyst Day at ESMO, we shared some early but quite exciting data on 4359 in Stage IV melanoma and lung patients. The team will walk you through some data. Because of that data, we accelerated the Phase II this year to be able to see is that signal real? Can we confirm it with the larger numbers because that could be a very important product for patients and the product that is 100% owned by Moderna product. So that's really for product that are in late stage. If you look at earlier-stage product, as I said, MMA is ready to go into Phase III.
We have a couple of more exciting products in oncology, and the team will walk you through it. We have an EBV treatment program that could be very important for patients with multiple sclerosis. An EBV vaccine that's also with interesting data that could be used potentially for mononucleosis infection, Lyme disease as our first bacterial vaccine, and so CMV for transplant. So those are the two franchise we're really focused on, generating cash through a lot of financial discipline, sales growth, respiratory vaccine, investing the cash for innovation for the next wave of products. So we could see sustained sales growth for many, many years to come, thanks to our platform.
As you've seen, what we've done in the last couple of years is a lot of financial discipline. And I'm so thankful for the teams for what they have done under Jamey's leadership and all my colleagues at the EC to grab cost across the entire enterprise. And the momentum that we have is very exciting, as you saw on the Q3 earnings call, which gives us confidence for the ongoing work and projects to come to be able to get the cost into the right place to drive profitability in 2028. Jamey will walk you through it. There is a lot of productivity projects. There is a lot of digital investment, and there is a lot of AI tools also being worked through. For those of you who are going to stay after lunch, we have set up a bunch of panels to walk you through just vignette of examples where you have members of the team will come here to walk you through some of the tools we are using every day in the business to drive productivity through AI across the entire enterprise.
So with this, I want to now turn to Stephen to walk you through the more detail of the seasonal vaccine franchise. Then Jehr is going to walk you through manufacturing before Jamey wraps up everything again at the enterprise level around financials for the next few years. And then the team will come. We start with seasonal vaccines with Jackie and her team. Then we'll go into early vaccines before we take a break. And after we're going to have a lot of exciting things to share in oncology and then rare disease before I have a very quick two-slide close, and then we'll be very happy with the team to take your questions. So with this, I will turn it back to Stephan.
Thank you, Stéphane, and welcome, everyone. Hello. It's good to see you again. I want to quickly summarize Stéphane just mentioned. There is a diverse portfolio of drivers of growth that we think will contribute to that steady financial performance we're looking for over the next few years as we invest in accelerating our company. Stéphane already presented this slide. I will just highlight that we do have a mix of geographic and product growth drivers. And really in the next 2 years, it is mostly geographic or market expansion into U.K., Canada, Australia, into Europe and into new regions, including Latin America. It's really as you look to the second and third years of the next 3 years that we'll expect to see a substantial uplift from investments in our portfolio. And that includes flu, our flu/COVID combination product and Norovirus.
And I'd like to click through those and just give you a sense of why we are bullish on these opportunities. So starting in '26. We have multiyear strategic relationships with the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia that we have been working on for the last few years. And so announced most of them in '23. And this last year, in 2025, we have licensed the three facilities that will actually supply those agreements.
As a reminder, these are long-term multiyear contracts. They involve us investing in domestic research and development, and they are part of a national security and biodefense as well as public health strategy at the core of each of these countries' approaches to protecting against viruses, but also protecting against future pandemic threats. That onshore manufacturing is now licensed and starting to deliver products. In the U.K., that covers 69 million lives. And we had already referenced in prior financial statements that we will see that first approximately $0.2 billion of revenue from that partnership in the first quarter. That was delayed from the fourth quarter of this year into the first quarter of next year, but we'll also be delivering vaccines for their fall campaign, first with COVID, but then eventually with the rest of our respiratory portfolio.
Canada, again, 41 million lives. We do have strong performance this year in Canada are already delivering made in Canada COVID vaccines, hope to add additional products, RSV and mNEXSPIKE to those relationships. And we expect to see a full annualized impact from that agreement starting in 2026. And then third, Australia, 27 million lives, where, again, we've now licensed that facility. We're hoping to make our first deliveries possibly even this calendar year. And as we look to 2026, see the annual benefit from the strategic partnership. So all of this in place and a major driver of growth for us as we look to 2026.
The other driver for us that I'd highlight is mNEXSPIKE. MNEXSPIKE was our successful launch this year. I will remind you, we've only really launched this product commercially in the United States. And the product was only approved mid year, really in June, and we had a tremendous amount of work through the summer to get ready for the fall season, not just in manufacturing, but in market access and reimbursement and preparing the market for it. And so we're incredibly excited to see the market share that we've already grabbed in this first year of launch. 23% of the total retail shots in arms year-to-date has been from mNEXSPIKE. And actually, if you look in older adults, those 65 and above, that market share is almost 1/3, a really strong start. It has become our leading product in the retail channel as well as in that 65-plus and high-risk market that we really think is the future for us in COVID.
Now mNEXSPIKE, as we look to 2026, we hope to complete that launch. We've only really had a half year this year, and we look to drive even better performance in the U.S. And we expect to add many other markets. Europe, we're under review and hope to be approved. We've recently been approved in Canada, although we haven't launched the product yet this year commercially. And Australia, Japan, and Taiwan, all have submissions pending for approval. So we are looking forward to continued strong momentum. Behind this, we believe differentiated profile for mNEXSPIKE going into 2026.
Okay. So those are the two drivers for '26. As we look to '27, Stéphane already highlighted the role of continued market entry for us. So first, in the European Union, we have been excluded from that market largely because of a pandemic era contract that is now falling away in 2026. If you look at the size of that market in the most recent year for which we have data, so '24, there's about $1.8 billion of respiratory vaccine sales, $700 million from COVID, about $1 billion in flu and an RSV market that's just starting to grow. This '24 was that first year of launch. We do expect that RSV market will get bigger as it expands.
We have had a very small share there because of that exclusion from the market, only about less than $100 million. And so clearly, an opportunity for us as those barriers fall away. So why are we excited about '27? Obviously, the end -- the lapse of that COVID contract gives us an opportunity to compete for share in the COVID market. We will also have, we think, one of the most diverse portfolios. By '27, that means an RSV vaccine that's approved. We hope also mNEXSPIKE, a combination flu COVID and flu. In fact, five different products. And we hope in that combination product, the most differentiated an opportunity to compete in this very large, very established market where there's a high burden of disease, particularly in older and high-risk populations. So we're pretty excited about that as a market entry opportunity.
We're not done there. While Europe may be the largest market we'll be entering, we are also looking to add additional strategic partnerships. And I'll highlight one here that we announced -- the government of Brazil announced, September 5, just 2 months ago, which is a productive development partnership, which has us transferring and manufacturing with a partner in Brazil, Instituto Butantan for the delivery of COVID vaccines. We hope that starts delivering products as soon as 2027. It's the kind of multiyear strategic relationship, which allows us to get access to that market, but also grow our share and revenue opportunities. And so that was a recent announcement that we're excited about. And there are several others that we're engaged on across Latin America and Asia Pacific right now that would provide strategic access and growth of access for our products over multiyear agreements, much like we're doing in U.K., Canada, and Australia for '26.
The other thing we'd highlight in '27 is we'll continue to add product portfolios. And so flu vaccine, we have filed for -- we are in the process of filing for approval across the U.S., European Union, Canada, and Australia in -- by January of next year. So just in the next 2 months and some of those filings implied as we speak. Flu is a very large and established market, approximately $6 billion of sales, growing double digits. And there is a large enhanced vaccine market, $2.5 billion in the most recent year. We think that will grow to almost $3 billion by 2032 that we believe 1010 is well-positioned to compete for.
And so again, a place that is, for us, a new opportunity. It is competitive. We recognize that. But through our strategic partnerships and the other infrastructure we're building, we believe we can go compete for it. And anything we get out of the flu market is growth for us. And by '27, we do hope that becomes a substantial contributor.
Okay. So those three drivers in '27, mostly market entry and perhaps the beginning of an impact from flu. And then as you look to '28 is when we really expect to have the biggest impact from our pipeline investments. That's not to say that we don't hope these products aren't approved earlier. We do, and we will work to launch them as soon as we can get them approved. But in most cases, it is how do we prepare to really drive growth, and we think that is more in the 2028 time horizon.
So first among those I would highlight is the flu-COVID combination product. We've had very exciting data we've shared previously. I know the team will walk through some of that now. We believe flu-COVID combination remains a substantial growth opportunity for us, both in the flu space and the COVID space. And some of the data, the reason why it's highlighted here. If you look in the most recent season, 2024, 2025 season in the U.S., where we have the best data on this. I'll draw your attention to the lower right-hand corner. 47% of those over the age of 65 who got a flu vaccine in that channel also got a COVID vaccine in that same day. It probably won't surprise you to know that when we do market research, people would prefer one shot over two, one arm over two.
And we see that as a real opportunity, both to increase the coverage. If that 47% could be higher, that means there's 53% of people that only got one shot and some of them because they only want one at a time. There's an opportunity to expand coverage for COVID and grow that market. But there's also an opportunity to provide the convenience and cost savings associated with just that single injection administration. So we really do see this as a growth opportunity for us across our seasonal vaccine franchise.
We have filed for submission in Europe, and we are on path with that review with the European Medicines Agency. So the first potential approvals could actually be coming in '26. EMA was filed last year -- or sorry, in '25. Health Canada has been submitted for approval, again, supported by the new flu efficacy data as a part of that just recently. And so again, in '26, those might be the first markets that we see approval. We're highlighting this as a '28 growth driver because we'll have work to do on market access and reimbursement and preparing to launch those products. But actually, we think we're in good direction there in those markets.
And then in the U.S., where we do expect to engage with -- we're engaging with the FDA, we're waiting further guidance from them on what they would like to see prior to refiling the 1083 program. But again, by '28, we do hope to have gotten that approved and be driving growth across our regions and markets.
And then the last I'd highlight is Norovirus, which we'll talk a little bit more later today, I'm sure. Norovirus, we see as a very big opportunity. There's a high unmet need, currently no products, over 155 million people in this country who either because of risk factors or age or occupational health risks or some lifestyle choices, they will want to be protected against Norovirus. It is an opportunity for us to add another product into an established channel. We do believe most of the vaccination will be through the retail channel, and it continues to be a seasonal disease. So it really fits into this portfolio that we've been building.
So as we look forward to those growth drivers, we do think we are incredibly well-positioned, both from a market entry perspective and a product growth perspective. Focusing just first on the U.S. We have established the relationships with all of the key customers we need, our retail pharmacies, our government customers as well as doctors' offices, hospitals and integrated delivery networks. The strength of the mNEXSPIKE launch this year for us really highlights how we've really matured those capabilities and a good position. And we don't believe we need substantially more capabilities as we add products in the United States market.
U.K., Canada, and Australia with those strategic partnerships are well-positioned to deliver growth in '26. And as we add additional products, we will be adding value, but not a huge amount more cost. We don't need dramatically more capability. We'll add value to those strategic relationships. But all of those products can be made in the same facility. And as you've seen and you've heard us talk about, I'm sure Jehr will talk about in a moment, our technology gives us incredible leverage and opportunity to do that.
One place where we'll do some investment in growth over the next couple of years is in the European Union to expand that capacity because, again, it is a very large, very established market, we have some capabilities. As I said, we've been generating some revenue, but it's a place that we do expect to see growth, and you'll see us invest in commercial in a disciplined way as we try to grow our presence in the European market, both with the current products and with new products as we move forward. So we think we're well-positioned on the current infrastructure to deliver this plan.
There are places where we will have to expand as we go and make additional investments. Stéphane has referenced these, but just to quickly say, we are incredibly excited by the momentum behind Intismeran. I know the team will come and present that data. We do hope for first potentially pivotal data next year in 2026. And then we must get ready, if that is positive, to be launching the product in '27. Those will be some additional capabilities. But we have the benefit of Intismeran from a commercial perspective of having a partner in Merck. And so we work together with them to prepare that for 2027.
As you look to 2028, we do expect to be launching our first rare disease program, propionic acidemia. That pivotal study or the pivotal Phase II portion of that study is fully enrolled, and we're looking forward to that data in '26, as you'll hear about. And by '28, we do hope that is a driver of growth for us as well. And then our wholly owned 4359 program, where, again, Stéphane referenced the Phase II data, and I'm sure the team will give you a sense of that preview of why we're enthusiastic about it, but something we would need to be ready for in '28.
So while we're really focused on that respiratory and seasonal vaccine franchise, and we do really feel strongly that, that sales growth drives us to breakeven, we also recognize there are opportunities, perhaps requirements that we invest a little bit above that to drive growth in some of these other areas, particularly oncology and rare diseases. And then Stéphane referenced the rest of the pipeline. But I would just say, as you look to '29 and beyond, there are even more growth drivers, even more important product contributions that we expect and where we do expect we will get some leverage from a commercial and medical function perspective.
In rare diseases, we'll add MMA. It is a very similar disease and commercial footprint to propionic acidemia. So we believe as we launch that product, we'll be able to use the existing infrastructure. We have multiple oncology products, oncology therapeutics in early-stage disease, and we'll look to be very efficient as we build out our oncology presence. But Rose and others will walk through those programs and why we're excited about them. But as we get ready for '29 and beyond, we do believe we'll have the infrastructure to launch them.
And then the early-stage vaccines, these are programs where we are paused in Phase II often, waiting for that breakeven moment so that we can accelerate some of these programs, EBV, Lyme, and CMV for transplant. We'll share some of that data today, some of why we're enthusiastic about those. All of those, we believe, will fit really comfortably into our seasonal vaccine franchise and commercial capabilities that we expect to build over the coming years.
So with that, I'm going to turn it over to my colleague, Jehr, who will walk you through how we think some of that technical operations really enables that delivery and scale.
Thank you, Stephen. Good morning, everybody. Welcome. It's really great to have you here and everybody online wishing you a very good day. Our technology gives us incredible leverage. That's the word that Stephen said. And so I want to take you through why and what is about our technology that's really important. And what is it that allows us to drive great efficiency. I think efficiency when I look at manufacturing, it is tremendously important, not only when I think of efficiency that we can deliver speed, speed to market, but that we also have the capability of ensuring highest possible quality and ensuring the highest possible cost efficiency. And that's what we look at when we look at our manufacturing network.
So let me take you through a little bit what the network now looks like. It wasn't that long ago, actually 2023 when we had over 8 CMOs globally between Asia, between Europe and the United States manufacturing for us. And part of that manufacturing process was they would manufacture to a demand. And as the demand would change, there would be a take or pay. So it started to get quite expensive. And it was that, that we started to pare down our CMOs to reduce the amount of external CMOs based on quality, CMOs of really high reliable quality, great speed and great cost efficiency. And at the same time, being able to leverage our own manufacturing. So here in Massachusetts, we have Norwood. And in Norwood, is where we make our drug substance, which is the active ingredient, the mRNA for the medicines that Stéphane indicated earlier and Stephen indicated.
And maybe anecdotally, let me tell you about speed. It was so exciting to hear Stephen talk about mNEXSPIKE-1283. It was by us having the ability to manufacture that in Norwood, allowed us to have great speed. The ability that already in June, we're identifying what the variant is and then actually have the drug substance made and be able to supply it in the United States and have the channels filled already in 2026 was a huge achievement and not only driven by the fact that we had the manufacturing here in Norwood, but to the amazing people and teams that we have driving that. And that's one of the big benefits that we have now in relation to having drug substance in Norwood and then using ROVI as our contract manufacturer in Spain. And that's the network that's allowed us to drive the cost efficiency we have and the supply we have, not just the United States, but globally.
We have now added, and I'll touch on them a little bit later, three manufacturing sites. Stephen talked about these three sites. Between these three sites, we have Laval in Canada, we have Harwell in the United Kingdom, and we have Clayton in Australia. And as Stephen indicated those three sites serve a population of 137 million people. And these are a long-term partnership and agreements that we have with the United Kingdom that allows us a revenue stream that we can rely on and the supply reliability that these countries can rely on from us.
And then we just announced and you've read it, a new DP manufacturing in the United States. We are tremendously excited about that for many reasons. If you just look at the logistics of making drug substance in the United States, then sending that drug substance to Europe, fantastic partners we have in ROVI and then sending that back again to United States, operating not only geographically across the Atlantic twice, but also within two different quality management systems.
We also have, as I mentioned earlier, when you work with CMOs, we've exited quite a number of them because we wanted to optimize our take or pay. And that's what drove us to announce as we did yesterday, a new DP manufacturing facility here in Norwood. So what this allows us to do is we now can manufacture drug substance in Norwood. And then in the same site, we can manufacture the drug product. So not only taking out all of the logistic time, but you're operating under one quality management system, which means you don't have to wait for a release and approval before it leaves your quality management system and then goes into another because you're in one quality management system, you can move your product through the system much more efficiently. So from a point of view of lean, you can remove a lot of waste time.
So not only then does this allow us actually even greater speed to market, even greater ability to optimize our channels, but also with Stephen's team from a commercial point of view to actually fine-tune our manufacturing based on the demands that are there. It's as close as you can get to real-time manufacturing based on demand. We are super, super excited about that.
The second reason we're super excited by it is the efficiency. So if you look at drug substance manufacturing, we do a lot of that manufacturing already in the earlier months of the year. And then in the mid-months of the year, you're doing the drug product manufacturing. What we'll be able to do in Norwood is optimize our manpower to be able to work with our drug substance manufacturing operators, be able to train them to do drug product and start moving our people around. Then we have the one quality management system. We have the one quality assurance, the one quality control, the one engineering and facility services. So the synergies we get from that is absolutely huge. And also, we are building out in a facility that already has the infrastructure. So we didn't have to actually break ground to build a new infrastructure because we have optimized our footprint, we were able to build this in an existing footprint already.
We had already prepurchased some of the equipment. So from a cash out point of view, a lot of that cash is paid for this facility. So it's very efficient going forward. Our total CapEx over the next number of years is not going to change. This also allows us to drive a lower cost per dose. So it allows us to be in a position as volumes increase based on what Stephen presented to continuously drive a gross margin expansion, which is critical for us.
So I'm so excited by this because I think the -- I think honestly, what manufacturing delivers in Moderna is the ability to have top-class speed, the ability of highest possible quality and at the same time, the greatest possible cost efficiency. That's the magic triangle for manufacturing anywhere. And by us taking control of all of this allows us to optimize while at the same time, being able to partner with a CMO so that we have the optimized efficiency for Europe, as Stephen already indicated, without having a large number of CMOs.
So we're in a very, very exciting part of the manufacturing journey of Moderna. It wasn't that long ago, not only did we have eight CMOs, but that we were making a lot of our drug substance and Lonza in Europe. That was not long ago. It wasn't that long ago when we had only one manufacturing site, which was Norwood trying to do all of this. Now we got Norwood drug substance and drug product end-to-end here in the United States, made in the United States to supply the United States and supply other countries as well. We're tremendously excited by that.
And I see Tracey is here with us. We speak a lot about our physical assets, and we speak a lot about our digital assets and Tracey manages our digital assets. But I don't want to forget our people. We have top-class manufacturing associates that I would class as the best in the world are definitely up there, who are behind all of this because it takes great intellect, great design, and great ambition that we have in our Moderna mindsets to be able to make this happen. So this is one of the things we're super excited by.
What's amazing when you look at this slide is not that we have three sites in the United Kingdom, in Canada, or in Australia. I think what's amazing in this is 2 years ago, this was land. It is amazing to be able to be able to build out these sites so fast and then to have them licensed already and to be in a position that they're already supplying, already supplying the 137 million populations of these three countries.
This is a huge call out to the engineering team and the design philosophy we had, which was state of the class excellence, the ability to use robotics, automation, to have a learning mindset, so to look at all the experience we had from working with Lonza, look at all of the experience we had from working with CMOs, look at all the experience we had ourselves from working in Norwood and design that in so that these efficiencies are super efficient in relation to manpower and batches per person, but also super efficient in how we can use AI, robotics and automation already from the start and not having to design it in later.
And what's also unique about these sites, and I would argue you probably won't find any place else in any other manufacturing that have these three sites are exactly the same. So if you were helicoptered into one of the sites, blindfolded, you wouldn't know which sites you're in, unless you could look out the window and see which flag is flying. They're designed exactly the same way. And there was a huge benefit in this because we started off the installation and operational qualification in Canada, then on to the United Kingdom, and then to Australia.
So as we started to do installation qualification, operational qualification and as part of that process, you find issues and you correct those issues, we were already then able to pre-correct them in the United Kingdom and pre-correct them in Australia so that those facilities were even up and running even faster. And then we partner in Lavelle in Canada, and we partner in Harwell in the United Kingdom with CMOs so that we have a full integrated vertical supply for those countries. And in Clayton, Australia, we make our own DP because we weren't able to find that capability there.
In relation to operational excellence, we are designing these facilities with optimal cost optimization. So the type of COGS that we're going to deliver out of these facilities will be pretty much exactly the same as what we're delivering here out of Norwood. We have the same one management, one quality management system, one manufacturing system, MS&T, quality assurance, engineering right across all of this so that we can drive efficiencies through this. And so as I speak about efficiencies, let me touch a little bit about margins.
I think what you might find impressive on this is that despite a 40% reduction in total revenue across those 2 years, we were able to keep gross margin improvements pretty much flat. And why and how? Firstly, that was driven by removing take or pays, starting to reduce down the amount of CMOs we have. We were able to take a lot of cost out of the system with that.
The second thing we were able to do is drive a real ambition in relation to efficiency, robotics, automation. We were starting in Norwood with five operators per suite, and we got -- we set ourselves targets for 3. We got to 2.2 and then hit 1.9. We drove an amazing efficiency. And that type of efficiency that we have in Norwood is what we have now sent out to the other sites. We are then able to apply what I would call lean, but modern lean, the curiosity of understanding the manufacturing process in great detail so that you can manage the quality envelope and that you can ensure that you're right first time.
Our drug substance manufacturing, for example, this year in Norwood for all of the products that Stephen indicated, the 1273, the 1283, the mNEXSPIKE and the Spikevax, 100% success rate, no batch out of spec. That is -- and not only do we achieve that this year, but also we achieved it last year. In fact, last year, we had one batch out of spec when we pivoted when the FDA wanted to change the variant, and we stopped that manufacturing of that batch overnight. And the next morning, we were manufacturing as well.
So this is what gives me the confidence as when we see -- and Jamey is going to touch on it later, as the volumes start to grow, we'll be able to drive an enhancement in gross margin because we've got the system in place. Also in relation to inventory and inventory management, we've made great progress. What I would say is a lot done. And what Stéphane said earlier in the presentation is a lot more to do. We have great ambitions ahead, and our game is not finished yet. There's a lot more ahead for us. So that's a little bit about that.
So the other element of manufacturing is the personalized manufacturing, which is Intismeran autogene. This is where we have the ability to manufacture personalized per patient. And the previous type of technologies that had this was CAR. CAR technologies always had was a challenge on the COGS and the challenge on the manufacturing COGS. So we built out Marlborough. Again, 2 years ago, Marlborough didn't exist. It was basically a brownfield site. And we built out Marlborough, not with just the ability to supply fast and in relation to supply fast, we already have clinical supply of Marlborough in September of this year, 2 years later, but also the ability to ensure that we're managing the COGS right from the start. Because usually, what happens is you focus on getting supply, you focus on regulatory, then you go, we've got that done, let's work on the COGS now.
We started working on the COGS before the facility was even built. And I think it's that level of just ambition and determination to really keep efficiency at first and center is what allowed us to do that. So in relation to Marlborough, what we have is we have an end-to-end operation that's focused on cost, supply, and, of course, quality. And that basically is what we're going to look at as we build out Marlborough.
So the second thing when I say as we build out Marlborough is we made sure we didn't put all the capacity in there that we need for 5 or 6 years' time. We set it up so that we can do line by line. So we have the ability to run out 7 lines, and we start with one, and we will maximize that line. And then as that line reaches its full capacity, we will then have line 2 ready. Line 2, we will have a higher standard, and I'll touch on what I mean by that later. And then that higher standard, we will then go back and retrofit in line 1. And then the same later for line 3. So not only have we the capability of adding the capacity only as we need it, so we're not carrying a depreciation shadow that's unnecessary, but also that we have the capability to consistently improve our manufacturing capability without having to do a major redesign. And I think that's super, super efficient when you're charting out a journey to COGS reduction.
Again, as I said earlier, we were planning and designing cost efficiency right from the start, not something that we wanted to do later. Not only are we really, really proud and again, an amazing team there, but not only are we really, really proud that we're supplying clinical supply out of this facility already in September, but we're very confident that we've got a really great path to a COGS reduction here. So this might give you a little -- it's a sort of a very simple cartoon example, but it's illustrative just to show you what I mean.
When we started off the manufacturing of INT in Norwood, we had an equipment footprint that was 120 square feet. So if you look at this cartoon, you see a picture of a person, and that was the size of the equipment roughly to manufacture for a patient. Several pieces of equipment involved. A lot of it once only use and then destroyed. So it had a COGS that was reasonably expensive.
We've already in the current configuration in Marlborough, reduced the size of that down by 3, driven efficiency in the design. So we're constantly looking at the design, constantly looking at what can be reused, how we putting clean in validation, how we work with the FDA on that, how we do briefing books with the FDA on that. And so we've already made huge progress. So this is what we have already in our Marlborough facility. And already in our technical development facility in Norwood, we have already the future configuration, and we're already -- not only have we already designed it, we're already running pilot scale batches on it and testing them. Again, a threefold reduction in size.
So not only does that mean then that when line 1 gets full, but line 2 as we will build out, line 2 will be based on the future configuration and then we'll retrofit that. So that we have not only the ability to drive increased capability for the demand that's ahead for all of the different -- 8 different INT products that are all the way through the different phases of the clinical trial, but the ability to drive in COGS. And I think that's something that we've learned also from looking at the other industries and what happened in the whole CAR technology area. So we're pretty excited by that.
And I'd probably finish up with probably three things. Jamey likes three things. I think the first thing is just a huge call out to our people. We have amazing people behind us. what gives me confidence that we'll be able to continue this journey. I think the second thing is that we have dependability, not only in relation to quality, not only in relation to supply, but also in relation to cost management. And I think lastly is we never finish. We are ambitious. It's never good enough for us. It's a lot done and more to do. That is our attitude.
So we have plans ahead that can continue to drive not only the gross margin expansion improvements that I've indicated in the slide, but even better, particularly as we use AI and robotics to drive that in. And you'll see some of our team later -- we'll take you through some of the AI and robotics that we already use. We already have agentic systems up and running in our manufacturing facilities, and it's quite exciting to see. And so let me say my last word in relation, I'm quite excited to see. I'd love to bring you all to Marlborough and maybe that's for another day. But let me give you an indication of what the site looks like in a 1-minute video.
[Presentation]
That's real. That's happening right now, and thank you very much for being with us this morning. A real pleasure to hand over to Jamey.
Thanks Jehr. All right. So let me also extend a welcome to everybody. It's great to see many of you, and thanks for joining live or on our webcast. So as Jehr said, I do like to cover three things. The first is I will talk through our -- where we're headed in 2025. I'll provide a recap from our recent earnings call. Then I'll talk through our financial framework for the coming years. So Stéphane laid out the business strategy, Stephen laid out the commercial strategy. Jehr just walked through our manufacturing strategy.
So I'll put a financial lens to all that as it pertains to the next 3 to 4 years. Then I'll wrap up with capital allocation. I'll really take that from an R&D perspective, which is where we are driving most of our capital from an investment perspective. I will then take you to a cash perspective and walk our cash balance over the coming years. And then I'll talk about our exciting announcement this morning, which was the loan that we just announced, which makes our balance sheet even stronger. So I'll get back to that in a few moments.
So starting with 2025. As a reminder, we narrowed our revenue guidance to $1.6 billion to $2 billion. That's comprised in the U.S. of $1 billion to $1.3 billion and outside the United States, $600 million to $700 million. So inside the United States, we had provided for -- there's only one large variable left, and that is vaccination rates. And we had provided for within this range in the United States that vaccination rates would be down 20% to 40%. And at the time of our call, season to date, we were down about 30%. We're now 2 weeks later, and it's down 28%. So it's a little bit better than at the time of our call. So we feel very confident within the range in the United States as we're in the middle of November now.
Outside the United States, it really just comes down to two things: delivery timing, whether the deliveries will happen inside the fourth quarter or shift to next year. And then in a few countries, vaccination rates as well. So I think the punchline here is after another 2 weeks, we still feel very confident in our guide of $1.6 billion to $2 billion of revenue.
From a cost perspective, we said we would take our GAAP costs down by another $700 million versus what we had said at the second quarter. So overall, it's over $1 billion out this year. We focus a lot on our cash costs, which you can barely see here, but on the bottom of that slide. We started the year believing that we would invest $5.5 billion. And now we believe our guidance at the midpoint is $4.6 billion. So from a cash cost perspective, Stéphane mentioned it as well, we are taking out nearly $1 billion of cost versus what we thought at outside of the year. We said we'd make improvements to 2026 and 2027, which I'll get into in a few moments. And all of this is really important as we target cash breakeven by 2028. So that's a quick wrap on the year.
From a financial framework perspective, I won't go through this chart again. Stephen and Stéphane have covered it. When I step back from it, I see 10 opportunities for growth over the next 3 years. And we will guide future years at a different time. But right now, in 2026, we believe we will start growing, which is exciting. And we believe that growth is up to 10% in the year 2026. Come our 4Q call, we'll give greater specifics around that. We want to see where the 2025 lands, and then we'll give a little bit more specifics around what the actual guidance is for next year, but you can expect that we will grow starting in 2026, and we believe every single year thereafter.
So I want to take a minute on cash costs. I said we were going to make improvements. So our previous estimate for 2025 was $5.1 billion for 2026 was $4.7 billion and for 2027, $4.2 billion on a cash cost basis. You can see the GAAP cost numbers at the bottom. Basically, in a year, we're basically advancing 1 year. So with the previous guidance that I just mentioned of $4.6 billion, we're already beating what we had thought we would do in 2026. And then we're going to do that again. So in 2027, we thought it'd be $4.2 billion. We're actually going to achieve that in 2026. And then finally, we're going to actually take 2027 down to $3.5 billion to $3.9 billion. So at the midpoint, that's $3.7 billion, which is another $0.5 billion out. That is due to all the tremendous work across all the teams.
Basically, if I step back when we laid out this plan a couple of years ago, we thought we were at $9 billion in cash costs. We're going to hit $4.6 billion in 2 years, and we'll hit $3.7 billion. We knew that we could do this. We didn't know that we would accelerate the timing as much or that it would be as significant as what the teams have been able to achieve. There are loads of examples across all the levers we talk about in terms of manufacturing efficiencies, procurement savings, what we can do to make our trials more efficient as well. And so the teams are just doing an exceptional job, and they're actually beating our own expectations. So therefore, we have confidence in being able to take 2027 down to something that starts with a 3.
So that's it for the kind of financial framework over the next few years. I want to move to capital allocation. And our primary driver of investing capital is in research and development, which will evolve over the next few years. And I think you can see two things from how it evolved. Number one is it will go down. That is largely -- we've been saying this for a long time. As we complete the Phase III trials in infectious disease, those will no longer be there come 2027 and 2028. I'll come back to that in a moment. And then I think the second observation is you can see the percentage of investment is going to increase in oncology. So we believe as we scale down and have a portfolio of hopefully 6 products in infectious disease by 2028, that will just require a basic maintenance of life cycle management for infectious disease to maintain that portfolio. And then you can see the large balance will be in oncology.
The last couple of things I'd say on infectious disease is you can see it remains a little bit elevated in 2026 and 2027 for two reasons. One is our Phase III Norovirus trial. We're going to initiate another cohort this winter. And so therefore, we can see still -- that will cover -- carry into 2026. And then our post-marketing commitments as it pertains to COVID. So we do have those in the budget. Those will go into 2026, maybe stretch into a little bit of 2027. And then largely, that's it. That's it from an infectious disease standpoint. All the Phase III trials will be completed, and then we'll get to that life cycle management.
From an oncology perspective, we are super excited to invest behind this. We're obviously super excited to invest behind infectious disease, but that is completing. So everything that you're going to hear today from Intismeran or mRNA-4359 or our entire emerging oncology portfolio that Rose will walk you through, that will increase over the coming years. And we are still investing behind rare disease and autoimmune, but we want to see what those -- how those registrational studies read out before we continue to invest further. And either way, it's a relatively smaller investment versus from a patient population perspective as well as dollars perspective versus what we'll see from oncology and infectious disease. So that's how our R&D is evolving, and that's where we're primarily putting our capital.
So I want to talk about the balance sheet. So I had already mentioned at our Q3 call that we will end at $6.5 billion to $7 billion in cash, which is a net cash investment this year of $2.5 billion to $3 billion. So we started the year at $9.5 billion in cash. We are going to have revenue of $1.6 billion to $4 billion or $2 billion. And then we will have cash cost of $4.6 billion, which is a $2.5 billion to $3 billion net cash investment. As I walk that forward, we believe we'll have a net cash investment of roughly $2 billion in 2026. So that is 10% growth on that revenue line, plus an almost $4 billion cash cost, I said $4.2 billion. So that should, in the ballpark, basically deploy $2 billion of capital, in which case, we would have $4.5 billion to $5 billion by the end of 2026.
Then as we turn to 2027, we're targeting $1 billion. So we've had a mantra of burning -- investing $3 billion in cash in 2025, $2 billion in cash in 2026, and $1 billion in cash in 2027 before we break even. That is still our mantra. That is still what we're targeting. We've provided here for $1 billion to $1.5 billion because we'll have to see where the revenue line grows. There are all the opportunities that Stephen has already laid out for you, and we'll see what happens. Maybe it's $1 billion, but if it's not exactly at that revenue line yet, maybe it's $1.5 billion of net cash investment income in 2027. So therefore, we'll end at $3 billion to $4 billion in cash, which is a very strong balance sheet before the year that we break even. So we're excited by that. We'll see revenue growth as well as cost reduction that will basically leave us with a strong ending cash balance and a strong balance sheet of $3 billion to $4 billion.
So then you might ask why did we then go out and announce an exciting loan this morning? And really, that is a strategic move to maximize flexibility here. So obviously, we're excited about that. We want to make sure that we are in control. And I think if you look at the terms of this loan, we are quite excited about it. Number one, it's non-dilutive financing from an equity perspective. Number two, it's relatively low cost, and let me explain that for a second. So you can see SOFR plus 550. So right now, that's about a 10% interest cost. But we will just take the cash proceeds that we get, which the first draw is $600 million and put it in the bank. So the ultimate interest cost is the 550 million spread. So that's what we'll be sitting on for $600 million of this.
And then the delayed draw component is just pure flexibility over the next 2 to 3 years, and that is at a very nominal cost. The average cost of that for 3 years is 1%. So that gives us significant flexibility, which we're excited about. We're still able to use it for any general purposes. So we can use it for business development. We can use it for share repurchases. And this is a 5-year loan. So a lot can happen over 5 years. And that's what gives us extreme flexibility and a lot of comfortability over the next few years.
So then just to update our 2025 ending cash balance. That means we will now end the year with $7.1 billion to $7.6 billion in cash because we'll draw $600 million. And our liquidity will be over $8 billion at the end of this year, which we believe on a year that we are investing $2.5 billion to $3 billion, and that investment -- net investment will reduce over the coming years. That gives us a lot of flexibility and a lot of comfort as we look at our financial future. And if you fast forward to 2027, that means our liquidity will be roughly $5 billion. So going into a year that we break even, we believe we'll break even in 2028 on a cash basis, we will have $5 billion in flexibility in liquidity, $3 billion to $4 billion from a cash perspective and then this extra $900 million from a delayed draw loan perspective, which we're really confident in. So overall, we really believe in the base plan, but this provides a lot more flexibility to us moving forward as well.
So I want to summarize what I think are the key financial takeaways. I really believe this is a turning point in our financial story. And that turning point starts with growth. So we believe we will grow over the coming years. We've tried to lay that out for you. The first year will be up to 10%, and we believe we will continue to grow thereafter. And I think that's a big change versus the last few years. The second thing is, Jehr laid out a terrific story for gross margin expansion. I would say of this 10%, half of that is volume and the other half is all the productivity drivers that we are driving. So we feel very confident that with revenue growth and with the outstanding efforts of the entire team and what they're driving from a manufacturing efficiencies perspective that we will grow 10-plus percent on the gross margin line.
We will evolve our R&D investment from infectious disease, and we will take that down to a life cycle management level by 2028. And then we will significantly invest into oncology and hopefully rare and autoimmune behind that as well. But for the most part, it will be an oncology story over the coming years. And then we're reducing our cash cost and investments. So by 2027, we will be $3.5 billion to $3.9 billion, and that really gives us great comfort in seeing cash breakeven by 2028, great line of sight to that. So we believe in this strong financial framework. We believe that we will have $3 billion to $4 billion in cash absent the loan, but this enhanced liquidity gives us a lot of flexibility for both uncertainties or opportunities that present in our future.
So with that, those are the financial takeaways that I'd like to wrap up with, and I will turn it over to Jackie.
Great. Well, good morning, good afternoon and good evening. It's a pleasure really always to be with you again. And this year, I again have the happy task of taking you through our scientific data with the team. And I want to say, unlike Jamey, we're going to talk about many things, which actually is a super pleasure. So you're going to see a wide variety of the team presenting data with me. And I think that also is a representation of our success. We've really built out a large team of investments who are representing, as Jehr said, an amazing team behind all of these data. So with that, why don't we get started?
So we're first going to talk about our seasonal vaccine pipeline and some of the new data there. This has obviously been a big year for us in seasonal vaccines. So in the U.S. alone, we've had three FDA approvals, and that's starting with mNEXSPIKE, which, as Stephen explained to you, has been incredibly important to our U.S. business this year. That team has also pulled forward two additional supplemental BLAs, first for RSV. So keeping up with our competition in having data in those high-risk individuals recommended for vaccination 18 to 59. And then in COVID, importantly, the only licensed product currently in the U.S. for pediatric patients. And so you'll see representatives from the entire team who will talk to some of the data that we've generated this year.
I'm going to finish the presentation on Norovirus, which those of you who have followed this story, you'll say, wow, Norovirus changed teams. What happened there? We're now thinking as Norovirus gets closer to being a commercial product, Norovirus more and more seems like it's going to share some characteristics with our seasonal vaccine portfolio. So like other seasonal vaccines, it has a period of intense transmission, and that's in the winter season. Like COVID, it also has a small bump in the summer, but we expect that most vaccinations are going to occur in advance of that winter season.
And also like COVID and like influenza, it really can vary in terms of epidemiology over time, and we're envisioning a world where maybe not every year, but some years, we may want to update that vaccine. And so we've gained some expertise, obviously, in COVID, learning to do that more with influenza this year and ultimately, we'll apply that to Norovirus. So with that, we're going to start our seasonal journey, and I'm going to hand the podium over to Darin Edwards, who is our program leader on that program.
Thanks, Jackie. So I'm really excited to be here to talk through our data on mRNA-1283, which is mNEXSPIKE as it is branded in the U.S., and we've done -- not only gained the approval, but also done the annual strain update and launched the product in the U.S. So this is data that comes from our pivotal Phase III study, and it's data that we were excited to receive, excited to report, and I'm excited to talk about it today.
So a little bit of a description of the trial before I get into the results. So this was a Phase III trial designed to assess the immunogenicity, the safety and the -- relative vaccine efficacy of mRNA-1283 versus our commercial product, mRNA-1273. Approximately 11,500 participants enrolled in this study above the age of 12 years and older. A single dose of either mRNA-1283.222 or 1273.222 was administered, and that is the bivalent vaccine composition encoding the ancestral and the BA.4/5 strain. And this was used because that was the licensed product composition at the time the study was enrolled.
So first, a little bit about the participants in this trial. So characterizing the demographics and the baseline characteristics of these groups, they were well-balanced between the two arms. That's both in terms of age with a median age of approximately 56 years for participants in the trial, breakdown between the different age cohorts as well as by race and ethnicity where the demographics were largely representative of the American population.
One thing to highlight, though, is approximately 46% of the participants in this trial also had greater than one or greater comorbidities as defined by the CDC case definition. In addition to the demographics, we also controlled for prior SARS-CoV-2 infection with about 75% of participants that actually had evidence of prior SARS-CoV-2 infection, very characteristic of the time during which the trial was enrolled. In addition, most of the participants in this trial had 3 to 4 prior vaccine doses with a median time of about 10 months from the last vaccine dose.
So getting into the results from the trial. First, we look at solicited local adverse reactions, and they were relatively well balanced between the two arms with a trend towards lower local reactions for the mRNA-1273 arm. The highest solicited local adverse reaction was for pain. But for all, they typically had either Grade 1 or Grade 2 reactions that resolved after about 1 to 2 days.
Now looking at the systemic adverse reactions. We see they were well-balanced between the two arms of the study 1283 and Spikevax. Fatigue, headache, and myalgia were the most commonly reported systemic adverse reactions. Again, Grade 1 or Grade 2 reactions were most common. And again, they resolved in about 1 to 2 days.
So this study was designed to assess relative vaccine efficacy. And to do that, we use the CDC COVID-19 definition for COVID-19 symptomatic disease. And that required a virological confirmation of SARS-CoV-2 infection via PCR as well as the presence of one or more symptoms consistent with COVID-19 within 14 days of the positive PCR. Active surveillance was conducted in the study in order to capture cases, and that included biweekly symptom surveillance conducted using our e-diary as well as assessment of participants with symptoms for clinical evaluation and for collection of samples that we then used for PCR.
So starting out with the top line data from this study. So the prespecified success criteria was met for relative vaccine efficacy for 1283 versus Spikevax. And this is indicated by the data that you see on the screen, where a 9.3% positive point estimate was seen for 1283 in relation to Spikevax in terms of prevention of symptomatic COVID disease. The success criteria required at the lower bound of the confidence interval to remain above minus 10%, and that's what we see from these results. But as we know, the people at greatest risk for COVID-19 disease are those older adults.
Here, we see a breakdown across three different age ranges. And it was very nice to see that the highest point estimate that we saw from the study when we did an age breakdown was for those at highest risk for symptomatic and severe COVID-19 disease, that being the above 65-year-olds. There, we saw a 13.5% positive point estimate in favor of mRNA-1283. As we look at the younger cohort that we see relative consistency between the two arms, but the confidence intervals are very wide based on the limited case number and the limited number of participants in that age range.
So I think we all know that it's not just age, but it's also the presence of risk factors or comorbidities that put people at higher risk for severe COVID-19. So we wanted to do a post-hoc analysis of the results of the data from this study in order to give us a view on how 1283 is actually performing in prevention of COVID-19 disease in individuals that had these comorbidities. So the top line in this figure demonstrates or it captures all people in this trial, 12 and older that had one or more comorbidities. And here, we see a 17.5% point estimate for prevention of COVID-19 disease.
For those that were above 50 years old, again, increasing the level of risk, increasing -- looking at populations that had increasing risk. So above 50 years old and with one or more comorbidities, we see an even higher point estimate that being 23%. And above the age of 65 with one or more comorbidities, individuals that had the highest risk for severe outcomes, we see a point estimate of 28.6%. We're very happy to see these results.
So this study was not powered to assess prevention of hospitalizations, but we were in a post-hoc analysis able to use the FDA-defined guidance, FDA severe disease criteria in order to do a post-hoc analysis to give us some view on how 1283 is actually performing in relation to spikes in prevention of severe disease. Now this is all built on the knowledge that Spikevax has been demonstrated consistently to be very effective in preventing severe COVID-19, not only in our pivotal efficacy trial, but also in real-world effectiveness studies that we conduct year-over-year for each vaccine composition that we gain approval for and launch. We were able to identify 55 cases in this study that met the FDA criteria for severe COVID-19. And in this assessment, we see a 38.1% positive point estimate in favor of mRNA-1283 versus Spikevax.
So now pivoting to the immunogenicity results from this trial. At the top, you can see the view of the neutralizing antibody responses against the two variants that were encoded in this vaccine composition, the original SARS-CoV-2 and BA.4/5. For both of those, the non-inferiority criteria was met, that being a lower confidence interval above 0.667. But importantly, you see that the lower bound of the confidence interval is actually above 1. So that indicates that mRNA-1283 is driving a higher immune response.
Same thing looking at seroresponse rate, the non-inferiority criteria was met, that being a lower bound of the confidence interval above minus 10%. But again, the lower bound is above 0, again, indicating that 1283 is eliciting a stronger immune reaction than the very strong immune response that we get from -- have measured consistently from Spikevax.
Again, we wanted to look at those individuals that were at higher risk. So we did an age breakdown. And in this assessment, you see that the highest GMR that the ratio between the titers elicited by 1283 versus 1273 was highest in the above 65-year-olds, correlates very nicely to the relative vaccine efficacy results that we also measured between -- in those age ranges. We also wanted to take a look at durability of this product in relation to the immune -- the durability profile that we have consistently measured for Spikevax.
So here, we're looking at 1 month, 3 months and 8 months -- or sorry, 6 months and looking at not only the GMR, but the overall titers that we actually measure for Spikevax and also for mRNA-1283. And we see the GMRs are very consistent at these three different time points. And also, I think it's actually very important to highlight that the overall neutralizing antibody response that we measure for 1283 at 6 months over 1,000 is actually higher than the neutralizing antibody response that we measure for Spikevax at 3 months.
So it's been my pleasure to be up here talking through the pivotal Phase III results that supported our licensure in the U.S. and are also supporting the reviews of our 1283 applications globally. Just a brief recap, mRNA-1283 was generally well-tolerated, had an acceptable safety profile. We met the prespecified relative vaccine efficacy non-inferiority endpoints with a point estimate of 9.3% for all participants included in the trial.
We saw a trend for higher RVE point estimates with advancing age and with comorbidities. For all participants above the age of 65, we saw a 13.5% point estimate. And for above the age of 65 with at least one comorbidity, we saw a point estimate of 28.6%. We met all prespecified non-inferiority objectives for immunogenicity. That includes indication that mRNA-1283 elicits a higher immune response than Spikevax. And that higher immune response was most evident in individuals that were older.
And we plan -- we have plans and those are actively underway to augment this data with data from clinical studies of our currently approved LP.8.1 vaccine composition, and that data will be published relatively soon. And we're also conducting real-world evidence studies, again, and that data will become available as it accumulates. So we're approved in the U.S., Stephen shared that information, and that is for the current LP.8.1 composition. We're approved in Canada, and we're targeting strain update for next year. And we filed for and are targeting 2026 approvals and strain updates in other markets like Australia, Europe, Japan, and Taiwan.
So thank you very much for your time. And I think next, I'll pass it to Raffael to talk about flu.
Good morning. I'm really excited to give an update on our influenza program today. A quick reminder, as Stéphane said, influenza is a major source of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Up to 1 billion cases occur every year and in the U.S. alone, up to 130,000 deaths every single year. What's also important to highlight is that age and chronic conditions are also playing a role in the increased risk for influenza and influenza can actually cause downstream events like cardiac as well as pulmonary events like heart attacks, stroke, or COPD.
As you all know, influenza vaccines are licensed. There's also an enhanced vaccine market with vaccines that have shown superior efficacy to the standard dose vaccines. A quick reminder to mRNA-1010. It encodes for the surface glycoproteins, the major immune response for the influenza vaccines, the hemagglutinin. And there are some inherent advantages of our mRNA platform when it comes to influenza vaccines. It encodes the exact protein that is being recommended by WHO and other recommending bodies. It has no requirement to propagate the virus in cell lines or eggs where you can sometimes get mutations that can actually change the antigenicity.
And what's also important is downstream, we have reduced production times, which gives the potential of having latest strain recommendations as well, which could improve the matching of the vaccine strains to what is circulating in nature. What I'm not going to show today, but we've previously shown that we actually get superior immune responses of our mRNA-1010 vaccine to both standard as well as enhanced vaccines. But today, I'm actually going to talk about the efficacy that we've seen in our P304 study that we conducted last year in the Northern Hemisphere.
It was a large trial of 40,703 participants. We randomized them to either receive mRNA-1010 or a licensed comparator vaccine. Last year, as some of you might recall, was when first the change of removing B/Yamagata happened from the vaccines. Not all regions made the change at the same time. So depending on the region, we actually had a trivalent or quadrivalent comparator. MRNA-1010 was trivalent throughout globally.
In terms of the study objectives, the primary objective was to show non-inferiority and superiority of mRNA-1010 versus the standard dose comparator in terms of efficacy against all influenza strains. We also looked at the safety and reactogenicity of mRNA-1010. And then in secondary objectives, we also looked at specific match to strains that were circulating and also the immunogenicity of a subset of participants to confirm the prior findings that we had in our previous studies.
In terms of exploratory objectives, we also wanted to look at the impact of mRNA-1010 against medically attended ILIs, which are more rare events. But they are, as I mentioned, really important as well in terms of the types of disease that you actually want to prevent. If we look at the demographics, you see again that it's a well-balanced group between mRNA-1010 and the licensed vaccine comparator. What I do want to highlight is the last line, which is the baseline high-risk conditions. More than half of the participants had some type of baseline high-risk condition, which included diabetes, asthma, obesity as well as COPD and atrial fibrillation.
And when we go to first the reactogenicity, it's very much in line with what we previously had presented about mRNA-1010. We do see higher local reactogenicity with the majority being injection site pain, Grade 1 and Grade 2 in nature and transient. Similarly, for the systemic reactogenicity, we do see higher reactogenicity for mRNA-1010 compared to a licensed standard dose comparator. However, a low frequency of Grade 3 events and most reactions were Grade 1 or Grade 2 in nature. The most reported systemic reactions were fatigue, headaches in both of the groups.
This is, to me, the most exciting slide of all of it. This is -- Darin has shown a very similar slide for COVID, but just to orient you because we have a couple of more slides. We have the geometric mean is the blue diamond on top, which is the 26.6%, but then we have the confidence intervals. And then you have those different lines that actually show the non-inferiority bar. They show the superiority bar and then the highest superiority bar.
And what you can really see is that the lower bound exceeds all of those bars, which really gives us a lot of confidence with those results standing for mRNA-1010 being, in fact, superior to the standard dose vaccine. And this also holds true when we then break it down by strains. The confidence intervals become a bit wider because, of course, you don't have as many cases for every single one of those strains. But you actually see that we get that efficacy for both the influenza A and influenza B strains across, which is really reassuring to see for our vaccine.
This I really like a lot because it really drives home that the waning that has been known for seasonal influenza vaccines for years is not a bigger concern for mRNA vaccines. In fact, actually, we see over the season that the separation of the curves becomes bigger with mRNA-1010 actually showing constant protection throughout the season, which is really reassuring to see where you still see an increase of cases later in the season with the licensed standard dose vaccine comparator, you see the curve flattening out for mRNA-1010 and then staying separated throughout the season. So that's really exciting for us to see.
A couple more breakdowns, which I think the drive message is that we see consistency across all those different cross-sections that we can make. When we look at the different age groups in this study from 50 to 75 years and older, you see that we consistently got the relative vaccine efficacy relative to the standard dose comparator. If we go to the high-risk conditions, we again see the same picture. We see that frailty status. We see from the fit to the most frail, the consistent higher relative vaccine efficacy of mRNA-1010. We see with the higher BMI that higher relative vaccine efficacy. So that was really nice and reassuring to see.
And then as I mentioned, we had an exploratory outcome to look at the medically attended ILIs. And if you go from the top down, you effectively see different levels of severity. It goes from urgent care visit all the way to hospitalization. For the hospitalization ER visits, we didn't have as many cases. They are pretty rare events. But you see that for urgent care visits, outpatient visits and the overall counters, we consistently see that superior relative vaccine efficacy.
In terms of the summary, the reactogenicity, as I mentioned, was higher for mRNA-1010. However, most of the solicited reactions were Grade 1 and Grade 2 in nature and transient. We saw an overall acceptable safety profile for mRNA-1010. We saw higher efficacy across all age groups, influenza strains, including participants at high risk of severe influenza compared to a standard dose vaccine comparator. The efficacy was maintained throughout the entire season. And what I didn't show here, but I mentioned that subset of immunogenicity, we yet again saw the same superior immunogenicity as well. And mRNA-1010 prevented more severe and medically attended influenza. And as Stephen alluded to earlier today, we are in the process of submitting filings, and we are intending to submit to the U.S., EU, Canada, and Australia by January 2026.
And with that, I'm handing over to Christy to talk about the combination vaccines.
Hello, everyone. So Christine Shaw, I'm the Portfolio Head for Infectious Disease in Rare. And today, I'm going to first share an update on our combination vaccine against flu and COVID. And this combination vaccine takes into the two components that you just heard Darin and Raffael talk about, our 1010 vaccine for flu and our 1283 vaccine for COVID-19.
So despite available vaccines, commercial vaccines for both COVID and flu, there remains a high unmet need and burden of hospitalizations for these diseases. And this visual on the left shows in the U.S. in adults above 75 years, the amount of hospitalizations over the last two seasons for COVID in red and flu in blue. And one of the reasons for the still significant burden is the low vaccine coverage rate, particularly for COVID-19. And you can see on the right that, that coverage rate in the 75-plus population is around 40% in the last 2 years.
As we know, the flu vaccine coverage rate is a bit higher at 75%. And as Stephen shared earlier this morning, the individuals getting a flu vaccine, about 30% to 50% depending on the year in this age group do get a COVID vaccine at the same time. So we think that a combination vaccine against flu and COVID can do two things. One is it can help to increase the COVID vaccine coverage because individuals coming in to get their flu shot can now get a combination shot in one arm and one injection that covers both diseases, both pathogens. And it will help for the convenience of those already getting both vaccines, they can get it in one shot instead of two. So overall, this should reduce the burden of disease against these two different pathogens.
So our 1083 vaccine, as I said, is a combination of the 1010 flu and the 1283 COVID vaccine. And we've previously shared that the Phase III pivotal study for this vaccine was successful and met the primary endpoints. So I'm going to review that study briefly and also share some of the durability antibody responses in the study.
So it's a randomized observer-blind active control study in which we assessed safety, reacto and immunogenicity. The study is split into two age cohorts. The Cohort A is above 65 years. Cohort B is 50 to 64 years. And the reason we did this two cohort is that we are able to compare the 1083 vaccine to co-administered licensed comparator flu and COVID vaccines. And in the 65 plus, we can do that compared to Fluzone HD, which is an enhanced flu product. And in the younger age cohort, the flu comparator is Fluarix, which is a standard dose vaccine. This is the standard of care for flu vaccines in the United States.
In both cohorts, the COVID vaccine comparator was Spikevax. And there's about 2,000 participants in each of these cohorts. So 1083 showed an acceptable reactogenicity profile in both of the cohorts. We have a majority of the reactions were Grade 2 -- Grade 1 and 2 in severity. There was a somewhat higher reactogenicity profile for 1083 relative to the co-administered licensed comparator vaccines. And the reactogenicity was a bit lower in the 65 and older cohort compared to the younger cohort. So here are the immunogenicity data.
And again, we assess this independently in the two age cohorts. In each cohort, what we did is determine the ratio of the antibody response to 1083 compared to the antibody response to the licensed comparator vaccines. So for flu, each of the four strains in the vaccine, we did this by hemagglutinin inhibition assay or HAI assay. And those data are shown in blue. And for SARS-CoV-2, we measured neutralizing antibody and those data are shown in red.
And you can see for all of the strains in the vaccine, the antibody response met the predefined success non-inferiority criteria and that the lower bound of a confidence interval was above 0.667. But we actually saw a higher response to the vaccine for the flu antigens, H1 -- flu strains H1, H3 and B Victoria. And these are the clinically relevant strains, as Raffael shared, B/Yamagata is no longer circulating and therefore, not recommended to be part of seasonal vaccines going forward. So in these cases, the response even above Fluzone HD was higher and that the lower bound was above 1.
We saw similar results and just as importantly, against the COVID -- antibodies against COVID-19 or against SARS-CoV-2, sorry, in which the responses to 1083 are higher than the responses to Spikevax. And this was true in both age cohorts. So the data -- new data sharing today is looking at the durability of that antibody response. So we took samples 6 months after vaccination and measured the antibody response in the same assays. And you can see in the top panel are the older adults and in the bottom panel are those below 65. And the 1083 groups are in red. And you can see that throughout the time course in the study, the response to 1083 is higher or equal to that of the comparator vaccine out to the 6-month time point.
So to conclude this part of the 1083 showed an acceptable safety and reactogenicity profile compared to the comparator vaccines. It did meet all the co-primary immunogenicity endpoints and elicited a higher immune response against SARS-CoV-2 and the flu strains -- the relevant flu strains in both age groups in the study. And because antibodies are an established surrogate of protection against both flu and COVID and because both components of the vaccine have demonstrated efficacy in stand-alone pivotal efficacy studies, we think that the combination vaccine 1083 should also protect individuals from both COVID and flu.
So as noted earlier in the presentations today, the filing for this 1083 vaccine is under licensure review by EMA. We also recently submitted application to Canada, and we are waiting further guidance from FDA before refiling there. Overall, we're very optimistic that this vaccine can help reduce the burden of disease against both flu and COVID in the coming years.
So switching gears to RSV, mRNA-1345. We are going to share a bit of an update on that vaccine as well. All right. So RSV still causes significant burden of disease in the U.S. despite there being vaccines. And in this past year, you can see here that there are millions of inpatient visits, outpatient visits due to RSV. There's hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations and tens of thousands of RSV-related deaths. And we know that vaccination is an effective strategy to reduce this disease burden.
Our mRESVIA-1345 vaccine was licensed initially in adults 60 years and above. And at this point, we've achieved licensure in 40 countries across the world, as shown on this slide here. Recently, we have achieved expanded indication licensure in another age group in U.S. and in Europe for individuals 18 to 59 years of age with underlying comorbidities.
Today, what I'm going to share on this program are the revaccination results, both safety and immunogenicity from two studies, one in which we gave a 1-year revaccination and the other, which we gave a 2-year revaccination. And so first, the study with the 1-year revax. So this was a Phase III study of P302. And in this study, individuals who had received mRESVIA vaccine at day 1 received a revaccination about 1 year later with the same commercial dose level. We measured safety, reactogenicity, and non-inferiority of the immune response after the revaccination compared to the antibody levels after the first day 1 dose.
So here's a visual of the participants in the study. This was a study in 50 years and above and about 543 participants were enrolled in the study with a -- having about 60% of them above 60 years of age and a bit more than half of the individuals female. So this revaccination was well tolerated, as you can see in the visual here, with local and systemic reactions primarily Grade 1 or 2, a median onset of 1 to 2 days and a median duration of 2 days.
And now looking at the antibody results from this study. At the 12-month post initial dose time point, you can see there still are measurable antibodies that are above baseline, about twofold above the baseline day 1. And when these individuals got a revaccination at that 12-month time point, the antibodies were restored up to the level seen after the primary injection, where we had demonstrated efficacy previously. So this study also met the predefined non-inferiority success criteria, both against RSV-A, which is shown here as well as RSV-B not shown on this slide.
And then moving to the second study in which we now assessed revaccination after a 2-year period. And this study was actually part of our pivotal Phase III efficacy study, and we took a subset of the individuals and gave them a second injection, 2 years after their first injection. They were randomized to receive either the same commercial dose of mRESVIA or a placebo injection.
And again, it was a safety immunogenicity study and the endpoints were similar to that I just described for the 12-month booster study. This study was in 60 years and above and about 1,000 of them received the mRESVIA vaccine about 2 years after their first dose, as I mentioned. The median age here is 68 years and about 50% female. And here, were about 1/3 of the participants had an underlying comorbidity and 1/3 of the participants were defined as obese.
So I'm sharing the reactogenicity data split across two slides with this first slide being the local reactogenicity. And most of the events were Grade 1 with median onset of 2 days and duration of 2 and overall showing that this revaccination at 24 months was well tolerated. And now the systemic adverse reactions showing a similar picture where the reactions were mostly Grade 1 and 2 with an onset of day 2 and a short duration, again, showing well-tolerated revaccination.
So the immunogenicity after this 2-year booster is on this visual here, showing the RSV-A neutralizing antibody responses. And similar to what I showed you with the 12-month booster here, once you go out to 24 months, you again, still see antibodies restored above the -- or maintained above the baseline after the first injection. So you can see it's about 4,000 versus 2,000, so about a twofold elevation still, which is actually quite similar to the level we saw in the 12-month post vaccination in the previous study.
And again, after the revaccination at this 24-month time point, the antibody titers were restored and reached a level similar to that after the primary injection. And in this study, we also achieved the predefined non-inferiority success criteria, both for RSV-A, the visual here and for RSV-B, which is not shown.
So summarizing the RSV story shared today, revaccination either at 12 or 24 months is well tolerated. And we are able to show that durability of the immune response does last out to at least 2 years. And if you give a revaccination at 12 or 24 months, it does restore the immune response and it does meet non-inferiority success criteria. So we think because of these results that revaccination at either of these time points would be expected to provide comparable vaccine efficacy to that after a primary dose.
And therefore, revaccination has the potential to provide sustained protection against RSV, particularly in individuals with underlying comorbidities in which revaccination might be particularly beneficial. So we continue to monitor guidance from recommending bodies on RSV revaccination approach and timing.
Turning back to Jackie for Norovirus.
All right. Well, thank you, Christy and team. And I think you can see what a pleasure it is to work with this group of people every day. So now I'm going to talk about our newest seasonal vaccine, Norovirus and our progress there. And just as a reminder about why we think Norovirus can be such a growth driver for us. So among enteric viruses, this is really the leading cause of diarrheal disease globally, and it results in a substantial healthcare burden. And I'll just say now that rotavirus is a vaccine preventable disease in children. This is a virus that actually can impact both older adults and children.
Unlike rotovirus, Norovirus actually has its most severe disease in older adults and immunocompromised patients. So while highest incidence is in kids, greatest impact in terms of severity of disease is in older adults and immunocompromised patients. And that really defines why we've designed our clinical development program the way we have, which I'll talk about in a couple of slides.
The burden amongst older adults is also expected to rise along with societal aging and the increased need for institutionalized care. So this is one of those viruses just like respiratory viruses. And if you have a contained group of individuals, it's a fecal oral virus, meaning it's passed through inappropriate hand hygiene. You can imagine that where care is being given, it can just rip through one of those institutions. So we think it's going to be important in those settings.
And what you see in the United States, about 20 million infections leading to about 900 deaths, but 100,000 hospitalizations where people will receive supportive care, so rehydration primarily and then also support for maybe organs that have been impacted by reduced perfusion. That's $2 billion of healthcare costs annually and lost productivity. Same numbers for the global environment, about 685 million infections each year with 200,000 deaths and about $60 billion lost in terms of healthcare costs and lost productivity.
So I mentioned that Norovirus shares some attributes with other seasonal viruses. And really, it's the variability that's one of the key pieces. And I alluded to this a bit earlier. But just to say the reason why you will see us pursuing a multivalent vaccine is because there's actually quite a lot of distribution of genome groups. We've targeted the genotypes that are most prevalent year-on-year. So we've really looked across the last couple of decades to design the first version of the vaccine. They're actually both trivalent and pentavalent versions. We're going forward with the trivalent first. If that's successful, the pentavalent in pediatrics, where we actually see the greatest distribution of genome groups will be how we move forward next.
And an important piece about the mRNA technology and why we think this is an ideal technology for norovirus. As I mentioned, with the genetic diversity of these viruses, the ability to have a second option in terms of strategies for greater vaccine coverage, meaning rather than continually adding different strains, the way we've done with pneumococcal vaccines, which leads to increased immune interference also can lead to challenges in terms of how many can you actually put in that syringe. Every iteration of pneumococcal vaccine gets further away in development because it's harder to both develop and manufacture.
With the mRNA technology, as we do surveillance, you can actually swap in and out strains as they become relevant or recede in relevance. And this is actually a discussion we've already started with the FDA, thinking about a diarrheal vaccine maybe differently than people have thought about it before.
So I'm going to share with you our Phase I clinical trial. We actually investigated both formulations, the trivalent, which is 1403 and pentavalent 1405 for obvious reasons. But we observed them in the same clinical trial so we could pick that formulation we were going to take forward into Phase III in adults. It was a randomized, observer-blind, placebo-controlled trial. And it actually had 664 healthy volunteers, pretty big for a Phase I study, but that's because of all of the treatment groups, so multiple dose levels in two formulations.
We looked at both one and two doses. Why? In children who are primarily naive to the infection, we think we may need more than one dose to get to protection. But in adults, because all of us have experienced Norovirus at some point, one dose is really going to be sufficient. And that's how we've gone forward into Phase III, and those are the data I'll really be sharing.
We've been following participants for 12 months after their last study injection, and that's really to look at the persistence of those antibodies to think about how long could this last? And I'll be sharing some of that with you today. And this was primarily only a U.S. study. So before we get into the immunogenicity results, I think sometimes it's important to really understand what we're measuring when we do these immunological assays and maybe to also help you understand why we think we have an understanding of how this vaccine might work and what makes us comfortable to make that next stage of investment.
So the assay that we've been primarily looking at is a functional assay, meaning we're not only measuring how much antibody we're making, we're also observing how that antibody interacts with the pathogen and -- or with the human body to understand maybe how it might work. In this case, the histo-blood group antigen blocking assay and from now on, I'm going to say HBGA because it's a lot easier. HBGA is an antigen that's really important for the virus entry into those epithelial cells in the gut. And what we're looking to do is blockade that virus entry. So this is really a binding antibody. And I -- for the sake of time, I'm not going to go through the details of how the assay works. But just to emphasize, we're looking both at how much antibody we induce and also the quality of that antibody.
So we looked in two cohorts, both older adults and younger adults. So on this slide, you see the older adults. And as I mentioned, I think the target for this population is obvious. It's really because they experience the most severe disease. As we age, we're more susceptible to this kind of disease. And as people age, they're more likely to be in settings that really favor outbreaks of this disease. So what you see here are the three genotypes that are included in our vaccine. And you see the results from day 1 and day 29. Remember, I told you I'm going to share with you the single-dose data because that's really how we envision this going forward, just like getting your single flu vaccine every year or in the case of Norovirus, perhaps every other year, every third year remains to be seen like with RSV.
What we see is some seropositivity, and it actually really varies across the different genotypes as you might see at the day 1 level. And why? Interestingly, Norovirus, some of these genotypes actually tend to evolve much more quickly than other genotypes where they tend to be more stable. And so where you see lower pre-vaccination titers -- that's in the geno group GII.4, where we see the most variability. So understanding even whether we ultimately may be able to swap out GII.4 strains might be helpful in the future.
But what we see with all three of our genotypes regardless of the pre-vaccination titers is a really robust increase in antibodies and really going from 10 to the 2 to really 10 to the 3, close to 10 to the 4. So we're really encouraged by these results, again, in this functional assay, looking at how the antibodies are able to blockade that key cell surface antigen for viral entry.
And now here, you see the data in younger adults, and it's really a similar story. Why younger adults? Well, younger adults, first of all, may be in occupations where they're really at high risk. And so just like this virus can rip through assisted living facilities, it definitely rips through pediatric and adult hospitals every year. And if you are a healthcare provider who's being exposed to that, there's pretty high force of infection. There are other populations that may choose to be vaccinated as well, like, for example, parents of young children, if you've ever taken care of your child and then experience the infection after your child, I used to be a mom whose kid like to climb in my lap and throw up, never in the toilet. This is a virus that I would sign up to be vaccinated against. I'll put it that way.
So safety data, again, as we show in all of our slides, dark blue are Grade 1, lighter blue are Grade 2 and the orange are Grade 3. We see our typical pattern in terms of the local reactions. And in the different dose levels, we see in younger adults increasing rates with increasing doses. What you'll see is, unlike some of our other vaccines, that band of orange is actually really small. So we're very encouraged actually by the reactogenicity profile. And this is something we see. There's generally an increase with increasing doses regardless of the vaccine antigen that's part of the platform, but the different antigens cause different levels of reactogenicity. Older adults, less reactogenic than younger adults, and that's something we've also typically seen.
So as we talk about now, we've moved to Phase III, and I mentioned to you the reason why we're really going forward with trivalent in adults, but with a longer view towards if this works, moving to pentavalent and starting in the pediatric population. So this is one of our large-scale trials, again, placebo-controlled and enrolled about 17,500 per arm. As Jamey mentioned earlier, we did do an initial Northern and Southern Hemisphere season. We're accruing some cases. The epidemiology was not in our favor, unfortunately, this year. So we're going to need another season to accrue additional vaccine-matched cases leading to an interim analysis that we're anticipating later in 2026.
So in summary, our single dose was really well-tolerated and showed an acceptable safety profile. The functional antibodies really showed robust titer increases against the vaccine matched strains and the single -- similar mRNA-induced titers were observed in both younger and the older adult populations, which is why our Phase III is actually evaluating the vaccine in those 18 and over. We're advancing now into the third cohort and in fact, have enrolled our first subjects in the U.S. And the Phase III readout is really going to be subject to those case accruals. But as I mentioned, we are anticipating later in 2026, at least an interim analysis.
Okay. And with that, I'm actually going to announce a pivot. We pivot a lot at Moderna. We're pivoting to have our break a bit early. So unfortunately, for you, you're going to hear about latent vaccines after. And then I will introduce my colleagues who will lead into the oncology portfolio. So actually, I should say, unfortunately for me because I have to talk to everyone after a break and the insulin effect sets in. But we'll take how long, Lavina? 10-minute break, and I'll see you back then on stage. Thank you so much for your attention.
[Break]
Hi, everyone. So thrilled that there are so many great conversations going on, which hopefully we can continue into the lunch and beyond. But if I can ask, I know there are actually a few people still outside, maybe in the next 60 seconds or so, we'll get restarted just to get us back on track.
Right. So I hope you enjoyed your break. I'm going to now take you through a tour of our vaccines that are earlier in development before handing it over to the oncology team. So what you see here are the latent and bacterial vaccines. We're going to talk for a minute about CMV vaccine, followed by our two EBV candidates, the prophylactic candidate and the therapeutic candidate. And then I'll end with a quick talk on Lyme vaccines, and then I'm going to hand it over then to my colleagues who are really leading the charge in oncology.
All right. So CMV in transplant was obviously a huge disappointment to us that we were unable to demonstrate prevention of infection in seronegative subjects. This was obviously our first step to really getting to the indication of prevention and congenital infection. But I will say it was always a very high-risk program in the sense that we were studying seronegative patients and hoping to prevent evidence of any infection. And as you may remember from our COVID in our RSV Phase III trials, we were able to show some prevention of infection, but really at much lower rates than symptomatic infection or severe disease. And that's pretty typical, not just in the vaccine world, but in general, it's -- you often see evidence of more severe disease being the first place that you have impact in infectious disease.
So why do we believe in CMV transplant? Well, one, it's a very different population. So while there can be CMV negative transplant recipients, the reality is, as you get older, you are more likely to have a disease that leads to a failure of some end organ or cancer. And that means that transplants are actually weighted more at the older end of the age spectrum. So these people tend to be seropositive and the pathophysiology of their disease, either because they're receiving a solid organ that has CMV-infected cells or because they themselves are already seropositive.
Once they receive their immunosuppression, that really reduces the immune control of latency of that virus and the virus expands. And it can actually cause an immunocompromised people quite symptomatic infection. So the risks that are associated with CMV disease in solid organ transplants and those with hemopoietic stem cell transplants or HCT, graft rejection. So these CMV can actually cause a degree of inflammation and then immune destruction in organs. And since these organs are so very precious, we don't have enough for all the patients that need transplant. That's a huge issue in transplant medicine.
Second is it can cause other kinds of end organ CMV disease. One of the most common in this population is CMV enteritis, so causing a lot of diarrhea, potentially leading to dehydration. But you can also see rare forms like CMV retinitis, which is a threat to someone's vision. So there are currently no approved vaccines. There are antivirals, and they're actually used pretty universally. Different centers use them differently, and we'll talk about that in a minute. But the issue with them is, one, they have high cost and they have their own side effects. They're typically not used forever in people with transplants.
And what we often see is once you pull off the antiviral suppression, you do see a rebound even when in CMV viremia, so the measurement of CMV circulating in the blood, particularly when the medication is first withdrawn. And that's not a risk that actually decreases. There's that rebound no matter how long you keep that prophylaxis on board if you then pull it off. There are 47,000 organ transplants in the U.S. each year and 23,000 bone marrow transplants. And so that really leads to about 70,000 transplants in the U.S. each year. So a smaller but still sizable market.
So sterilizing immunity, as I mentioned, is really challenging in vaccine development. And that's actually not what we're aiming for in the transplant population. As I mentioned, these are typically seropositive individuals. Once you're seropositive, you remain seropositive for life. What we are trying to do is prevent that virus from reactivating in the immunosuppressed milieu. And the way that actually transplant physicians measure whether or not once we withdraw or even when you're on CMV prophylaxis, whether that virus is reactivating is by looking for CMV DNAemia.
We actually looked at CMV DNAemia in the Phase III trial in healthy women. And we actually did see that initially after infection, we're able to reduce that level of DNAemia. So that actually gives us hope that this may be a place where we can see some effect. And I'm going to show you what T-cell responses look like in transplant patients in just a moment. So we think it has the possibility to prevent the viral replication and reactivation. And so our hope is that we can look in a smaller bone marrow transplant population. And then if that looks positive, so limiting the investment upfront, but if that looks positive, talk about how we might expand use.
So in summary, the CMV is a disease that's associated with substantial morbidity and mortality. It's one of the key issues that transplant physicians across the spectrum have to manage. Letermovir is actually a suppressant that is approved and it's currently being used as standard CMV prophylaxis. So it's really considered best-in-class. And it's a way that you'll see in the next slide, we're considering that as we think about how this program could fit in with existing treatment. And despite its efficacy, it's also been associated with decreased CMV-specific T-cell reconstitution in bone marrow transplant patients.
So as I mentioned, these drugs, like all drugs and vaccines have their own side effects associated to them. And it also can lead to late onset CMV infections. Again, once you decide to withdraw your prophylaxis, we often see a rebound reactivation. So that's why we think the development of a safe and effective vaccine that you might be able to boost year-on-year might be a way to get on top of this remaining unmet medical need.
So we're studying CMV-positive adults who are over 18 years of age who received an allogeneic, meaning it's coming from themselves, stem cell transplant. We're looking at a slightly different dose level and slightly different schedule than we were in the primary disease. And so this is an accelerated vaccination schedule where we're giving three doses, and that's happening after the initial reconstitution of the immune system. So people are on their letermovir prophylaxis up to day 100. We then start vaccination as they are reconstituting that immune system. And then 6 months into the trial, we're going to give a booster dose to see what it would look like if you needed to boost this over time. There's an mRNA-1647 group and a placebo group and the randomized 1:1.
In terms of the solicited adverse reactions, here, you see Grade 1 in gray, Grade 2 in blue, and Grade 3 in orange. And as we might expect actually in a transplant immunosuppressed population, we see lower severity for most of the events, and that's really because probably their bodies are not allowing them to have the same reaction to the vaccine that we see in healthy individuals. However, I was actually pleased to see that we do see some reactogenicity, meaning we're causing their immune system to do something in this case.
And now I want to show you actually what the T-cell responses look like. And why the T-cells? T-cells are incredibly important in suppressing CMV and particularly CD8 T-cells are important in controlling that infection and keeping it in latent mode. So what I'm showing you here are the 3 antigens. GB is the antigen that was on its own, gH and gL and UL, they are part of the combination that makes up pentamer. And we're looking at T-cell responses to each of those individual antigens. We also have the CD4 at the top in the different shades of pink, CD8 in the different shades of blue on the bottom. And also what we see are the placebo versus the mRNA. And this is really looking after multiple doses in the schedule.
So as I explained to you, we're studying this in stem cell transplant patients. These are people who need to have their bone marrow and their cancer, importantly, completely ablated before we give them a transplant, and that transplant is actually like a seed that grows into a reconstituted immune system. So we're talking about people who are immunosuppressed not only because they're on immunosuppressing drugs to prevent graft-versus-host disease, but because they're in the process of reconstituting that immune system.
In the different shades, what you see are the level of polyfunctionality. Polyfunctionality really refers to the different kinds of cytokines and different kinds of activation and cell activity functions that you can see. So darker means better and more functionality. And so what you see at the top are the CD4 responses. I mean it's absolutely clear that there's many more in the 1647 group than we're seeing in that placebo group. And we're seeing about 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 in terms of polyfunctionality. So even at this early stage, we're seeing really reconstitution of a diverse CD4 response.
And CD8, similarly, we're seeing polyfunctionality developing. We always see lower CD8s. The fact that we detect them at such a different level than in the placebo group is really something that we feel strongly positive about, particularly in the gB space and in the gL-UL. And what you're seeing in the placebo group there, as you see, it's kind of even throughout. So people, even as they're reconstituting have some kind of baseline level. And this probably is because we're needing some kind of activation, so they're getting a natural boost because they probably are having to control their CMV infection even while on letermovir.
So in summary, the solicited local and systemic adverse reactions were mostly Grade 1 and 2. We didn't see any Grade 4 adverse reactions reported. And as I said, in a transplant population, I was actually encouraged to see that we can get them to stimulate some of those reactions. For 1647, the most common were injection-site pain and headache, fever and fatigue, similar to the rest of the platform. Our interim analysis in this population demonstrated that we can induce antigen-specific polyfunctional CD4 and CD8 T-cell responses. And as I mentioned, we think that's encouraging for controlling that DNAemia.
Of note, our robust cell-mediated immune responses were observed as early as 77 days after transplant. So this is really speaking to the ability of this platform to induce the right kind of immune responses at a moment when someone really is at their worst in terms of immunogenicity. So we're hopeful about that. And our next step is really to plan our Phase II data readout. So on the heels of our recent CMV findings, we'll be meeting with the MGH team to really talk about how we build in an interim analysis and look at what's happening in this study in the future.
Okay. So now I'm going to move on to Epstein-Barr virus or EBV and our prophylactic vaccine 1189 and our therapeutic treatment, 1195. So these two vaccines are really meant to address very different populations. But all of us, just like with CMV, tend to acquire an EBV infection over time. So as you get older, you're more likely to be exposed to this infection and become seropositive. Unlike CMV, there is a very obvious symptom associated with this -- the severe form of this infection. It's infectious mononucleosis.
What you see on the left here are data that we actually generated within our epidemiology team, looking at the increase of seroprevalence with age depending on your location. And so what we know is that in high-income countries, you're a little bit slower to acquire the infection than in medium-income countries. But what we were kind of surprised to find in the middle is that by the time you're getting to middle school, about 9 to 11, 12 to 14 years of age, you're looking now at more than half of individuals are actually seropositive. And so this really indicated to us, we need to think about this as a vaccine that we would include with some of the other middle school vaccines like meningococcal vaccine and pertussis.
And then finally, I think really pertinent to the 1195 therapeutic program, EBV accounts for over 90% of cases of infectious mononucleosis, so this is importantly severe infection we can monitor and manage and the vast majority are going to be due to EBV. The annual incidence of infectious mononucleosis in the general population is at least 45 per 100,000. So there's a way that we can measure this in Phase III with the peak incidence of about 15 to 19 years of age. So again, this is a program where we're really looking to establish ourselves and begin middle school, high school vaccination programs.
The reason why I say this is important for 1195 comes on the next slide, which is if you look at the conditions that EBV can be associated with long term in terms of sequelae, multiple sclerosis tops the list. And it's really when you get to having infectious mononucleosis, if you had the severe form of the infection, your risk is increased even above getting the infection itself. So this is the interplay between the two programs.
And I will say our target indication initially is multiple sclerosis because of what you see in the top bar. But we know that Epstein–-Barr, which its latent infection tends to hide in B-cells, is actually associated with a large number of cancers, particularly B-cell lymphomas. And so being able, just like in the CMV program to prevent that vaccine once infection is established to stay in its latent phase, prevent the lytic phase where it reactivates and begins to spread, we think is going to be incredibly important.
Okay. So let's talk for a moment about that etiological link that I just referred to. Nearly 1 million people in the U.S. have multiple sclerosis. And this is a progressive degenerative neurologic disease. So people really are on all ranges of the spectrum. I think an important piece is when you're born, you have all the neurons you're ever going to have.
So as you grow, you continue to myelinate your nerves, they continue to spread, but you are born with the cells you are going to have. And then once those cells die, you don't get to replace them. Every neuron is precious. And so really being able to have an impact early in disease is incredibly important, and that will become important as we talk about the Phase II study we're currently enrolling. But there was a landmark study that demonstrated that there was a 32-fold increase of developing MS once your sero convert to EBV. This is one of the strongest links ever established between a virus and the potential sequelae happening years later.
And it was also previously established. We've talked about this in the past that infectious mononucleosis is a risk factor. So -- and you can see on the bottom that the seroconverted have that 32% increased risk. And then what you see is that on the right, the risk of EBV plus a history of infectious mononucleosis is really increasing up to 2.3 fold over that history of EBV. So that's really an important population and why we think preventing infectious mononucleosis can be important in the prevention also of sequelae.
All right. So EBV, as we mentioned, associated with several serious medical conditions that we think can be addressed through mRNA therapies. We talked about IM and multiple sclerosis. I mentioned to you that we believe B-cell type lymphomas, of which post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease is one of them, is another place. I think it's important to also emphasize that in addition to prophylactic oncology, autoimmune diseases, there's a growing body of evidence, and there was a recent paper in science looking at the link of EBV and SLE or systemic lupus erythematosis. So that's a potential place in the future. And there actually is a chronic infection with EBV that's quite debilitating for patients. So these are all places that if we can see impact with our vaccine and therapy, we can look forward to further data generation.
So I mentioned to you, we have these two programs, and I wanted to go through with you a little bit the difference between them. 1189 is primarily looking at lytic antigens. Lytic antigens are the ones that are responsible for rapid proliferation and cell-to-cell transfer. 1195 or the therapeutic version also includes those lytic antigens plus two latent antigens. And that's really important because, as I mentioned to you, our goal in these therapies is to not allow that latent virus to get to the lytic space. The virus actually in its latency expresses very different antigens than it expresses in the lytic phase. So only vaccinating against lytic antigens is unlikely to have the impact of keeping that virus suppressed. So that's really why we think we need to look in two distinct spaces.
So I'm going to talk about the prophylactic vaccine first. So this was another larger phase trial design. We started in adults 18 to 30 years of age. We then moved down to adolescents 12 to 17 years of age, and that was really based on the epidemiology work we did where we realized we need a younger age group if we're really going to target the majority of infection. It actually incorporated multiple primary objectives.
So looking at safety and reactogenicity, of course, but also looking at binding antibodies, so how much antibody we produce and then B-cell neutralization antibodies. Remember, I told you that B-cells are the bad actors in this infection. And so understanding can we neutralize EBV-infected B-cells is an important endpoint as well. We're also going to be looking at epithelial cell neutralization and the impact on viral shedding as well as seroconversion. And if we have cases of mononucleosis, we're looking towards those as well.
There's also a Phase II trial that's ongoing. So in the Phase I trial, there was a request from FDA to pause enrollment at one moment and look at safety data. So we have single dose and 2-dose data in 12- to 17-year-olds, and I think that's going to be helpful as we try to decide how many doses of this vaccine do you need. But again, as data continued to accumulate from that epidemiology study, we actually started again looking at an even younger age group, thinking we want to capture as many infections as possible. At this moment, too, we were able to focus our dose ranging at lower doses, and that's really because we're not seeing so many differences in immunogenicity, but this is a way, as I mentioned earlier, for us to manage reactogenicity.
Okay. So I'm not going to go through the data in the interest of time, so we can move to oncology, and you've seen it before, but the vaccine was generally well-tolerated in adults and adolescents. Participants showed an increase in functional binding antibodies as well as they showed baseline EBV seropositive threshold. So meaning we can induce antibody titers greater in those seronegative by vaccination than people experienced through natural infection at baseline.
And then we also reduced measurable viral DNA and the frequency of shedding in EBV seropositive subjects, meaning we can suppress reactivation and shedding in that case in the seropositives. So the data from Part A and B, meaning those 12- to 17-year-olds are expected later in 2026, and we will have those Phase II data in 2026 as well, hopefully helping us target how we take this program forward.
Moving quickly to 1195. As I mentioned, our primary indication is going to be in multiple sclerosis. That's a disease really characterized by immune dysregulation of EBV-infected B-cells presumably by EBV. And this may be one of the key underlying mechanisms, not only of disease initiation, but also of progression, poor EBV control over time. The vaccine mechanism of action is hypothesized to be restoring some robust immune control.
Okay. So talking about the Part 1 trial design, this again, was an EBV seropositive subjects only. And again, we're targeting people that are already infected. So once you're infected, we can't make you uninfected. But hopefully, what we can do is prevent some of the long-term sequelae of being infected. We had two formulations and multiple dose levels. Once again, we're really looking at humoral immunogenicity T-cells also being important here, as I mentioned before, because latency really requires the help of T-cells to keep those B-cells in check.
Looking at the reactogenicity, here, again, you see the dark blue, medium blue, and orange schema. We actually saw a relatively comparable reactogenicity across the different dose levels. So really are looking to select the optimization between as minimal a dose as possible while seeing the best possible immune responses. Here, you see the binding antibodies. So we have generated binding antibodies to the glycoproteins that are the lytic antigens. Remember, I told you that 1189 and 1195 overlap in this space. And what we see is that in all of the dose levels, even out to day 317, so they finished their dosing schedule. It's a 3-dose schedule at day 180, so seeing 6-month persistence. They're staying above that dotted line, which is the natural infection level.
And now I mentioned to you that neutralization is important here, particularly in the B-cells. And again, staying above the limit of quantitation of the assay that's in the gray line. That's true for the B-cell neutralizing antibodies. It's also true for epithelial cells, which can also harbor a latent EBV infection.
And then finally, I wanted to share with you the shedding data. So what you see here at the top, I think, in particular, is the placebo group. So these are all EBV-positive subjects. The placebo group is shedding EBV at a certain level over time. And both 1189 and 1195 are reducing that viral shedding over time. So again, hopeful that we can have an impact in that lytic phase of the virus.
And then finally, I mentioned to you that particularly for 1195, we think that these T-cell responses are going to be important. At the top, EBNA3A, LMP2B, these are those latent antigens I was referring to where we're going to need to exercise some immune control over those antigens in the latent phase of the virus if we want to prevent that proliferation. So seeing in the pale colors, the median responses being so much higher than the median responses, which are represented by the dark bar in those that received the placebo group, super encouraging to us.
And just to say, we also see CD8 responses to the glycoprotein gH as well. And then these are the CD4 responses to the EBNA3 and the gH antigen. And again, including 1189 actually on this -- no, excuse me, the 4 dose levels on this slide, we see CD4 responses as well, both to the latent antigen, EBNA3A and to the lytic antigen gH.
So we are so excited that earlier this year, we started enrolling actually now in multiple sclerosis patients. And again, we're repeating the dose-ranging study for two reasons. One, the safety here is going to be important. So these are subjects whose primary disease is neurologic. And as I mentioned, every neuron is precious. So we have an expert DSMB really looking at the progression of those patients over time clinically. We're complementing that with looking at MRIs over time. So one of the key clinical endpoints in EBV is a loss of myelination in the white matter. This is a way that we can follow very early patients over time. This is known to be a clinical endpoint that actually precedes progression of symptoms. And so we'll see between placebo and those receiving 1 of 3 doses, if we can reduce the number of lesions over time.
Okay. I think I'm going to go to the summary and for the sake of time. The interim analysis data demonstrate that 1195 is generally well tolerated. EBV seropositive participants show increase in B-cell neutralizing antibodies. The vaccine is able to boost both CD4 and CD8 cells and the humoral and cell-mediated immunity persisted out to day 317, so about 6 months after that last injection. We reduced measurable viral shedding of saliva. It was actually both 1,195 and 1,189. And then looking this year, we have a Phase I Part B data coming in younger subjects later this year. We also have the Phase II multiple sclerosis study that's coming soon.
And with that, we're going to move to Lyme disease. So this is our bacterial vaccine program. You all have heard of Lyme disease, I know, especially up here in the Northeast. Lyme disease is the most common vector-borne disease, meaning an insect is carrying it in the Northern Hemisphere. The Lyme follows a bimodal age distribution. So it typically affects children under 15. They're out in the grass playing in the summer and older adults. And interestingly, this is also a seasonal infection, but the season is reversed from those viruses we were talking about. It really tends to proliferate in the summer months when everybody is outside and enjoying being in the great outdoors.
In the major geographies, there are about 475,000 cases in the U.S. each year and about 200,000 in the EU. And the symptomatic infection is actually one of the harder ones I found in pediatric practice to diagnose. It can masquerade as a lot of different things, but subjects typically develop a rash. That rash can take a lot of forms, but the target rash is the classic one. They have some nonspecific symptoms like fever, fatigue, headache, and joint pain. And if it's untreated, it can lead to certain neurologic and particularly cardiac complications, it can lead to a cardiac arrhythmia. So that's why we're very interested in preventing this infection, and there's currently no human vaccine on the market.
Why are we convinced that this could work through mRNA? Well, the program has actually already been derisked from an antigen perspective. So there was a licensed vaccine LYMErix that targeted the same antigen. That vaccine was later withdrawn from the market. It's actually the same antigen that we're targeting because it's a known mechanism of action. And it actually works a little bit differently than the viral vaccines we've been talking about. We are looking to induce primarily antibodies. And the protein that we target has the very creative name of outer surface protein A. The anti-OspA antibody that we produce, it's not actually protecting the individual person. It's protecting by transferring that antibody to the tick when the tick feeds. So it gets an antibody dose as it gets also your blood. And those antibodies can kill the Borrelia organism, the responsible bacteria for Lyme disease in the midgut, and that prevents transmission from human to host. So it's kind of a cool mechanism. And like I said, it's been established in a previously licensed vaccine.
We have 2 candidates cleverly named after the dates or the years when there were various discoveries made about Lyme disease. The first recognizing Lyme disease in 1975 and then 1982, recognizing the pathogen that was causing it. So 1982 is actually a monovalent looking at serotype 1, which is basically the only serotype that is prevalent in the U.S. Europe is a bit more homogeneous and serotypes 1 through -- or heterogeneous excuse me, serotypes 1 through 7 actually proliferate there. And so a multivalent vaccine 1975 is targeted.
So we had a Phase I study here, looking at both the multivalent and the monovalent so in red and in blue. It was a 3-dose study, given at 0, month 2, and month 6 and we're looking again in immune responses and the safety. And so here, you see the local and systemic solicited adverse events -- in this case, I told you we see some differences in antigens. We saw a few more grade 3s, particularly at the higher doses.
And this is definitely a case where increased doses led to increased severity. There were no grade 4s that were reported. And most of the reactions are still grade 1 to 2 in severity. In terms of antibody, though, the vaccine really induced robust anti-OspA antibody responses. So you see here on the bottom, all the time points at which we measured, so people are negative at day 1. At day 29, they start to have some immune response, and it's really at that second dose that we start to see some increased day 57 to day 85.
And then actually, there's pretty good maintenance of vaccine persistence, which we're kind of excited to see with a further boost, though that happens about at time 6 months. So we are seeing the robust antibody titers not only to serotype 1, which you see on the slide. Also to serotypes 2 to 7, and they did elicit dose-dependent responses.
So there's a bit of a decision to make here as we look at balancing reactogenicity with immunogenicity. Both of the vaccines were generally well tolerated. They had an acceptable safety profile, and they elicited a robust dose-dependent anti-OspA responses.
We've actually decided to go to Phase II in this program, and we're going to be evaluating not only lower dose levels because we think that -- even the lower dose levels, we're really inducing robust responses, but we're also going to be looking -- we're a platform company, constantly improving.
We're going to look at applying some of those improvements that we've made in other programs to see if we can also improve that reactogenicity a bit. And with that, I'm now going to hand over to my colleague, Kyle Holen, who will talk to you about the oncology portfolio.
Thank you, Dr. Miller. And thank you all for being here in Cambridge and joining us here at our headquarters building, everyone online. Thank you for taking time out of your day to talk -- to hear about our pipeline updates. So we're going to have an overview of our oncology portfolio next. But I thought what we'd do before we talked about our oncology portfolio is just have a reminder of why this work is so important, but not from my words, from someone who's lived this experience. So maybe what we'll do then is quickly move on to the video. Can you show the video, please?
[Presentation]
So I'm a medical oncologist by training. I spent 10 years taking care of patients with cancer. I can tell you that his experience is not atypical. Nausea, vomiting, severe fatigue, hair loss, diarrhea, infections, hospitalizations. These are all side effects of some of the most brutal therapies that we give people with disease. In fact, one of my patients came in and he unfortunately was not able to walk on his follow-up visit. He was on sorafenib, which causes very severe hand-foot syndrome. And I said to him, Why didn't you call me? Why don't you tell me this was happening.
So I could have stopped your therapy, so you could have walked into clinic and he said, Doc, I wanted to survive. We have to come up with better therapies for people with cancer. Therapies that honestly can provide the same efficacy but not ask for the sacrifice on people's lives that they're currently going through with other therapy. And I think we're on to something with our current platform. So this is a snapshot of 4359 and 4157 or Intismeran of the safety readout from both of these programs. And I think a lot of us appropriately focused on efficacy of these products.
But what I'd like to just do is take a minute and show you the safety of these products. So far across our entire portfolio of cancer antigen therapies and Intismeran, we have not reached a maximum tolerated dose. The incidence of Grade 3 side effects is vanishingly small. I can count on one hand how many times we've seen for monotherapy treatment, Grade 3 side effects from these therapies.
And so I believe that this opens up a whole new window of opportunity for this type of treatment that hasn't been available for other treatments in the field. Areas where we can treat patients earlier in pre-cancerous lesions, areas where we can combine with other therapies that already have a fairly toxic profile where other treatments couldn't be added on.
And this leads us to a whole variety of different settings where we can administer these therapies. So you can see here with Intismeran and other cancer antigen therapies, we've been able to explore adjuvant settings. We've been able to explore neoadjuvant settings. And for our cancer antigen therapy, we've even looked at early stage in precancerous settings for these type of therapies.
With our T cell engager programs, we're looking at refractory metastatic settings and with our cell therapy enhancing and in vivo cell therapy, we're also looking at later-stage disease. So this allows us to create a portfolio that can have an effect across all different stages of cancer and multiple different types of cancers.
This is a snapshot of our current oncology portfolio. What I'd like to emphasize is yes, I'm excited about the number of programs that we have in clinic -- but what's more important than the quantity is the quality. We firmly believe that every single one of these treatments can have a dramatic impact on patient lives.
And as we'll discuss with you today, we'll start out with Intismeran, and Dr. Brown will come and talk to you about the latest developments with Intismeran. I will then come back and talk to you about our next most advanced therapy, 4359 which we're all very excited about.
And then last but not least, we'll have our fearless leader for our research efforts, Dr. Lachlan come and talk to us about all the really exciting and amazing products that are coming into clinic either are in clinic today or will be coming in the clinic very soon thereafter.
So with that, I'll hand things over to Dr. Brown, and she'll talk to you about INT.
So hi, everyone. It is nice to be speaking to you again about Intismeran, and I'm not really sure how I'm supposed to follow Kyle's performance and then Keith's video. So hopefully, what I show today is sort of our resounding belief of why we believe that Intismeran can make that type of impact for patients and a litany of patients at that.
So as Kyle alluded to, we are leveraging the power of the mRNA technology and the platform to develop a precision immunotherapy program overall and we're anchoring this on 4 different segments with distinct modalities and distinct potential to impact patients across a wide continuum of cancer care.
And the anchor and the lead of our programs are Intismeran autogene, which, as you saw on the slide, has a litany of clinical studies. So that is what we'll double down on today. And if you're not resonating with Intismeran, this one is the one that we called mRNA-4157, V940, INT, it's had a lot of different names and roles, but at its true form, it is an mRNA lipid encapsulated, individualized neoantigen therapy.
So it is basically taking and starting with the patient and sequencing their tumor to identify the sort of most immunogenic specific tumor targets to train the immune system. It is one medicine for one patient, and it is the lead in personalized cancer therapy. The way this works is, again, what we're doing is taking a concatamerized mRNA lipid encapsulating them, delivering them back concatamer into patient through an IM administration.
Once in the body, the mRNA enters into an antigen presenting cell, we use post-translational machinery to produce those neoantigens. Those neoantigens, which are basically cancer-specific mutations are presented on the cell surface to stimulate a repertoire of T cells, both CD4 and CD8s. That then become activated, but also trained to go out and seek other cancer cells or cancer cells and destroy them.
And we think that this mechanism is synergistic with checkpoint inhibitors who just tend to take the brakes off the immune system. So we're essentially targeting cancer cells activating the T cells to go kill them and then hyper-activating them to keep them killing these cancer cells.
So that mechanism was officially tested in our Phase II randomized study in high-risk adjuvant melanoma patients. This data was presented last year at ASCO from our median 3-year follow-up. And essentially, what we did is we took Intismeran in combination with pembrolizumab versus pembrolizumab standard of care in these high-risk melanoma patients who had their tumors completely resected and we follow them to see if the combination could improve recurrence events.
So basically, patients' tumors from coming back after they had their tumors removed. One thing I want to point out is that this was a November 3, '23 data cut with that median of 3 years. We know in cancer that 5 years is usually the big landmark for clinical studies as a whole for durability. We are now in '25. So we add -- we're looking upon our 5-year data cut marginally.
Now the one piece in here is that this data cutoff was on November 3 with the approximately 3 years. Because 5 years is such a landmark -- we are going to make sure we pass that landmark. And so the data cut here might be a little bit later this November 3, but we are definitely tracking towards having that.
And we're very excited to see the durability because we are very excited to see the 3-year data. So this is a refresh from that 3-year cut. And basically, what you saw here is the primary endpoint, which was recurrence-free survival. The green line on top is essentially the combination arm. The yellow line is what happened with pembrolizumab standard of care. And what you're looking at is recurrence events or death.
And so from just a global 3-year mark, we see a hazard ratio of 0.51 which means that we reduced the risk of recurrence or death globally for these patients by about 49%. And if we sort of anchor on that 2.5-year landmark, that means that 3 out of 4 high-risk adjuvant melanoma patients were disease-free at the time of this cut and that was 20% higher than what they would have received if they receive standard of care pembro.
And it's important to note that, that delta of almost 20% is essentially what pembro showed against placebo, against nothing. So no other study has been able to showcase this type of effect above pembro standard of care in this type of setting which was very, very encouraging for us for this type of neoantigen therapy and the impact we could have on patients.
And not only was this seen with recurrence-free survival, but this was also seen with the key secondary end point which is distant metastasis-free survival. And on this one, we see a 0.38 hazard ratio. So in oncology studies 0.38 is transformative. This is a huge treatment effect. You don't tend to see this, and it translates into almost 2/3 of patients not having distant disease.
And distant disease is important because what that means is we're preventing patients from having significant surgeries, additional systemic therapies or death. Their risk is much higher when they have a distant event. And what you see here, again, at about 2.5 years is that almost 90% of patients on the study did not have this type of event.
And that's compared to 68% that would have had it with just standard of care. So we're really maintaining that spread of 20% even in this profound endpoint. And this is actually on point with the mechanism of action that I just showed you because we believe that intismeran is supposed to train and activate the immune system to go out and clean up all these micro metastases and create long-term disease control.
And so having this profound delta on DMFS is actually what we would have anticipated with the mechanism. And it's not just about preventing these recurrence events. It's also about preventing death, right? As we heard from Keith's story, when a patient is diagnosed with cancer, it is about survival. And so everyone really cares about survival.
And while it's very early, we do not tend to see overall survival in these adjuvant studies, especially at 3 years. We did see an initial trend of protection for overall survival. Now the hazard ratio here is 0.42. But if you look at the spread here from 0.11 to 1.5 is big, and then that's just because there's just so few events. But what's encouraging about this OS trend is just how flat that green line is, and it was flat through that median 3-year follow-up.
And it's one of the reasons we're so excited for what we're going to see with the 5-year data that's coming. And as Kyle alluded to when he started, we tend to focus on the efficacy picture. But for an adjuvant setting, that's curative intent. Patients want good quality of life, they want to be able to continue running and traveling and having that same life that they had before they were diagnosed with cancer.
And so having a safe profile is amazingly important. And so not only did we see in this 3-year follow-up, this efficacy benefit, but we also saw that intismeran was generally tolerable where the majority of patients had low grade transient adverse events with fatigue being the most common.
So not hair loss, not weight loss, not myalgia where they can't walk but fatigue. In addition, we did not see an increase in significant or serious adverse events when combined with chemo, nor did we see potentiation of the immune mediate adverse events which is what you see when you have IO-IO combinations. So it really is well tolerated as a whole and specifically for cancer patients having a clinical benefit and a well-tolerated safety profile is truly differentiating which gave us the confidence to move to this broad clinical trial program that we have now with intismeran with our partner, Merck.
So what we have here is not only the Phase III adjuvant melanoma, which we'll talk about in a second. But we also have the 2 other registrational non-small cell lung studies that will hopefully benefit patients like Keith. And we have studies in renal cell carcinoma, muscle invasive bladder cancer, non-muscle invasive bladder cancer. Metastatic melanoma, metastatic non-small cell lung cancer and then our Phase I had expansion cohorts in PDAC and gastric.
And what you see from this picture is that we're hoping to impact and learn across a litany of tumor types and a litany of settings. So we are really spanning with having solid foundations in the adjuvant environment. And then we're beginning to start exploring the bookends to metastatic disease and perioperative.
And one of the reasons that we're actually comfortable looking at the metastatic space and the perioperative space, is basically what you heard from Jerh is we're optimizing our manufacturing. We're building our Marlboro facility. We're getting better at our turnaround times, and we have confidence that we will be able to deliver Intismeran to patients that need it most quickly. In addition, because of the safety profile that I just showed you, it means that we're also able to combine with agents beyond pembrolizumab.
So in our metastatic non-small cell study, we're actually combining with pembro and chemo. Within our non-muscle invasive bladder cancer study, we're combining with BCG. In our Phase I study, we're combining with different chemotherapies for PDAC and gastric. So this program as a whole is really going to teach us a litany of things about intismeran tumor types, patient populations, combinations and really sets the foundation for us to have a profound impact.
And what you can see based off all of this is that we have a series of learnings that are going to come '26 and well beyond. Now while everyone can pick their favorite study for a number of different reasons, our team is hyper obsessing about our adjuvant melanoma Phase III study. So this study was launched in 2023. And it looks largely like our Phase II study.
So it is randomized in adjuvant high-risk resected melanoma patients. And it randomizes patients intismeran plus pembrolizumab versus pembrolizumab standard of care and has the recurrence-free survival endpoint, which is the appropriate clinical endpoint. The 2 major differences from our Phase II study is, first, we expanded the patient population down to Stage 2s, partly because pembrolizumab is indicated there and we have reason to believe that we can impact that wide range of high-risk adjuvant melanoma patients.
And the other piece is, this is a stage III study, our Phase III study. So there's close to 1,100 patients that got enrolled. It was big, and it enrolled in record time. And I think one of the reasons that it enrolled in record time is that people are very excited for this Phase II results that I showed you.
And so at this point, it has been fully enrolled for quite some time, and we are sitting in a very awkward phase right now where all of us are amazingly excited to see the RFS and to see the endpoint here. But this is an endpoint-driven study, which means that we also don't want these events to be coming in too fast because we want patients to benefit.
So we are in this like, we really want to see it. We want to see this actual output to see how the Phase III is going to play out and if it looks like the Phase II but we have to be patient because we also want that treatment benefit. We want patients to benefit. So that is the dance we're doing, and we're just patiently waiting right now for those events to accrue.
So on the clinical summary, what I basically told you to this point is that we have a manageable safety profile, we have a clinically significant improvement in recurrence-free survival. And distant metastasis-free survival. We have encouraging trends and overall survival. We have launched a series of clinical studies, 3 of which started this year with NMIBC metastatic melanoma and metastatic small cell lung cancer.
And we have a line of sight for a lot of studies that are going to be coming '26 and beyond, starting with the 5-year median follow-up for adjuvant melanoma in but then each of those other studies are going to start reading out. Now behind the clinical learnings, we also, at Moderna, want to lead the science in this space. And so what I like about the intismeran program is that it sits at the precipice of computational, technological and biological innovation and understanding. And at its heart is our deterministic fixed algorithm, which selects the neoantigens for patients using their specific DNA sequences and rank orders, the ones that are going to be most immunogenic.
And the thing about BICS is that it was perfect for the science at the time but as our clinical understanding evolves, as our understanding of cancer biology evolves and just as the field overall evolves, we have the opportunity to think or rethink about BICS as a whole. But that's going to take more science and more data.
So built into our programs is translational endpoints or collections. So if you reimagine the clinical study schema that I showed you for the clinical side, this is the Phase II again. Nothing's really changed for how it looks outside of showcasing where we're collecting patients' blood to do some translational work. And so we had patients that gave blood right at baseline before they had any treatment. Patients then they have blood collected after they started pembrolizumab treatment.
Then they had more blood collected after they started intismeran treatment. And then finally, at the very end of their treatment with pembro a year later as they had another sample collected and the data that we presented this year was 2 things. The first was to address the #1 question we keep getting from a lot of folks, which is do you really need an individualized therapy for neoantigens. Why don't you just off-the-shelf? Isn't that a lot easier?
So that's the first question, and I'll show you that data. And the second was -- you've shown us immunogenicity, you've shown as you can mount the T cell response, but do those T cells matter, how does that population look as a whole? So that's the data that we presented this year. So the first part is addressing the idea about is a neoantigen therapy have to be individualized.
So the first piece is in this Phase II study, the majority of patients did have an mRNA that spanned the full 34 neoantigens. So the BICS algorithm was working to be able to select the right neoantigens for the majority of these patients because melanoma is a high TMB tumor. They should have a lot of mutations to choose from.
But that's not true for every patient. And so we're not forcing new antigens if they don't have them. And so that's why you have this sort of range. Now if we look at the bar graph, this is not patients, right? We don't have 3,401 patients in this study. But we do have 3,401 neoantigens that were completely unique to a patient which means that 99% of the neoantigens that we are picking that BICS is picking, it's clearly specific to each individual patient.
And what that means is that no, we can't do an off-the-shelf approach for this. We have to tailor it to the specific person because the specific person's cancer is as unique as they are, and we have to generate a therapy that is going to treat them. The next part is we started looking at the idea of what do the T cells look like in these patients? Are they doing anything?
Because core to the hypothesis is that we're selecting neoantigens, those neoantigens are training the T cells, the T cells are going to go and clean up the tumor cells. So we're using TCR sequencing to characterize the T-cell milieu of an individual patient and saying, does that change when a patient is treated with is intismeran. And we are able to do this because actually, your T cells are also unique and they each have their own unique fingerprint. So we can sequence them and see how they change over time.
So this first slide is basically showing what the T cell clonal phenotypes of the population looks like at baseline for both the combination arm and the pembro arm and map that against if a patient had a recurrence event or not. And this is basically a negative slide that basically says, it doesn't matter what your T cells look like to start with that didn't impact the outcome at all.
What that means is that the treatment effect matters because baseline your T cell and your immune systems is intact. So this is where we're going to squint but hopefully, you'll take my word for the story. And if you have interest, you can look at the SMR and the AACR picture. But if we're going to look for the waterfall plot first.
So what we're doing here is now showing how the T cells change over time with intismeran treatment or pembrolizumab treatment. So the red is the top, and this isn't a combination. And what you see on the waterfall plot and what you're going to try to read is that 71% of patients that were treated with the combination had an expansion of their T cell population, which means that when they were treated with intismeran they actually had new T cells grow and adapt and their population actually shifted, which was different than pembro, which most of the pembro patients did not have that effect.
And actually, if you look at not only the sort of broad population of T cells, but how many were new, which is what we would want with the neoantigen approach, right? How many new T cells are we forming. Those that were treated with intismeran actually had a higher proportion of new T cells, really, which is on point with the mechanism, and that was not true for the pembro, which, again, doesn't sort of fit pembro's mechanism.
Now you can say, "Well, your patients were treated with pembro isn't it doing something?" And the answer is, no, actually, it's not here based off of the data because what you see is that screening the population -- the T cell populations are the same. When pembro starts, it doesn't really change. It's really once intismeran gets on board that we start seeing these novel clones.
And not only are we seeing novel forms, but we're seeing clones that are only for those unique neoantigens that I told you about, not the shared ones. So if you put basically all of this together, saying our algorithm is picking neoantigens. Those neoantigens are stimulating T cell responses that are new and that are changing the milieu of the T cells throughout the body to be able to have long-lasting impact.
Now the question is, what does that impact? Is it meaningful? Great, you showed me that you can expand populations that you want to? And the answer is yes, it's actually important. So what we see is these T cells are actually associated with recurrence-free survival. So what that means is it is important for intismeran to have an impact to have this clonal cell expansion because that means that this targeted -- tumor targeted patient-specific T cells are now going out and cleaning up whatever cancer cells are left in the patient's body to create disease control and prevent recurrence.
And that this is true with a statistically meaningful impact. So all of this basically is to say that mechanistically, we have confidence in what we're doing with BICS and so not only are we seeing clinical impact and a good safety profile, but we're seeing that intismeran is doing what it's supposed to be.
So with that for the translational summary, we're basically showcasing that the mechanism for what we hypothesized is actually playing out in clinic. But not only is it playing out in clinic, it's actually making the clinical data also makes sense and the fact that we are able to have this long-term disease control. And so the sort of next step here is to sort of tether this one step further and say, are all those T cells that I just showed you that are expanding do they actually track back to the neoantigens that we've selected and which ones and how can we optimize those neoantigens and how can we optimize BICS to create even better ones.
And so that's why when Stephane and Steven were talking about the excitement we have for the oncology portfolio in '26 and beyond, it's really referencing the amount of scientific and clinical data that we will be coming with over the next couple of years not only to help our learning but to actually improve what we're doing as well.
And so on that theme, the excitement for '26 and new data and the potential for the oncology portfolio, I'm going to hand this back over to Kyle to talk about our 4359 program.
So our most advanced program is 4359. We also have other therapies in clinic. That are part of our cancer antigen therapy portfolio, which include 4106 and then our Lynch syndrome program. So 4359 has 2 targets PD-L1 and IDO. These are targets that are well described and validated in oncology. I don't have to talk to you all much about PD-L1. However, I do want to take 12th to talk to you a little bit about IDO because we have some questions that we get about IDO and the importance in cancer. What I'll share with you is that we're not targeting IDO to change IDO functioning.
Other programs that have targeted IDO have done so because they wanted to introduce small molecules that change the downstream pathways of IDO. What we're doing instead is we're targeting IDO through a mechanism where we can use it as a flag where T cells can be directed towards that express protein and use it to both have an effect directly on the cancer cell as well as have an effect on the overall immunosuppression that occurs in cancer.
And so we can change the immune environment by targeting IDO and PD-L1 but we can also have a direct effect on the cancer cell. We presented our safety data at ESMO in 2024. And then most recently at ESMO in 2025, we released our first look at some efficacy data and an expansion cohort that we did in metastatic melanoma.
These were patients that were checkpoint inhibitor refractory. So as you all know, checkpoint inhibitors are standard of care for patients with metastatic melanoma. All of these patients had received multiple prior checkpoint inhibitors. All these patients had metastatic melanoma.
And they all received a combination of 4359 with pembrolizumab. So these are some design features of the study design as well as some demographics of the patients and some baseline characteristics. So we had 2 different dose levels that we assessed, 400-microgram and a 1,000 microgram dose level.
As I mentioned, both of these were administered in combination with pembrolizumab, and we had overall 29 patients that were enrolled in the study. However, only 25 patients were eligible for assessing response to treatment. I talked to you a little bit already about the safety profile.
But what I'm excited to share with you again is that grade 3 events were very uncommon, even in combination with pembrolizumab, we did not see any grade 3 events. And as Michelle described before, 1 of the concerns that many people have had, when you combine a treatment that has the potential to boost the immune system that you might get an increase in immune-related adverse events.
But fortunately, for both the 4157 program and now consistently with the 4359 program, we have not seen an increase in immune-related adverse events. So this is the first snapshot of the tumor -- antitumor activity of 4359. When you look at the entire population, both the 400 and the 1,000 microgram patients we saw approximately 24% of those patients with a complete or partial response to therapy.
The disease control rate was even higher and patients who had either stable disease or a partial or complete response, increased to approximately 60%, and you can see that on near the bottom of the slide. And we also have the number of prior therapies listed here, you can see that these patients all had many prior therapies and then progressed through these therapies. So there was a highly refractory population.
What was more encouraging, however, was the data when we separated the patients by those who were PD-L1 positive by TPS or those who are PD-L1 negative. So on this waterfall plot on the bottom of the left side here, you can see patients who are PD-L1 positive represented in the red bars versus the ones that were PD-L1 negative in the blue bars.
Every patient that had a partial or complete response was PD-L1 positive. So when you look at the overall population who are PD-L1 positive, you can see now the response rate goes from 24% up to 67%. And these responses were quite durable. And you can see that from the spider plot. So in the bottom right here, the spider plot has these patients separated similarly to the waterfall plot.
For all the patients who are PD-L1 positive are represented in the red lines and the patients who are PD-L1 negative are represented in the blue lines. These lines represent changes in the size of their tumor over time. So when the lines come down, that means their tumors have shrunk. And the patients with tumor shrinkage had continued shrinkage of their tumor, out for 200, 300, 400, 500, almost 600 days. And just as a reminder, this therapy is administered 9x every 3 weeks.
So the majority of these patients stopped therapy much earlier, but continue to have a robust and durable response to therapy. We've done some similar analyses compared to -- similar to what Michelle had described around T cell clonality as well as T cell-specific responses. I'll walk you through the data on the T-cell specific responses to PD-L1 and IDO.
When you look at these slides, you can see the increase in the number of T cells with these either IDO directed T cells or PD-L1 directed T cells. The patients in purple were the partial response patients. Those patients in purple all had increases in their T cell-specific responses. Now what we can tell from this slide is there were other patients that did not respond to a T cell-specific responses.
So our takeaway from this is it's probably necessary to have a T cell-specific response but not sufficient. And when you look at the novel expanded TCR clones, you can see for the patients that had a CR or a PR, there's quite dramatic increases in the novel TCR clones whereas the patients that had stable disease or progressive disease didn't have the same dramatic increases in the novel T cell clones.
So this exciting preliminary data has led us to expand into multiple cohorts, this Phase I trial. So we now have an Arm 2a. Arm 2a is a trial where we have a combination of 4359 and pembrolizumab in frontline melanoma. Arm 2c is an arm where we are combining 4459 with ipilimumab and nivolumab. Arm 2b is an arm in patients who have second line and beyond melanoma all with PD-L1 positive disease. And this is a larger cohort to what we had originally described where all these patients will be selected for PD-L1 positive disease -- and then we're also moving into other tumor types. And so we have Arm IIb, where we're assessing the response in patients who have non-small cell lung cancer and have a TPS score greater than 50%. And this will also be 4359 administered in combination with pembrolizumab.
Okay. So with that, I will move on to the next part of our presentation in oncology. Dr. Loughlin, who will talk to us about our early programs. Thank you.
Thank you so much. All right. So we are going to start by building on what Michelle and Kyle already shared with you and moving into the cancer antigen therapy portion of the pipeline. Starting with mRNA-4106. Now similar to 4359 but quite different from our individualized therapies, 4106 is designed to encode for antigens that are shared across many different patients. So this includes many different types of cancer and all of the patients within those types of cancer. So when we think about the design for this cancer antigen therapy, we specifically chose to include multiple antigens. So if you took a single patient, you would expect their tumor to express multiple antigens within this therapy.
So 4106 is currently in a Phase I study in advanced solid tumors and we'll be excited to share data once we have those available. But I'm going to spend a little bit more time on the next program, which is Lynch syndrome because this actually takes our cancer antigen therapies even earlier in disease to the point that we are trying to intercept disease before it truly becomes cancer. So for those who are not familiar with Lynch syndrome, it's a heritable disease where these patients have mutations, so they have defects in the mechanisms your body naturally has to repair damage to your DNA.
So it can be mutations in a couple of different proteins but basically, as your cells normally divide, occasionally, they make errors in your DNA. And your body has mechanisms that go in and correct that. But if you have Lynch Syndrome, that repair mechanism is deficient. So you start accumulating mutations over your entire lifetime. Now as it turns out, these patients have an incredibly high risk of developing certain types of cancer over their lifetime. So if you have one of these mutations, you can have about a 50% chance of developing colorectal cancer during your lifetime and you can have very early onset as well. So these patients go through considerable surveillance, colonoscopies every 1 to 3 years starting at really early ages to try to identify things like polyps in the colon and have those removed before they progress to cancer.
Now what we've done in collaboration with the University of Oxford is identify these mutations, which happen to be shared between these patients. And so with this therapy, we're actually training those patients' immune systems to identify the cells with those mutations before that truly turns into a malignancy. So trying to intercept and train that immune system to remove those cells before these patients actually develop cancer. So we're excited with Oxford, we're looking forward to starting this study next year.
Now I'm going to pivot pretty substantially in terms of the approach that we're taking to treating oncology. So we've talked a lot about cancer antigen therapies and the idea that we were training your immune system to recognize cancer cells and kill them. With T-cell engagers, it's a different approach. So we are actually looking to guide your immune system to those cancer cells. And we have 2 different types of T-cell engagers in our portfolio. The first focuses on proteins that are expressed on the surface of cancer cells. So I'm actually just going to start with the cartoon on the left-hand side here. So our lead program in this space is mRNA-2808 and it encodes for a T-cell engager that on the one side, binds CD3, so it binds to your T-cells. And on the other side, we've actually multiplexed this product. So there are 3 different targets that are present in multiple myeloma that we are able to go after with a single therapeutic. You can see them here, BCMA, FcRH5 and GPRC5D.
Now we think this is really important in disease because if you have the ability to multiplex, you can really avoid antigen escape, which is a clear mechanism in cancer and you can account for the fact that not all tumor cells will express every single antigen. There is some heterogeneity in cancer and we can go after multiple targets at once. And this has actually played out in the field. So there are recombinant protein T-cell engagers already in use in multiple myeloma. If you take 2 of those and clinically combine them, it's already been demonstrated that you can improve response rates and that depth of response. In our lead therapeutic, we are able to multiplex 3 targets. Now I'm using the word multiplex intentionally, not the word combination because for us, this is 1 drug product from a regulatory perspective. We're advancing 1 product that can target 3 proteins.
Additionally, as you move further into our T-cell engager pipeline, we can encode other signals that can help the T-cell engagers be even more efficacious. So we can include, for example, co-stimulatory signals that really help those T-cells be more activated and add another layer of specificity to that activation. Now what we're showing here on the right-hand side is data from nonhuman primates, where we were looking to see with 2808 depletion of a cell population that actually doesn't even express those targets very highly. These are healthy nonhuman primates but really demonstrated to us that we could truly deplete those populations and that we're seeing a nice durable effect until those populations are able to come back. And we're able to do this with both IV infusion as well as subcutaneous injection, which you can see here in the blue line.
Now the second approach that I described for our T-cell engagers -- I apologize. So 2808 is actually already dosing patients in our Phase I study. And for that, of course, our primary endpoint will be safety. But given the patient population, we should have a pretty good read on pharmacodynamics or the impact on those pathogenic cell populations and the proteins that we secrete. And we, again, will be excited to share those data as soon as they're available. So the second approach that we're taking rather than going after proteins that are on the surface of cancer cells is actually focused on intracellular antigens, so proteins that are within the cancer cell. Now we're excited about being able to target those because it really opens up the target landscape for us.
Proteins that are on the cell surface tend to be shared between cancer cells and healthy cells. There may be more on the cancer cells and that's why we target them. If we're able to go after intracellular proteins, it actually opens up a much larger pool of targets that we can pursue and these targets tend to be very specific to tumor cells. So as Kyle and Michelle talked about, that safety and tolerability profile is really important for patients and we think this will improve that as well. We are still able to multiplex and go after multiple targets with this approach or to encode some of the supporting proteins like co-stimulatory factors. And so we're pursuing this in partnership with Immatics.
Okay. We're going to transition to yet another part of our pipeline. We're going to talk about our approaches in cell therapy. And I'm actually going to start by describing something that Moderna does not do, which is ex vivo cell therapy. So our first approach in the cell therapy space is actually looking to enhance the performance of a partner's ex vivo cell therapy. So for those who are familiar with ex vivo cell therapy, you might have heard about CAR-T and in certain blood cancers, CAR-T therapy can be absolutely transformative. Now in solid tumors, these ex vivo cell therapies haven't delivered quite that same level of impact. And so we're looking to truly improve those outcomes with a focus in that space.
So how do we do that? You first start with your typical ex vivo cell therapy. So you need to take the immune cells out of your patient. You need to engineer those immune cells. You need to try to remove the remaining immune cells in the patient to try to conceptually make more space for those engineered T-cells to engraft as you infuse them back into the patient. Now after the engineered cells are back in the patient, we administer mRNA-4203. It's an intramuscular injection and we have designed it specifically to encode for the antigen that is recognized by that engineered T-cell therapy. So mRNA-4203 is specifically designed for anzu-cel but it is not specifically designed for any individual patient. It will work for all of those patients. And you're actually taking those engineered T-cells after they're in the body and boosting them. So you're showing them the antigen that they are engineered to recognize. So they will get activated, they can proliferate.
And we think this has the ability to enhance the performance of those engineered T-cells because it has been shown clinically that when you have these T-cells that are in a good immune state and that they are able to persist for longer in the body that those tend to be correlated with better clinical outcomes. And we are in an active Phase I study in collaboration with Immatics for this combination and this is a true combination of mRNA-4203 and anzu-cel.
So our second approach in the cell therapy space is quite distinct from ex vivo CAR-T. It's actually in vivo CAR-T. So as I said, we do not do ex vivo cell therapy. Our approach here is to actually engineer those T-cells inside the body in the first place. So for this approach, we actually use a lipid nanoparticle that is specifically targeted to T-cells. So it's specifically going to T-cells and it encodes for that same CAR that you might have engineered outside of the body. But we can do all of this inside of the body. And importantly, this means you do not need to take the cells out of the patient. They do not need to have these tough conditioning regimens that take out the rest of their immune cells. You don't have this large, individualized manufacturing component. All you do is infuse LNPs.
So we see this as having substantial advantages there. We can also rely on some of the differentiation that I described for T-cell engagers. So for example, we can multiplex. If you wanted to encode a CAR for multiple targets, you could do that with this platform. If you wanted to encode other proteins that would help these T-cells stay activated and go into that tumor microenvironment and be very efficacious, you can also do that. And we see 2 application spaces for the in vivo CAR-T style approaches. The first is actually in autoimmune disease. So there's been quite a bit of really promising clinical data of late that if you go into autoimmune diseases like lupus and you actually use CAR-T to eliminate and deplete those B cells, you can actually help those patients reset their immune system.
So they can go into remission for a remarkably long time. So we think that's certainly an application for in vivo CAR-T, where the in vivo profile as well from a safety perspective will be really important to those autoimmune patients. We also think in vivo CAR-T will be highly relevant as you go into oncology. As I mentioned, CAR-T in general has been incredibly transformative in the blood cancers and we believe this will help us go into solid tumors as well. And our third approach in cell therapy actually focuses on a different cell type.
So where CAR-T is very focused on T-cells, CAR-M is actually much more focused on a different cell type, myeloid cells. But the approach is still similar. So we infuse patients and using LNPs, we transfect different types of myeloid cells and we're encoding a CAR. Now those cells will move around the body and traffic. And when they get to the tumor, that CAR will recognize the antigen. Those myeloid cells can then actually ingest some of the tumor cells. So they're killing some of the tumor cells. They will secrete other proteins that will help other cells in that tumor microenvironment to be able to kill cancer cells. And then having actually engulf and ingested a tumor cell already, the cells can present multiple antigens from that tumor cell.
So Michelle talked about how you get that broad T-cell response even with INT. This is a similar concept where even though we only encoded a CAR that recognizes one antigen, by the time you get to this part in your mechanism of action, you're able to really expand that response to lots of different antigens that are present within the cancer. So I know we moved quickly but we did want to have a chance to share this part of the oncology portfolio with you and give you a sense of the diverse set of therapeutic approaches that we are able to take because we can leverage so many different aspects of our platform technology.
So with that, I believe I'm handing it to Dr. Rita Das. Oh, no, we're going to take a break. Lavina said we're going to take a break and bring lunch in.
Yes. So if I can invite everyone to please grab a plate of lunch and a beverage of your choice and bring it back in here and we will resume the rest of the meeting. Thank you.
[Break]
All right. Hi, everyone. My name is -- I'm going to bring us back from break. My name is Rita Das and I'm the Clinical Development Head for Respiratory and Rare Diseases. And it really gives me great pleasure to focus on our rare disease portfolio today because as a pediatrician, I've taken care of these children with inborn errors of metabolism and seen the impact on their lives and also the underlying progression, neurologic and otherwise. And I'm really excited by Moderna's commitment in this space and I'm very excited that we're getting closer and closer to bringing these therapies forward.
So first, I'll talk about propionic acidemia, which is where we're the most advanced. And propionic acidemia is a rare metabolic disorder, primarily diagnosed in infancy that causes a huge amount of morbidity and mortality. It's very rare, ranging from 0.29 to 4.24 per 100,000 newborns. So it's actually formerly in the ultra-rare category. And it's caused by pathogenic variants in the PCC enzyme. There's 2 subunits, PCCA and PCCB that stand in the way of the enzyme in the metabolism of proteins. And so when that metabolism is not going properly, you build up these toxic metabolites. And so because this is so pervasive, PA is a multisystemic disease with not only these metabolic decompensation events, which can be life-threatening but there's underlying neurologic, cardiac, endocrine and immunologic manifestations.
Now there are no approved therapies for propionic acidemia. And so the management involves severe dietary protein restriction. And as the disease progresses, the patients often progress to needing liver transplantation. Now here's a bit more on the PA biology, which really shows why mRNA therapy is particularly well suited to succeed in this space. And so as I mentioned before, there's 2 components of that enzyme, PCCA and PCCB that come together and allow people to metabolize particularly proteins. And when that enzyme is not functioning, you build up these toxic metabolites that are damaging to the brain and other organs. And for mRNA-3927, what we're able to do is encode the functioning both PCCA and PCCB, package it in a lipid nanoparticle and deliver it IV but target it towards the liver, where then the patients are able to make these enzymes and correct their inborn error of metabolism.
And so first, I'll talk about our Phase I study, which is called Paramount. It's a global study that enrolled in multiple countries. And the analysis from this study was presented in the ICIEM conference in Kyoto, Japan earlier this year. The primary endpoints for the study were safety and tolerability and a key exploratory endpoint was the reduction in metabolic decompensation events and I'll tell you a little bit more about that after. The study design was a dose escalation design. So we started from a dose of 0.3 milligrams per kilogram delivered every 3 weeks and we progressively increased that dose to 0.9 milligrams per kilogram delivered every 2 weeks.
Now the key inclusion criteria for this study were, participants had to be greater than 1 year and had to have a confirmation of the PA genetic defect. The key exclusion criteria were if the patients were in grade 3 or 4 heart failure, which unfortunately happens in PA or either had a planned or a history of liver transplantation. So now here are the demographics and baseline characteristics of the patients. So 20 participants were enrolled in this study, 18 completed treatment and 17 participants entered the open-label extension study and 10 are continuing to receive treatment even today. The mean age was 11 years and the range in age was from 1 to 26 years.
Now mRNA-3927 was well tolerated and had a manageable safety profile. In this study, we've administered almost 1,000 doses of mRNA-3927. And we've seen no drug -- dose-limiting toxicities. We've seen some serious treatment-emergent adverse events as would be expected in this population of chronically ill children and young adults but the adverse events that are related to treatment have been much fewer. Here's a little more detail on the adverse events that are -- that have been emerging. And these are fairly expected in this age group and those that are related are mild to moderate. We also saw very few infusion reactions and those were managed with conservative therapy.
So just an overall summary for our PA program to date is that we've enrolled, sorry, 20 participants in Part 1, 13 participants have been dosed for over a year. There's been 43.6 years of cumulative patient experience of the study drug. The longest treatment was 3.1 years and the median duration of treatment was 1.45 years.
[Audio Gap]
Here's a little bit more on these metabolic decompensation events. These metabolic decompensation events have occurred in both PA and MMA, which I'll talk about next. And they're usually how these patients present first to medical care. They're either screened -- they're either identified on their newborn screen or they present with these metabolic decompensation events. And they're a major contributor to both morbidity and mortality and also to these long-term irreversible sequelae such as brain and cardiac damage. Now we had to discuss with the agency and agree upon a definition for these metabolic decompensation events, which we've done now. And so the definition that we've come up with is that the signs and symptoms include vomiting, anorexia, lethargy and seizures.
There's also these observations of metabolic acidosis, which is a buildup of acid in the blood or high ammonia. Also, there's often a need for acute medical care, emergency room visits or hospitalizations. And so this is the scope of the definition that we've agreed upon with regulators. And this is what's really, really exciting about the data to date. The red dots represent the spectrum of metabolic decompensation events in the study. And on the y-axis, you see the different doses. And on the x-axis, it's over time. So pretreatment is before that black vertical line and posttreatment is after that black vertical line. And it's individual within patient comparisons. And you can see pretreatment, you see a lot of these red dots.
So these patients are having multiple metabolic decompensation events every year. And as you get past the vertical line, you see these events really decrease in frequency. And as you go higher in dose, the 0.6 milligrams per kilogram and the 0.9 milligrams per kilogram, you see these events virtually go away. And so when you do the statistical analysis of this, you see that across all doses, the mRNA-3927 is related -- is associated with a 76% relative risk reduction in metabolic decompensation events. And when you look at just the doses above 0.6 milligrams per kilogram, that comes up to an 83% relative risk reduction that's statistically significant. And so this is what makes us really excited about our pivotal study, which has completed enrollment.
So in summary, mRNA-3927 is well tolerated at all the doses administered with no dose-limiting toxicity. All the IRRs were grade 3 or lower and resolved with conservative management. mRNA-3927 treatment continued to demonstrate sustained reductions in these metabolic decompensation events with the highest benefit seen in those patients dosed at 0.6 milligrams per kilogram and higher. And these findings support the clinical development of mRNA-3927 at that dose, 0.6 milligrams per kilogram for the first treatment for patients with propionic acidemia. The registrational study is ongoing. This is Part 2 of the study that I already presented. Target enrollment has been reached and we're really looking forward to seeing the results next year. Also, since PA often -- since some of the neurologic decompensation happens in infants, we're also doing a dose-finding study in infants to bring the greatest benefit of mRNA-3927 across the spectrum of age in these patients.
So now moving on to MMA, which is a related organic acidemia. Like PA, MMA onset occurs very early in life and is associated with these MDEs and then this underlying chronic toxicity. The MMA defect occurs a little bit farther down the pathway than PA but the enzyme that's responsible is the MUT enzyme. And this -- and the downstream sequelae are very similar. It results in a buildup of these toxic metabolites from proteins and fatty acids because of an inability to metabolize them. Again, protein restriction is the mainstay of therapy because there's really nothing else curative available. Some patients have levocarnitine supplementation and many of these patients progress to liver or kidney transplantation. So the MMA, the 37 -- the mRNA -- the MMA therapy 3705 encodes the MUT enzyme. So it replaces the MUT enzyme. It's packaged in the LNP just like the PA. And the LNP is specifically traffic to the liver where replacement of the enzyme restores the metabolism and the buildup of these toxic metabolites.
So I'm going to present to you the Phase I/II study. That's a dose-finding study for MMA. This was a first-in-human study and that was -- it was enrolled globally as well. And it was also a dose escalation study. So we started with a dose of 0.1 milligrams per kilogram administered every 2 weeks -- every 3 weeks, sorry. And then we progressed to 1.2 milligrams per kilogram administered every 2 weeks. The key inclusion criteria were, again, MMA that was genetically confirmed to be due to a MUT deficiency. The age was greater than 1. And then the key exclusion criteria were very similar. Children with the background chronic disease that was too advanced were excluded and children who had a history of organ transplantation also were excluded. And so here are the demographics of the cohort. 18 participants were enrolled across 6 countries worldwide. The mean age was 7 and the age ranged from 2 to 39.
Now there's 2 different phenotypes of the -- major phenotypes of the MUT enzyme, MUT 0 where the enzyme is completely absent and MUT minus where the enzyme is not completely absent but has a decreased function. And so here's the safety profile. The median duration of treatment was 99.6 weeks, so just above 2 years. All 18 participants finished their dosing in that base dose-finding study and continued into the extension study. Just above 860 doses were administered. The total patient years of exposure was 36.17. The safety profile was overall well tolerated. The infusion reactions also were easily managed and there was no dose-limiting toxicity. So again, 18 participants have been dosed. The longest treatment duration is 2.3 years. The median duration is about 2 years. It was well tolerated and all the participants are continuing in the extension study.
Now here -- so for MMA, there is a plasma biomarker that we are hoping to use for our Phase III study. And we see that -- and that's the plasma methylmalonic acid level. And we see here that there is a greater than 50% decrease from baseline for participants who were treated with the mRNA-3705 at doses greater than 0.4 milligrams per kilogram every 2 weeks. And the plasma biomarker is more evident on this slide. And you can see here the greatest evidence of the plasma biomarker decrease is seen in those MUT 0 participants who are on the bottom. And as you can see, almost all of the MUT 0 participants, all the different doses are in the different colors on the right-hand side. The plasma biomarker, as you go up in dose, you see a very consistent decrease in the plasma MMA biomarker. And so it's just the lowest doses that have the higher residual. This is a little bit less clear in the MUT minus phenotype.
Now again, the thing that we're most excited about in MMA as well is this reduction in these MDE events. This chart is set up the same way as the PA chart. The doses are increasing on the left-hand side. Time is on the x-axis. And you can see pretreatment and posttreatment. And pretreatment is in the red circles, or the MDEs are in the red circles. And as you can see, pretreatment, these children are having -- these children and young adults are having quite a few metabolic decompensation events. And as you go to posttreatment, you see a 91% relative reduction in the MDE events and a 75% relative reduction in MMA-related hospitalizations. And so we're very excited about our MMA preliminary dose-finding results. And so in summary, for MMA, mRNA-3705 was well tolerated in participants with the MUT-deficient MMA in this study. There were no dose-limiting toxicities and no treatment-emergent adverse events that led the patients to discontinue the study.
We saw reductions in disease-related biomarkers that was the plasma MMA levels that indicated improved metabolism. And we also saw the reduction in the MDE events as well as the MMA-related hospitalizations at all doses greater than 0.4 milligrams per kilogram. MMA is ready for the pivotal Phase III and we aim to begin that in 2026.
So with that, I'm going to hand it back to Stephane.
Thank you, Rita and thank you to everybody who presented this morning. As I said this morning, I'm going to be quick, 2 slides. The first one is, as you heard me this morning, our near-term strategy is clear, is drive sales growth through the respiratory seasonal vaccine franchise, drive profitability, drive cash to invest in oncology and rare. You've seen from the presentations that the oncology portfolio is really exciting and extremely differentiated from what you can see from other companies. So we're really eager to see what this does for patients and how we can help patients. And as Jamey [ closed ], if you think about what we're trying to do is drive the top line, drive gross margin improvement, evolve R&D investments to diversify further away into oncology, reduction of project cash cost through every year in the process and really drive the company back into profitability until '28 and from there, deliver a lot of patients impacts.
So with this, I'm going to ask my colleagues to please join me and we'll be delighted to take your questions.
We will take questions in the room and as well as online. [indiscernible] yourself and tell us your question.
2. Question Answer
Yes, I have to say I never thought I'd have so many questions about manufacturing. But in the interest of time, I'm going to kind of skip to some of the other stuff that I jotted down throughout the morning. So if I may start, just with respect to the 1083 combo vaccine, what is the FDA waiting on? What do you need to hear from them? And is there a potential risk that you might have to do another study?
Yes. So look, our efficacy data are relatively new. The FDA has not had the opportunity to review that data in the very in-depth way that they do as part of their review. So I think what they really want is that we submit this flu file and really get to check under the hood. And then we certainly will have additional discussions.
This is [indiscernible] here for Geoff Meacham at Citi. So with the new debt facility, you guys mentioned that it's going to further bolster the balance sheet and open up optionalities. And so with that, what future opportunities could that provide? And how might that share -- shape your view on which pipeline programs you might bring back online and/or partner out?
Yes. Thanks for the question. So I would say we don't know right now. We're prepared for both upside and downside. I think that's what this does for us. Right now, we plan to park the cash on our balance sheet and therefore, bear a small spread from an interest rate perspective. And then we'll see how the next few years unfold, whether that's pipeline increase -- on the opportunity side, whether that's pipeline increase, whether that's share buyback or BD, we'll see how that goes on the opportunity side. We'll also understand what's happening with our revenue line. We need to execute our base plan first.
So our base plan is to breakeven by 2028 and that is what we are going to monitor to, to make sure that we do that. And so this facility provides flexibility both for the opportunity side. But if there is something that happens, we're not pointing to anything. We believe in our base plan. But should something happen to the downside, it also provides flexibility on that side as well.
Yes. I mean if I could just add, I think as you asked the question about where we'd focus in the pipeline, we do have a large number of products to launch in the vaccine space, as we talked about. But I think as Jackie and Rose and the team highlighted, there are some exciting programs either in the mid-stage development in vaccines, our EBV vaccine, Lyme and others and our early oncology pipeline that we're equally excited by. We're going to wait until we're ahead of plan on cost, which we've been lately and showing we can grow that top line. But having the flexibility and the facility to be able to invest when we have very high confidence that we're ahead on that breakeven target is going to give us an opportunity to accelerate that mid-stage pipeline.
Tyler Van Buren, TD Cowen. I wanted to start on the financial side. So can you elaborate on the assumptions behind the 10% revenue growth year-over-year in '26? I think that's a little bit above consensus. The slide says it doesn't include flu, even though I think consensus does. So just curious to know if that growth is coming primarily from the partnerships piece with the U.K., Canada and Australia? And do you have confidence in that because you're already deep in those discussions? And is that assuming stable COVID revenues or decline? And then the follow-up to that would just be with respect to your year-end cash balance exercise through '28. That clearly has some sort of revenue assumptions through '28, for '27 and '28. So how are you thinking about revenue in those years as well in that exercise?
Yes. I'll start and then feel free to add, Stephen. So as it pertains to the up to 10% growth in 2026, there was a couple of questions in there. But the short answer is, yes, it primarily is driven by those 3 facilities, which is what Stephen tried to lay out today. We're not only in advanced discussions. We actually have it contracted and built. So these facilities are built. The contracts are already in place. So -- and we're already executing on the contract for all 3 of them but there is some revenue as it pertains to Canada in our assumption this year and a little bit in Australia.
If you remember, for the U.K. earlier in the year, we pushed out over $200 million in revenue. So that will take place next year. So if you just think about 10% growth by itself, if we're $1.6 billion to $2 billion or $1.8 billion at the midpoint, $200 million is 10% growth. So that alone is sufficient. Now we will have a full annualized impact for all 3 contracts. So therefore, it will be a primary driver of growth next year. So that's #1. Next spike share, as Stephen laid out earlier as well, is the other primary driver. You asked if COVID is flat, I think as it pertains to the U.S. We can basically offset further decline actually. So with the -- what we believe will happen outside the United States with the 3 contracts I just talked about and other countries but these are 3 primary contracts. We actually believe we can offset and still grow up to 10% with the U.S. decline. Now we're hoping it doesn't. And we're hoping next spike will increase our share and value.
But nonetheless, we still feel confident even with a little bit of decline. As it pertains to walking forward the cash balance, yes, obviously, that has some revenue assumptions in there. So I said that we would invest $2 billion in the year 2026 and I said $4.2 billion of a cash cost target. We're $1.6 billion to $2 billion on a revenue side, so take $1.8 billion and if you're at the midpoint. And if we grow up to 10%, that's $2 billion. So that's technically a $2.2 billion net cash investment but I'm kind of rounding here. And we'll see where this year lands. So if this year lands on the high side, then certainly $2.2 billion could be in play if we're at $2 billion plus 10%. If we're on the low end, then we'll have to relook at it and understand what will happen. But I still feel good about the overall $2 billion. As you look out a year, we said that we would invest net $1 billion to $1.5 billion with a cash cost of $3.5 billion to $3.9 billion.
So on the low end, a $1 billion cash burn would imply $2.5 billion of revenue. So if we had $3.5 billion of cash cost and $2.5 billion of revenue, that's obviously $1 billion of cash burn. But we're not trying to be specific about that. We're not guiding that number. We will continue to ebb and flow. 2 years from now is a long ways away. In 2 years, we took out $4.5 billion of cost. So what can happen in 2 years? There's a lot that could happen in the next few years, which is why we're not guiding a revenue line but it gives you some semblance of understanding. We do expect revenue growth, not only in '26 but also in '27 and '28 and Stephen laid out the drivers earlier.
That's great. Remarkably detailed as always, Jamey, appreciate it. I have to ask about INT before I pass the mic. Watching the Marlborough facility video and having Jeff walk us through the optimization, it's clear that you all are not only very excited but have invested significantly in the future of intismeran and INT in general. So can you just elaborate on, one, your confidence in the Phase III readout next year and the powering of the primary endpoint? Two, if you need to show an OS trend for approval? And three, how confident you are that it will come next year based upon what you're seeing with the events and where you're at with the events?
Maybe I'll take a first stab at this and please ask my colleagues to chime in. So this is probably one of the most derisked Phase III programs that happens in oncology because we have a randomized Phase II trial that showed an incredible hazard ratio of 0.51 in RFS at our 3-year data point. So given that derisking, I'm very confident in the Phase III program being successful. But this is a blinded study. So I can't tell you what the results are until we finally get to our first interim and then can unblind and check.
In terms of the powering, so we've made some fairly conservative assumptions on powering that study. And those conservative assumptions are much higher than a hazard ratio of 0.51. And I think that gives us even more confidence that we'll hit the target that we're hoping to achieve. Lastly, we currently are on track with our events to what we had discussed in previous guidance, which is third quarter of next year is when we hope this matures and we can do our first analysis. However, event rates are sometimes unpredictable and we really need to wait until all those events can happen before we do our first analysis. And so depending on the continued trend on those events, we'll have a better idea of when that first analysis will take place. But right now, we expect it to be in that third quarter next year time frame.
I would just add a couple of things. So it could come sooner than that. And in fact, we're -- we really don't know. It's an event-driven trial. And so throughout 2026, we'll be looking for it but we do expect it to happen in 2026. I would highlight that there are a couple of other either fully enrolled or largely enrolled studies. We highlighted some of them today, Phase II studies IIb randomized studies that actually also could read out in 2026 and provide strong confirmation of what's possible with INT. And so the way we look at 2026 is there will be multiple readouts of mid- to late-stage studies, obviously, the first being the Phase -- well, not the first necessarily chronologically but the one most anticipated being INT for melanoma but a lot of data coming in, in very short order. And so we're looking forward to 2026. All of them event-driven. So we'll wait and see.
And [indiscernible] the last piece is also, this is not my -- our investment, it's investments with Merck as well. As you remember, Merck is investing half of all the investments in manufacturing. Marlborough, we are running it but Merck is financing half of it. And of course, for the studies and all the medical commercial readiness and so on. So it's actually a huge commitment from a company who I think does a few things about immunology.
This is [indiscernible] for Cory from Evercore. Just on the topic of intismeran in adjuvant melanoma. How do you view it in the context of the emerging data and potential use of pembro in an earlier neoadjuvant setting?
Yes, it's a great question. So we've looked very closely at how much neoadjuvant use is happening, both for pembrolizumab and for nivo and ipi. And right now, we haven't seen a dramatic trend in those neoadjuvant rates. So we don't believe that this is going to be a major factor. Those are also not approved uses of pembro or nivo or ipi. They're not labeled. And there's no plan from these companies that I'm aware of that they're planning on changing the label. So if intismeran is a positive study, it will be labeled as such and it will be something that we can discuss with prescribers about the impact that this can have on their patients. So I'm confident that we'll be able to make sure that this is changing the treatment landscape based on positive Phase III data and based on a label that explains that.
Yes. This is Huidong Wang on behalf of Gena Wang from Barclays. We have 2 questions. First one, regarding ongoing IT litigation with Arbutus, does it apply to the next-generation spike? And for Section 1498 defense, what's your strategy to defense for the government rather than for the American people?
Second question, it is very exciting to see these new discovery assets. Given the cash guidance of the breakeven in 2028, what's the priority list for all of those assets? So the question is for assets. Since we need individualized new antigen, what's the process time now and which steps could be improved?
So let me start with the first question. As I said during the Q3 call because we got similar questions, we believe in our IP and we're going to be defending it actively. I won't comment further given there's a litigation coming soon.
I'll take some of the pipeline question. Look, I think we'll be data-directed. We are very excited to move forward with the mid-stage vaccines, with the early-stage oncology programs as we get clinical data over the next year or 2. It will ultimately depend upon where we see the most compelling opportunities in the data from those ongoing clinical trials. Hard to speculate, but a large number of opportunities to invest as we start to continue to grow in '27 and beyond.
And there was a turnaround time. It was -- a question was sort of how are we doing on delivery and turnaround time for INT and any opportunities to further improve that as we go forward from a manufacturing...
From a manufacturing point of view, we're doing really well. I mean, compared to where we were 12 months ago versus now, we've improved our manufacturing turnaround time by 50%, and we have plans to even continue to do that more. So I'm looking at the whole needle to needle, we have plans to continue to drive that forward as well. So not only will that give us further capability to be there for the patients and their need, but allows us also simultaneously to drive efficiency.
Just to give you a sense, across our clinical trials, there's 1,000-plus patients. You saw some of that data. And we are already ahead of our target turnaround time for commercial launch. And so we're quite confident that we're already performing at a level that we need to. We'll always look to do better. But it's actually even better than we saw in the Phase II study. And so we're pretty confident we can achieve our target product profile.
And this is across multiple countries around the world. So over 40 countries, we've been able to continue to achieve these really robust turnaround times.
Myles Minter from William Blair. Jamey, I think we were here last year and you put a $6 billion cash cost basis number up on 2028. Obviously, I haven't seen the 2028 number yet, but I assume that's going to be closer to $3 billion than it is to $6 billion. What's changed in 12 months that gives you the confidence there? And how much of it is just efficiency versus a need to get that low because revenues are maybe not projected to grow as much as you thought 12 months ago?
It's a good memory, yes. So we did say that we would break even in 2028 by $6 billion -- at $6 billion. I think it's probably a bit of both, frankly. We continue to say that it is both prioritizing the pipeline as well as driving efficiency, to which our teams have done it faster and to a much greater level than what we could have ever anticipated.
So I think it's a little bit of both, frankly, that instead of being at $6 billion, I don't know if we'll be at $3 billion, but we'll certainly be at least $3.5 billion to $3.9 billion. So we have been able to take it down, and it is a mix of both, but I've been super encouraged by the entire team, how everybody has done it across every single organ function inside the company.
And we continue to see greater opportunity, like I said earlier, more than we thought we could do and faster than what we thought we could do. So that's a big driver of it. But we definitely had to prioritize the pipeline as well. But everything that you've seen across all the products, you've heard our story. The candidates that we think will read out over the coming years that we believe will be launched in those respective years, '26, '27, '28 have always been prioritized and will continue to be prioritized. We made a decision on a lot of the Phase II trials, which is what Stephen was just referring to in the answer to the question, that we will not be able to take those to Phase III until we actually see that we can break even and can afford those Phase III trials. So that was some of the prioritization that we had to do as well.
This is Elizabeth Webster from Salveen Richter's team at Goldman Sachs. And we wanted to ask about the opportunity for RSV to come into play in the growth story in a bigger way and could that be an upside lever? And then framing what you would like to see at the interim for the norovirus Phase III next year?
Okay, I'll take the first step. We do hope RSV becomes a growth driver as well. It is built in to some of those strategic partnerships. And so when we highlight U.K., Canada and Australia, I'll remind you, those are across our entire respiratory portfolio. So not just COVID and RSV and flu and the combination. All of those are built in. And so it is an important driver internationally to expand. And as I highlighted, as we move into Europe, we do expect it to be a contributor as well.
In the United States, it has been -- there was a very rapid launch in that first year, and there has been a bit of a waiting game for the revaccination year for our opportunity to present itself. We did show up a year after that first wave of vaccination. We have had some wins. We won a VA contract, we're slowly and steadily adding to our share, and we're getting ready for that revaccination, but that determination will be made by public health, not by us. So as we expand internationally, we do expect RSV to be a contributor.
And then in terms of norovirus and what we're hoping to see at the interim analysis, I think it's pretty typical of what we want to see. We want enough cases to be adequately powered to give us a potential shot on goal in terms of vaccine efficacy. We also want to conduct a futility analysis. So we're investing in a cohort here to capture a certain number of cases. And we want to understand from our DSMB without unblinding data, but just are we in the right direction or not. So we anticipate that later next year.
I'm Lili Nsongo from Leerink Partners on behalf of Mani Foroohar. I wanted to touch on the projection in terms of cost reduction, specifically as it relates to R&D regarding the vaccine franchise specifically. So you mentioned that you expect a reduction given the completion of the Phase III studies. I wanted to understand, can you give us a little color in terms of what type of post-marketing studies are baked into your assumptions as it relates to the 2 COVID programs as well as the flu program and the combo vaccine.
Yes. So thanks for the question. So we actually did bake into those assumptions the need to do some post-marketing work. So our assumption is that we will be starting actually imminently, the post-marketing commitments that we have in COVID. One of them is actually already well underway. The second one is starting soon. And then we have planned that in flu, we may need to do some post-marketing work, certainly on the safety side, potentially on the effectiveness side as well. But I think the flu efficacy data is really what we were waiting for. It is controlled against flu vaccine that's licensed in the U.S. So we're really confident in the strength of those data.
Maybe just a follow up for the COVID component does it include post-marketing studies for the below 65H?
It does, actually. So we have taken FDA guidance, had some back and forth on what they need to see from that study design. And like I say, one of them, the immunogenicity one is ongoing, and we're looking to start the effectiveness one soon.
And I think Jamey alluded to that, there is a little bit of an artificial elevation of that number compared to what we expect the maintenance to be in '26 and a little bit into '27, related to the new post-marketing commitments that the U.S. FDA asked for. Outside of the U.S. and the rest of the world, we've already really transitioned to that more standard post-marketing number.
Great. I'll try to squeeze in two, if I may. So first, I really enjoyed the redosing data on mRESV. I found that really compelling. Where are the regulators currently in terms of considering, recommending redosing for adult for the currently approved population? And then I have another quick kind of high-level question, if I may.
Yes. I think maybe I'd say it's probably not a regulatory decision on when revaccination happens. And again, this is revaccination. And so the decision on when we see waning of efficacy from a respiratory vaccine and when that public health benefit is sufficient to justify paying for an additional dose in most countries will be made by NITAGs, not by regulators. Ultimately, in the U.S., that's the CDCACIP.
What you're starting to see in some of the real-world effectiveness data is, and this has come out for all 3 vaccines, is there's pretty substantial waning by year 2. And by year 3, we'll look to more data, but we do expect it to be down. If you have high risk factors, immune compromise of some form, it's actually happening even really after 1 year. And there's a rationale to be made to put forward for protecting those at higher risk even more frequently than, let's say, every 3 to 5 years. So I'd look for that to be the first place you'll see movement and probably you'll see it through the recommending bodies first, not regulators.
Yes, that makes a lot of sense. And then kind of a high-level question. So as we think about individualized neoantigen therapies versus shared antigen therapies, what do you really see as the future playing out? Like the immunogenicity data that you shared was pretty compelling. I mean, why would you ever not go with an individualized therapy if you're getting that kind of unique response to the INT.
So how do you guys kind of see this developing obviously, near term, it will be whatever it's approved for, but longer term, when you have multiple approvals, where do you think INT might be appropriate versus shared antigen.
That's a great question. So a couple of comments I'd like to make about that question. One, we need to learn more about the populations that really would benefit from a personalized approach versus a shared approach. And we're learning more about that, and we'll learn more when we have our Phase III data and when we have more data on 4359. I think there could be some populations that might benefit from one versus the other.
But of course, the obvious challenge with INT, as amazing as [ JAR ] is on getting that turnaround time to happen, there are patients with bulky metastatic disease who are diagnosed who need therapy immediately. They can't wait even 6 weeks to receive INT. And I think for those patients, it's really important that we have some off-the-shelf options that we can deliver to those patients and they can get the benefit of that therapy immediately.
There's also a world where you can combine these therapies. You can say, hey, let's get the benefit of both to these patients. Let's give them access to an individualized treatment as well as start them off on an off-the-shelf product. And that way, they could have a better chance of efficacy from these programs. So I think there's a series of potential scenarios that could play out, and we'll have to make decisions based on the ongoing data that come in.
Anything you'd like to add, Rose on that? Okay, or Jackie?
Alex Hammond, Wolfe Research. Just one quick follow-up on RSV. Do we now have a correlate of protection? And then on the Lyme disease vaccine, I'm very excited about that. Would you expect this to be a vaccine you're going to be getting it like every couple of years, every year, so how should we think about that revaccination?
Yes. Thanks so much for the question. So starting with RSV and the correlative protection. So I think at one of these previous meetings, we actually talked about the work that we did to establish the correlative protection, which we had previously presented at ACIP and it's actually been pretty well received by the regulatory authorities. It's how, for example, we were able to expand the indication to 18 to 59 year olds. So we actually are utilizing that work a fair bit. And as you saw, the immunogenicity data is really the booster data that we've generated in order to unlock that potential indication.
Second question on Lyme disease and how we're thinking about dosing. So I'll say it's always dangerous to compare assay to assay. We know that assays can be different when in different hands. But we're seeing incredibly robust antibody titers relative to some of the competitive data that are out there with all of those caveats in mind. And so our thinking is actually we want to explore in Phase II a bit how we can reduce that dosing, particularly in the primary series as much as possible because in that first offseason, 3 is a lot of doses to get into place, and there's not a lot of wiggle room for people to miss doses.
Subsequent to that, I think it's a similar story to RSV or noro as I've been describing, it's going to depend a lot on observing what happens in the real world. But we would imagine that the booster actually could be administered as a single dose, just like with other boosters, and that could be done in advance of the season, obviously, at a different preseason time than currently, but it's -- the way that we're thinking about it as a seasonal vaccine, that may actually be able to go a few years in between needing revaccination.
[ Woody Bogle ] from Bernstein on behalf of Courtney Breen. Just wondering if you could talk about the program discontinuations announced this morning. Aside from TMB, what was the rationale and what was the framework you used to make the decision? Was the data not sufficient, or are there still options for partnering?
Maybe I'll start and ask you guys to fill anything I miss. For the most part, it's -- product by product will have different answers, but the broad strokes are as we look to prioritize and drive towards breakeven and we look at the next step investment often in those programs, a large several hundred million dollar Phase III, we have a specific bar for the return on that investment. It has to really contribute meaningfully to our growth trajectory, and we have to view it as more valuable for the long term than other programs we have in our late-stage pipeline, across all of the pipeline, including oncology, rare diseases and what we're doing in the vaccine space right now.
The ones that we discontinued in different ways for different reasons didn't meet that bar. They didn't feel like the commercial opportunity justified the level of investment necessary for us to do it. Even if we viewed it as value creating, we have a very high bar as we drive approach breakeven, as Jamey has reiterated again today.
And maybe I can just add, I've been actually asking for some of this clarity on some of these programs for a bit because as Jamey mentioned, if we have to cut in R&D, once we go into human clinical trials, there's actually a burden of work, regardless of whether you're actively vaccinating or not. And so somewhere where we're winding down, and it's not clear that, that's a program we would prioritize. Actually, it really helps me manage the workload and the staff if we can just stop. So I think that was another piece of it is to prioritize within latent, what we would go and do next, which I think you heard from, Stephane, is very much EBV in line.
Okay. We'll take our last question from Myles.
Just on the 1010 vaccine efficacy data, looked pretty compelling, quite provocative versus standard of care there. So there are some safety considerations, obviously. But just wondering how you see that as a commercial opportunity if you did have a claim to superior efficacy to what we're taking today, especially in such a large market.
Yes. We -- that's why we highlight that as a really '27 growth driver. Now we hope we're filing now. We hope to have that product approved, if everything goes well, in a year, but we'll probably miss the 26th season, but we really want to step into 2027. We think it's an enhanced profile. Ultimately, regulators will get a chance to review that and offer their perspectives.
And we want to launch it globally. And so you'll see us in the United States, which is obviously an enhanced market, but actually across Europe, as I tried to highlight as well, we see this a big opportunity. And then as I alluded to, it is built into our contracts, our strategic partnerships with U.K., Canada and Australia and beyond.
So it is a -- we tried to do 2 major growth drivers in each of the years. And the one place we allowed ourselves a third is in 2027 because it is between Europe, between expanding in Latin America through that partnership with Brazil and flu, we think there are multiple shots that get us there.
Thank you, Stephane. So this concludes the formal part of our Annual Analyst Day. So thank you so much for coming. I suggest we take a 10-minute break to have a coffee outside. And then for those of you who can stay, we have a team that has some interesting AI demos for you. Stay tuned. Speak soon. Thanks.
[Break]
Can I suggest we get started for the AI section of the day? Team, can we get started? Thank you.
Good. So thank you so much for all of you staying here and those online to look at the interesting work that our team is doing. Just maybe a couple of words of intro. Moderna AI journey started actually a long time ago in our science team. They actually convinced me back in 2016, '17 of the power of AI when it's used to tackle important product problems. They basically were working in the science to try to invent new enzymes using machine learning system that they had built with our data scientists and our biologists to improve the capability of enzymes so that we could reduce manufacturing cost, reduce purification costs.
And the first time they showed me the enzyme that they had invented through machine learning system, most people were extremely not convinced, as you can imagine. But then they did the work. They made the enzymes physically that the system told them was going to be better than the enzyme that exists in nature. And the enzyme that was designed by the machine learning system performed as designed. So that was a big aha moment for me to know that an enzyme that did not exist in nature, that came out literally of a computer with a lot of smart biologists behind it could do exactly what it was designed to do.
And so at that time, believing that AI was going to be an important feature of our work, we started Moderna AI Academy. This is pre-pandemic. And we started training people across the business to understand what machine learning could do for them, whether they are in HR or they're in finance, manufacturing, of course, in the science team.
When you fast forward to, of course, the pandemic, we are kind of busy with the COVID vaccine. And then, of course, November 2022 with ChatGPT. Many of us played with ChatGPT over Christmas and had a little bit of a brain explosion and trying to understand why -- where this was going because it was clear that the November '22, December '22 ChatGPT was the 1.0 version. You don't have to have a lot of imagination. And we saw it ourselves we've seen the mRNA ride we saw over the last 10 years that if you have more compute coming, stronger systems and more data, the technology was just going to get better.
And so we decided to really have Moderna starting to really incorporate into our culture and our work ChatGPT. We are, of course, very worried initially about, of course, not want to teach the rest of the world our stuff. So we developed mChat, which was basically a version of ChatGPT just for Moderna, totally siloed off from the rest of the world before GPT Enterprise existed. Actually, GPT Enterprise came from a lot of discussion we had, like I'm sure other companies with OpenAI. So win the solution for enterprise, what we can do on the Internet doesn't work for us. And then, of course, GPT Enterprise happened. So we stopped mChat and we really moved the company to GPT Enterprise, giving full access to people across the company.
And I have to say when I go to see my colleagues, whether it's in R&D or in manufacturing or in HR or the GPT, we use and I use, I'm very humbled by what's happening. It is really, really exciting. It is just the beginning. But it's interesting to know, and I'm sure the team will share with you the number of GPTs we have across the company, and our people are just changing their work, which is why as you know, I asked a year ago to have Tracy leading HR and tech because I believe in the next few years, our job is to reinvent work across every line of work to go back to what are we trying to do for our customers and figure out what do we do with humans, what we do with digital systems, what we do with AI and what we do robotics. As you saw in the [indiscernible] facility, there's a lot of robotics work. There's more coming. And as the price of robotics come down and the cost of deploying robotics, thanks in part to AI for validation, I think this is going to be a very exciting journey.
So with this, we're going to start with manufacturing. You're going to see us going through a lot of functions, little snippets, but you'll see actual live demo by the teams to build those things. And I think we're going to finish with science, which, of course, is where we think we have the most impact long term because everything else is mostly productivity, improving quality, which is really important, and it's part of our cost journey. And we'll finish by the icing on the cake, which is how can we do more amazing science, adding machine learning capabilities to great scientists.
So with this, I'll turn it to Jeff. Jeff...
Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you very much for the opportunity. Thank you, St phane, Jerh, Tracy and others for the ability to not only speak about our work, but just to innovate every day using our large language models, our automation, our robotics. It's very fun to come to work, and I mean that truly.
I'm Jeff Savard, I lead the INT manufacturing team based out of both Marlborough and Norwood, Massachusetts. Today, I have my colleague, Jason Manchester, who leads Norwood drug substance manufacturing based out of the Norwood, Massachusetts site. And today, we're going to be talking about use of LLM and AI within a CMC manufacturing environment.
As a refresher, we intend to improve our profit margin by 10 percentage points over the next 3 years by 2028. There are 3 levers that we're pulling to be able to do this: volume, procurement and productivity and waste reduction. GPT manufacturing touches on all 3 of these pillars. In fact, we are a key enabler of executing this strategy. We can increase our speed and productivity to decrease our -- or maximize our utilization rate and decrease the amount of plant time we need to do things. We can create environments through automation and AI to have digital right first-time execution, to increase our quality and minimize our waste.
And lastly, we can use digital and physical tools to physically miniaturize the batches that we're producing to be able to do more with less to ultimately manufacture in the smallest footprint possible. So we are a key enabler to the strategy, and we're really excited to be on this journey with the rest of the company.
Within a plant structure, we have created dozens upon dozens, probably hundreds at this point, of custom GPTs, that span end-to-end production from raw material receipt through finished goods release. These are used and deployed by hundreds of employees daily in a clean room operating environment and supporting environments in support of execution of not only the core manufacturing process, but also are supporting quality and business processes. And these individuals are using these tools. They come from all spans and walks of life, from our operators to our entry-level associates, to our technicians, to our supporting technologists and our scientists as well. So we've truly created an environment where we have a digital-first mindset, and we are automating and enabling automation wherever possible.
Today, we are going to talk about 2 of the pillars that are featured here, that being production controls and quality management and inspection. And we're going to walk through an actual problem that an entry-level associate might face in the middle of the night in a cleaner environment, where they have to act quick to be able to salvage the quality of a batch. So it's a real-world application, and you can see how use of the digital tools will enable faster resolution, lower downtime or less downtime and ultimately, increase our consistency and increase our quality. And what you'll see is the use of chain GPTs to be able to not only troubleshoot and diagnose an issue, but to assess the impact and then to run it through the full documentation cycle as well. So it's a full end-to-end and it's ready to be identified. So we're quite excited about that.
So with that, I'll turn it over to Jason to provide the example.
And to just add on to what Jeff said, with the second and third move block here, the P-value GPT and the PIA GPT, these, to Jeff's point, with the dozens. I think we have 450 or so in total GPTs. We have built a suite of tools that we can essentially plug in place. So regardless of what the defect is that is observed on the manufacturing floor, whatever the event is, we can swap out those -- that second and third block down to cater to what we need to respond to the event.
So I don't know what just happened here, but trying to get into AI with the GPT for the demonstration. Perfect. All right. All right. So what we have here is a live view of an issue that we had in our manufacturing process where we experienced a flow rate excursion. So this is something that it's not a common occurrence. It could happen at any point in time within our production schedule, so it can happen overnight on a weekend, on a holiday within a 24/7 manufacturing facility.
So what we have here is an operator interface with the GPT that is specific to the area in which this individual is operating. They've stated the problem that was observed, that we had a flow rate excursion, that our manufacturing process went into a hold state, and our pressure is high and it asking what we do next to restart the operation. So we see quite a thorough set of responses in terms of coaching the operator to next steps, what physical steps to take place, what to look out for upon restart and also required escalation points. So who engage, whether it's a manufacturing science engineer or a quality associate, that is all covered within the immediate response.
This is built with years and years worth of real-time experience, real life experience at the Moderna manufacturing facility, where our MS&T engineers, manufacturing science engineers as well as our process engineers have meticulously documented years worth of real-time experience with defects, problematic events in terms of equipment performance and resolution that was required for those events. All of that has been built into the background of this GPT as well as books of knowledge, we can call it, for the know-how that each of the individual engineers bring into Moderna. All of that has been codified into the brain for lack of a better description of the LLM here.
So what we see here is a couple of interactions where the operator is continuing to state what we're seeing that we're going to be opening up a deviation. What we've looked at and confirmed is correct. So it's furthering the aim of the GPT to better inform the operator for what to do next. As you can see, there's quite the list of things that we can continue to look at. And this iterates a couple of different times where the GPT correctly points us to look for auditory cues, so unusual noises chattering on the pump that is controlling our flow rates. For this instance, that was truly the problem. So the operator asked for a bit more of a description around the chatter, suggests that they remember hearing something. So they want to look out for that in particular when we restart.
So with this, the GPT informs the operator that we are in a safe from a quality perspective, position to restart, and it gives more of a know-how in terms of what could cause the chattering and what specifically to look out for. So from a mechanical perspective, roll aware for this pump is an issue, and that's exactly what this drills down to.
So next steps here, we restarted, the sound was confirmed, and our GPT helped us to message the escalation to the maintenance department that would be coming to help us with that pump replacement as well as a batch record comment, which really kicks us off from the quality life cycle. It is taking all of the information that's been observed, then documented within the chat and giving us a GDP compliant right first time comment for us to put in the manufacturing execution record.
From there, considering where we were in a process, this was part of a process qualification run. So one of the second and third block that I referred to earlier. We utilized this to chain in the process validation expert GPT to assess the impact to the qualification campaign, which then gives us an output that we're able to archive for this and continue to use as we get further into the quality life cycle. So it gives us quite a lot of information here. What this is built with is all of Moderna's documentation, all of Moderna's SOPs as well as years and years' worth of experience from the FDA, 483 guidance, things of that nature. So everything that we need to look out for in a GMP manufacturing environment.
We continue on to chain in our product impact assessment GPT, which again utilizes all of the know-how, the experience from our MS&T engineers as well as all of our process documentation -- process development documentation to assess the issue that we observe to see if there is actually product impact. With that, it gives us a product impact statement. And we're then able to change in a deviation assistant, which then in almost instantaneously gives us a full deviation write-up, which can be seen down here.
And the final chain in this, it was an audit preparation GPT as it uses canvas, so it slides the rewrite down, but we interacted with a GMP audit support assistant that we call Verify AI for us to ensure that it is FDA ready. So the deviation report meets all requirements, impact is solid, 483 history has been reviewed against it. This is a red flag or a tripping point. It gives us feedback. And now we're able to tie right back into the deviation guide to rewrite the assessment based on the report out from that audit support tool.
So end-to-end, products identified on the floor, this event identified on the floor. This actually happened on the 12th of November, so it's relatively recent. It did happen overnight. And end-to-end, this is able to get to a full deviation write-up, technically speaking, within seconds.
Overall, within, of course, 5 to 10 minutes, an individual -- an entry-level associate was able to use essentially what would have been 5 to 7 phone calls over the course of hours in the middle of the night to be able to appropriately diagnose, troubleshoot and continue on with execution. So just to give you kind of a sense for how this will scale and how it scales every day. Thank you very much.
My name is Craig Kennedy. I head Global Supply Chain for Moderna. As St phane said, when he introduced -- GPTs are used as cognitive amplifiers all through Moderna today. I can attest that all through the organization, GPTs are deeply used by employees every single day.
We actually wanted to show you some use cases outside of GPT today. We have 5 use cases in the supply chain area that we're going to show you. Firstly, we're going to talk about the way we use robotics in a very rapid solution for our last mile distribution. We've got some interesting things to show you there. We're also going to talk to you about how we use IoT devices and machine learning to track everything that we send in our critical markets to make sure that they get their on time and the right quality. We're then going to talk to you about a use case, which takes those data that we've gathered from everything that we've done, uses really forward-looking machine learning to create agentic capability to manage those shipments without the need for human in the loop.
We're then going to talk about the way we do global logistics and global control tower using machine learning to make sure that as we move goods around the world, that they get there in the condition that they meant to at the right cost, at the right value for the customer. And finally, we're going to show you a use case that we use for machine learning for forecasting the distribution planning to make sure that we actually have exactly the right product in exactly the right location at exactly the right cost point all the time. Those are the 5 use cases that we're going to show you here today.
Jamey is going to start off for us with robotics in the U.S. market.
I'm Jamie Collins, I'm responsible for last mile distribution in our U.S. market. So at the end of last season, we were presented with a challenge that we had to be fully FDA compliant, which means the PI, the product information leaflet, must be on or inside the carton, the salable unit. Given our current manufacturing environment and the time line required for that, we could not put it inside the carton. So we realized we had to have a solution at the last mile closer to the customer.
So we did something a little unexpected, and we actually applied the PI on the carton. To do this, we enabled a -- and went on a robotics and automation journey alongside our partners, UPS health care and Eclipse Automation, and created a solution that would ultimately enable cost savings, mitigate labor risk and enable a scalable future for this type of activity.
This project, normally, at many other companies, would have taken at least 18 months to implement and deploy. Here at Moderna -- and our team was able to do this in under 10 months. So from concept and design straight through to build and out to production, we built an 8,000 square foot system that sits at our UPS health care facility in Kentucky, that ultimately yielded us a 1.5 cartons per second throughput. So it's a significant automation journey there.
And as I mentioned, we did something a little unexpected. And through our mindsets in being truly bold, it ultimately took a constraint that we had last year and turned it into a true competitive advantage. And what that means is that we are actually able to claim being first to market this year. You can see that's my colleague and I actually hand delivering the first doses to market for this season.
We have a little video to show you of our actual robotic solution. Yes. And then if my colleagues could help kind of give you a little insight of what these PIAs look like. That's the next one. These are examples. Yes, excellent. So you can see there that our STAR robot decanting product out of the cases and putting them on to quite a conveyor journey there. And this is actually our next big product. This is a video of that. This is our new launch for this year.
This is what we call our banding system. That's actually what was able to band the product that you guys are holding. All the while, something really critical about this system is that given our cold storage requirements for our product, we are in a frozen condition. We had to maintain time out of refrigeration and freezer. So this system tracked all the way across the 8,000 square feet, every step of the journey for each of these cartons to ensure that we are fully compliant within our handling requirements.
And ultimately, this -- you'll see, there really weren't too many people involved here. And at the end there, again, the case gets closed, scanned, and you'll see one person there at the end taking it off the line. So it truly was quite an experience and something our team is truly proud of being able to meet product on time. In fact, an interesting stat is with this solution and other enablements we made this year, we were able to, after product release, deliver our first doses in under 8 hours to customers.
So as you can see, something that we're really passionate about is continuously improving our customer experience, obviously, getting the doses to patients is of our highest priority. And so as of last year, we started implementing on a journey to enhance our customer experience by developing an industry-leading real-time shipment and monitoring solution that utilizes these tag and track devices. And what you'll see up here is actually what our customer receives. These are examples, again, not with our product in it. But these are examples of what our customer receives in the frozen storage condition. So the tag and track device is in there. And what that's able to do is provide us not only with location data so that we can ensure on-time delivery, but it actually provides us temperature data as well. And that's critically important given our cold storage conditions, et cetera.
And what this has -- this year enabled us to do is create an automated intervention notification solution, which essentially, although it is manual today, but it allows us to be proactive by projecting where the product will be at any given time and potentially reduce temperature excursions ahead of it reaching the customer. So the cost-saving initiatives, but also a customer experience improvement. We have now shipped over 75,000 units -- shipments with this solution, and therefore, have gathered quite a bit of data that will then give us the ability to build off of that as Craig will then lead us into.
So one of the things, as Jamie said, we track every shipment. We've shipped over 75,000 already. We track every piece of data from every shipment that we send out. What that has done has given us a huge amount of data to infer what shipments are going to be good and what shipments may not be good.
Essentially, it's a fraud detection problem. You have a very, very small number of shipments that don't go well. But when they don't go well, they are a huge impact on our customers. Particularly in a seasonal business, a vaccination provider, your CVS, your Walgreens or any clinic, when something turns up in one of those busy pharmacies that isn't ready to use, that's a problem for them. Yes, they get new products, yes, we fix it, but our goal is to never pass on that problem to the customer.
The way we're doing that now is we're taking advantage of these data that we've collected. We've already built highly accurate inferential prediction models that allow us to know when a shipment is most likely not going to make it in the conditions that it needs to make. The reason that's important is because we can predict that now before the shipment arises. While we're in the process of demonstrating is an agent that takes that inferential data, listens to these devices which are here, they send every shipment every 10 minutes, that agent looks at what is happening compared to what we know is wrong. If it makes a determination that, that shipment is likely not to end in the right conditions at the pharmacy, it is built to do a couple of things.
Number one, instruct the carrier to redirect the shipment. So bad stuff doesn't turn up at the patient -- at the customer. Number two, place a replenishment order such that the order goes out high priority immediately. And number three, tell the customer, all automatically, all on its own, so it doesn't have to wait for human in the loop to actually make that occur. We're even looking at the opportunity to determine whether or not we can segment and take higher value customers and make sure they get preference if a lower value customer is in route that we could reuse as well.
But it's because of the fact that we took access to all of these data that we've collected, with the push that St phane and the EC and others have given us around machine learning and AI and actually being able to turn something into what will be agentic behavior as well. And that's good for the customer. It's also good for our actual costs as well because we can tell, even if it's going to excursion, whether it's going to excursion within the non parameters of what good product will be at the same time. So we save that return as well. That's something we're working with right now. We're very focused on the U.S. market.
But what [ Gerhard ] is going to tell you about is also how we do this worldwide and give you a demonstration of our worldwide logistics control tower, too. [ Gerhard ]?
Yes. So similar to what we heard from Craig, we tracked our shipments since, let's say, I would say, the last 5 years, the challenge we had there is these were in different systems, fragmented data, nonvalidated data. With the control tower, we implement a tool where we through APIs, can ingest data from carriers from devices like this from devices like the tag and track here, but also from packaging providers. So the first time we are moving into structured data, validated data and an intelligence layer.
So this is how we move from within, let's say, 3.5 months from selection in March, we wanted to be ready to supply into the U.S. market intercompany on our minimum vial product [indiscernible] and our Kuehne + Nagel shipments in July. So this is something we have achieved. And if we quickly go into the tool that you see a little bit how that looks, we see here when we go to -- if you go to the life shipments and then to my favorites, then you can see one of the first one. I can take the first one.
This is now an intercompany shipment where you see, the shipment is going here from Belgium, where we have our central hub, which is feeding into the different country locations. It's rooted through the -- this shipment was going to Newark. And from there, it's trucked to Kentucky. So if you quickly look at the devices, we see here, we have here perfect data. We know exactly what the outside condition was, but inside is perfect in minus 20. So you see this is on track in green.
What this tool gives us is actionable insights already. If something would happen and if there is a delay or there's a temperature excursion we are notified. This is the first step what we have here. So we implemented this one, but then we got the feedback from the market that what the customers get in U.S. for these nice boxes, what Craig and Jamey explained is predictive and an alert system they wanted to have it for the pellet shipments as well.
So we quickly pivoted, use the same device for the truck shipments, and that is how we can go into the next treatment. That was the one we had opened before. So we use it also for the shipments out of UPS to the wholesalers, and they get an e-mail 2 hours, 1 hour and 30 minutes before expected arrival time plus a onetime link. They can see exactly the same here. And what we did as well, we have a geofencing solution. We have a light sensor in there. So whenever they unload it, it's automatically switching off the device, so we don't get any false alarm. So this is also what we then short note is implemented to really have control over the shipments, but also give the customer the insight and they can plan better the arrival of the shipment.
And then the last one, what we did, where we saw a need is our critical release samples. We need to send to national agencies like CBER here in U.S., we need to send a release samples, and they are super critical for us. So that's why we implemented, if you go to the last one, [indiscernible]. We also put together with our partner, QuickSTAT, it's a white glove courier. We just use their API. We use their device. So we are agnostic. We use their device. And we -- yes, no, this is if you go back, it's the one with W.
So there, we see that we have -- the same -- it's the one with W on it. And if you go to the device as well, please, you see exactly -- this is routed now and you see here the routing is not going directly from Spain to U.S., it's going through Frankfurt. That is on purpose to mitigate the risk because what you can see here if you are in Frankfurt at the airport, but also in U.S., we can store it at minus 20. So we mitigate the risk in case of an FDA or a custom hold that the product is getting out of range and we lose it, which would be incredible unfortunate for the guys then delivering to the customer. And what we built on top of that, we built the first robotic process automation.
We have a central sample shipment or sample tracking tool, where previously someone manually had to enter the actual status of the shipments now with a robotic process automation. This is done every 2 hours or every 3 hours daily. We remove manual work.
What is next year? So we are now 4 months. We have a lot of learning. The next step, what we want to do is automated temperature release. We want to take the validated data and enable automated temperature release feeding directly into our quality management system. That is one thing. And the second one, we want to do predictive thermal modeling. So using machine learning and AI to say, we are not static on a box and now it's validated for 80 hours for 90 hour, no. We know that if it shipped in 2 to 8 or in minus 20, it's much lower. It gives us more flexibility and we can improve our cost bases because we don't need to urgently react on each and every delay because we have the confidence and the tool tells us how long it lasts.
What is midterm and that is then the real fancy stuff, I would say. And if we can go to the beta version here, we want to move from a static dashboard. It's really on a conversational partner. And you see here already the first preview, which is planned for mid of next year, where if you click on logistics, for example, so you come into the office in the morning, you can talk to the tool. And the tool took already the actions for you. No matter if you're there, it's not only then giving you the recommendation, it's taking the action for you. So it's escalating, it's accelerating or even like Craig mentioned here, it's returning.
So this is then also where we feed in our lane SOPs, our risk assessment or even let the tool too for us the root cause analysis and the corrective action. So this is planned for mid of next year and this tool shows as well. We selected the tool in March. We started implementation in April. We went live in July. We added in end of July and beginning of August, these additional solutions for the market in U.S. for the CBER samples. We added the robotic process automation in September. And now we hope that in December, we can do the first automated temperature release.
Thanks. One final show, Joe is going to talk about the way we do distribution forecasting effectively by starting at forecasting likely shots in arms as a way for us to make sure we have the inventory in the right place, in the right condition at the right time so that we never miss a sale and that we have it at the lowest cost. Joe?
Thanks, Craig. So what you see up here is a live dashboard of a machine learning algorithm that we have implemented here at Moderna. This is dummy data. So there is not real data associated with this, so there's no inferences to be drawn here. But this is a probabilistic statistical forecast with machine learning backbone. And when I say machine learning, because we're not just using the projections that were developed from this statistical forecast model. We're actually ingesting real-time data, both from shots in arms administered, data we get through public databases as well as some internal data that we collect. As well as some -- and you can see here on the right, Google trends, right? There's some other exogenous factors that we track that are correlated to what our shots in arms and administrations are going to be.
And so you can see here that we're looking at forecasting, we're not just looking at just a single point forecast, right? This is a probabilistic forecast that helps us continuously learn about where and how many shots we're going to need to get out to our customers.
So if we want to skip data there. So this is just the U.S. market on aggregate. But if we go to the supply planning here, you can actually see we go down to the ZIP 3 level. So this isn't just about forecasting of what the total market is going to look like. This actually gets down into the local area of where we expect our consumption and where we expect our doses to be deployed. What that allows us to do is to forward deploy our inventory to satisfy customer need, and in many cases, before they need it.
We also do get some customer feedback back around what inventory they're currently holding and so we can actually predict when they're going to need replenishments and make those recommendations out to our customers. So like we talked about before, we don't miss any vaccination opportunities for our customers, right? This helps to drive and ensure that we are optimizing where inventory is at the right time, at the right place and the right value to the customer. And again, this is a model that continuously learns.
So as we get additional data on a regular frequency basis, we update these models. And as we think about how does this impact for our future, right? When you think about the connected supply chain, it all starts with what the customer wants and needs, feeding that back into how much we make, when we make it, where we make it and how we forward deploy that is a really big opportunity for us to optimize our supply chain.
Unless there are questions that's it for us. Good. Thank you. Right.
We save questions to the end and we'll move to development now.
Good afternoon. My name is Suzanne Tracy. I head the accountability for the transformation team within the pharmacovigilance area. We're actually going to walk you through how we've been using artificial intelligence within what is traditionally a highly conservative and regulated area.
So about 1.5 years ago, because at Moderna, we do take advantage of artificial intelligence, we actually developed an AI center of excellence. Our vision being how can we revolutionize patient safety by putting actionable processes in place that are aligned with our operational excellence. How do we do that in a way that integrates our capabilities for artificial intelligence by building scalable, repetitive high-impact solutions. And how do we do all of this by utilizing artificial intelligence in alignment with our Moderna mindset, but to do so in a way that meets the regulations from the health authorities and remains aligned with our North Star patient safety?
So we actually developed a foundational layer where we have originated an SOP a standard operating procedure for our software development life cycle. And on top of that, we've evaluated all the guidances from the health authorities. So the EMA, the FDA, along with other health authorities, have released guidance because they do see pharmacovigilance is a very data-intensive area and everybody is fully invested in looking at artificial intelligence.
There are very few companies from our benchmarking that have taken it to the level that we have at Moderna. So we're going to show you some of those examples. With the talent that we have in house, Wen is actually going to take us through how we've used the compute platform and use that as a benchmarking -- can you go back to that slide -- to use that as the benchmark for our Workbench platform. So giving us an environment where we can develop our artificial intelligence solutions in a regulated and standard manner.
And then on top of that, at Moderna, we remain invested in expert in the loop. So it's not just a human in the loop for us. In our area of expertise, we make sure that the human is actually a subject matter expert. And so all of this comes together so that we can enable all of our pharmacovigilance colleagues to focus on value-add activities. There's no sense in having our individuals at Moderna invest their time. And a lot of this does take an ordinate amount of time to review the data. So how can we do that more efficiently?
So on the next slide, I'm actually going to introduce Wen. He's going to walk us through the Workbench, how are we using our compute platform to really introduce our regulated use cases. And then he will hand it over to Andrew. Andrew will actually walk us through very specific use cases that we've introduced in pharmacovigilance.
So looking at our PV regulatory intelligence, using artificial intelligence to redact personal identifiable information. And then in alignment with the regulations, we have accountability to look at all of the social media with reference to Moderna. So how are we deploying artificial intelligence to use against that case? We're actually very focused on ensuring that our staff is focused on the higher-value activities. But along with these 3 use cases, we will be introducing savings in the millions of dollars. CSPVs, so our clinical safety and pharmacovigilance team is not lacking for ideas. We have 40 additional ideas in the pipeline. But because these are our highest impact ideas, this is where we've started this year. So I'm going to turn it over to Wen. He's going to take us through the Workbench.
All right. Thank you, Suzanne. My name is Wenhao Liu. I head up the data science and AI team at Moderna for the clinical development operations space. So let's rewind to early 2025. You guys have all heard of this term agentic AI kind of pop into mainstream as a buzzword. So we asked ourselves, is it real or is it hype, right? I think about a year later, it's mostly still hype in most places, right? And the reason is because it's not actually a problem of technology. It's an issue about company mindset and culture and it's the willingness to change and reinvent ourselves and really adapt our processes to build them up with agentic automation in mind. That's what it's going to really take to take us to this next level, right? .
So I'm going to tell you about this platform that we built called Workbench. So this is one of our platforms that is enabling our AI-first strategy. So Workbench has 4 main pillars. The first is data, followed by data access in a secure and governed way, the agentic frameworks themselves and then the user interface. So I'm going to go through each of these one by one.
Data. This is the most critical and most important layer. No matter what anyone says, AI will not clean or read your messy data. This is not -- it just doesn't do that. So this is where we found that most efforts stall because it's really a collaboration between people, process within the business and digital to take an existing business process that someone wants to automate. We trace the data to where they live. It could be in Excel, it could be in Sharepoint. It could be in digital systems like SAP, Syncade, Workday. We bring them into our data environment, and we map that data. We normalize it. We standardize it, and we push it back into this AI-ready data platform.
So this is just a traditional data warehouse, right? But this step needs to be done and this is the really hard part. This part takes 3 to 6 months if the data is not in a clean state and you really can't do the rest of this without the foundation, right? I think this is where most efforts stall and because people try to skip this step and just try to get the agent to read the raw data.
Then data access is extremely important in general, but especially so for a company like not just Moderna, but any pharmaceutical company, where the access to data has regulatory implications, right? So in Workbench within the platform, we built a custom role-based authentication system that is matched to our company's internal structure. And what that means is if I assign a role of medical monitor to a user within Moderna, that grants that person access to certain patient data, right? But it only grants them access to data within the clinical studies to which they are entitled to see. So that level of access control is foundationally required in a company like Moderna, in order to then attach our agent framework and have agents explore data within our network, right? So that is a foundational piece that we spent a lot of time thinking about and designing.
And then you have the agentic frameworks themselves, which will access that data through the industry standard model context protocol. That's just how agents interact with data through a common interface layer.
And then the last piece is the user interface, which is really critical because these agents don't just run by themselves in a dark room in the back, right? A user needs to be able to see what they're doing, right? They need to see what agents are in my team? What actions are they doing? What workflows are they running? Where are they stuck in a particular workflow and be able to interact with that agent in order to provide feedback, right, provide the expert in the loop and move the workflow along. So that observability is extremely important. And we are kind of limited in what we can do within ChatGPT. We've kind of pushed that to its limit, where we have done today, and we've done a phenomenal job doing that here. But the next level of this is providing a custom user interface, where users can interact with agents in a more structured way, okay?
So I'm going to take you in through a demo of the Workbench platform. And so this is kind of executing what I mentioned earlier, which is the hard part is cleaning the data. So what I'm showing you now is a -- this is synthetic data, by the way, just to show you what this type of data the system has. We spent about 3 to 4 months working with the business within clinical operations and the finance team to take extremely messy Excel data from our CRO vendors to standardize them into a format, which allows us to look at clinical trial spend at specific clinical sites across our portfolio, right? It took us 4 months just to get this data in the system. And what I'm showing you now has nothing to do with AI, right? This is just a dashboard, but the foundation of it is the same foundation that will enable the AI use cases.
So just to show you some of the information that this system has, what we're looking at here is data for a particular clinical study. So you can see the total study budget. The evolution of our contracts as they are executed over time. You can see the numbers are going up a little bit. So this combines our clinical operations data with enrollment and sites with our financial data, which is how much money we spent on these locations, right? And this type of dashboard will really give us insights. For instance, if you are looking at the number of active patients and number of active sites over time, and you're seeing this number going down, but you're seeing your contract costs going up. That would be a red flag as an example, right? And so what we really want to enable is instead of an analyst having to click through this -- these interfaces, applying filters going through every day and trying to find these insights. The agent has access to the same data, right? They can just do this for you autonomously. And that's the platform that we built, and I'll show you an example of that.
So within Workbench, this again is a demonstration prototype. It is not live yet, in production, but it kind of gives you a view of the future. So the idea is that a business user can come into the system and create a financial assistant agent. This is done through configuration. They don't need to know how to code. The engineering team obviously will work with the business to build these agents. But once they're built, anyone can come in and configure this agent. So this particular one in this demo example, we are looking at clinical sites that have very low enrollment.
So there could be a site that has little to no enrollment. And yet, we have upcoming site visits, which cost us a lot of money, right? So this will give the clinical trial operations leads insights into which sites they might want to close early. So you can see in this agent, we're able to configure the number of days ahead of time that we want to look. The -- what percentile of the bottom performance sites we want to look at, what therapeutic area we want to target and some prompt instructions, which can be configured, right?
So this looks a lot like ChatGPT, but this goes beyond the capabilities of ChatGPT, right? This has much more customization and is much more fit for use for specific use cases. So once you can figure this agent, you can execute this workflow. So normally, once you configure it, the agent can run on a scheduled job. They can just run in the background, right? And when you come in, in the morning, you're going to get your insights and it's going to do all the analysis for you. But what I'm showing here is a manual execution of this workflow. And this little side window that comes up is actually from the collaboration with Open AI.
They gave us early access to their front-end user interface component which we used in this application, but it's fully connected to our own custom back end, which has all the data level, security and everything that I mentioned in the first slide. And you can see the agent is able to autonomously go into our MCP server, locate the right APIs, make the calls, break it down into steps through chain of thought and do the analysis.
So now this is the really important part because in ChatGPT that's where it would end. You would download the results from -- into an Excel sheet or you might read and do something. But because we're in a custom application, the output of that agent is actually put back into our database where the user can interact with these records right? So now the user can see, okay, I have a site here with 0 enrollment, about 13 upcoming site visits. The savings here could be potentially this amount, and you're able to open that record, interact with it, give the agent feedback, right? I can say this one looks good, I'm going to approve it or I can say reject, and then that provides the feedback into the system to allow it to continue to improve over time, right?
So now if you just imagine, this is a generic workflow that we built, but imagine this apply to other areas, legal, HR, finance, manufacturing and you can kind of get a sense of the potential of this type of technology when you're able to put agentic AI against our internal company data. But I hope you come out of this with the appreciation of how hard this really is because it takes a lot of effort to get the data right, but most importantly, to align the people and the process and get the business team involved with digital.
And I think Moderna, we have the right people, we have the right mindset. We have the technology for sure. That's the easy part, actually. But if you saw the presentations earlier, like just to give you the sense of the mindset of the people here, right? It's the people that are driving these innovations and it's the people that are going to make this change possible. And that's what makes this a really special place.
Okay. So next, I'm going to turn it over to Andrew Semmes, who's going to talk about an actual use case we built and deployed to production using the platform that I showed you here, but only using a specific portion of this platform, which we were able to validate from a GSP perspective. So this is a really big deal. Now we can run agentic workloads in a validated environment that will pass FDA inspection, right? This is where we really get the benefits of this technology. So I'll let Andrew talk about the 3 use cases there.
Thank you, Wen. So I'm Andrew Semmes. I work in the AI Center of Excellence with Suzanne. I'll cover 3 use cases for you quickly today. So starting out with mScout. This is a regulatory intelligence agent. So biopharmaceutical companies are required to respond to various pieces of legislation and new regulations that breaks across the world. As you can imagine, monitoring 80-plus health authority websites, tracking all those changes assessing them against our internal procedures and then responding to them is a massive amount of work and is quite labor-intensive. So previously, this was a manual process, and we had a regular cadence controlled by business process where stakeholders would do this. They would have to open up their browser, look at the website. You can imagine that takes quite a lot of time across all the different regulatory agencies and the things that we're tracking. That's where mScout comes in.
So mScout is our regulatory agent. So it runs on a daily basis. And basically what it does, it pulls down all the information from regulator websites it compares them from like the previous day to today. It looks for differences. It then translates from 25 different languages into English and then assesses that with a series of criteria looking for impact to our pharmacovigilance operations. So once that is running, you can see here kind of like under the hood, and this is part of the platform that Wen was talking about. It actually goes fully autonomous, right? So it has a trigger on a daily basis. And it will kick off its daily monitoring, look at the 83 websites and then send notifications to our experts in the loop who need to respond to that legislation.
So here's just one example, right? The International Council for Harmonization recently had a new GCP guideline that come -- that came out. It's E6 R3. And in this case, you can see here for Argentina, the mScout went to the Argentina Health Authority website translated it from Spanish to English, identified the fact that Argentina adopted this international guideline and then sent this on to our LatAm colleague who's responsible to update our procedures according to ICH E6 R3.
Then our expert in the loop. We'll take a look at the summary here. We have similar buttons, as Wen showed in the previous example, to indicate whether or not this is relevant intel or not relevant intel that feeds back into our model to track performance continuously over time and helps us understand when we make a change like upgrading the AI model if we're getting more accurate, less accurate as we go along. So that's just one example, but we -- and that one came out last year. This year, we're forging ahead, and this is one of the items that just recently came out. So when we process patient records, there are global privacy regulations that we have to comply with. So when a case has been closed, we then need to go into that source documentation, which could be on the order of 300 pages long and redact all of the personally identifiable information, names, addresses all of the above for PII.
As you can imagine, highly manual, highly labor-intensive. We are also previously using a contractor to perform this work for us. By implementing this AI, we actually ceased that contractor contract, brought that capability in-house with our existing staff and achieved 80% time savings because we achieved in the 90 percentile in quality. So with that, I'll show you a demo of how this solution works.
So you can see here, this is within our environment. We use a LLM that's internally hosted. So no personally identifiable information leaves our data environment. The user will upload the file. They'll get an e-mail. When it's done redacting, they'll then go and download that file. Once they download it, the AI is actually proposing those redactions, right? So you can see here and this is synthetic data. All of the patient name, race, ethnicity, address, phone number, e-mail. The user can then just look at the proposals. And if it all looks good, they hit apply all and then it gets redacted. So as you can imagine, this is a massive time savings across just one case could have hundreds of pages that this is needed for. Of course, we're a global company. So we, as you can see here, built it to be multilingual across 7 initial languages. This is a synthetic example for Spanish.
So -- that's our second one, which recently went live. And I wanted to preview a look ahead of what's coming in 2026. So this is mDetect. And we are also obligated to monitor social media when someone mentions Moderna, mentions our products. We are obligated to look through that information and then see if there is any mention of side effects or product quality complaints associated with our products. We are also currently using a vendor to perform this. It's quite an extensive activity on the order of millions of dollars and so we're looking to apply that same strategy, right, have an AI agent that helps us go through all of that data, take a first pass at it. And then our expert in the loop with our existing staff will then confirm the disposition of the AI classification and either identify that there's no reportable information or if there is, send it to a downstream system for processing. And that will enable us in 2026 to also sunset that vendor relationship and bring that capability in-house as well.
All right. And I believe that's our presentation.
We're now moving into the G&A section. So maybe one of the examples will be more relatable to everybody in the room.
All right. Hi, everybody. I'm Amanda Sorrento and I lead our HR core here at Moderna.
And my name is Nathan, I am in managing operations for HR. I just manage projects across our HR stack.
Excellent. So I'm really excited to be here today to talk to you about what we've been doing with AI and HR. And our journey kind of really started by looking at how we can redesign work within HR. And we started with some chatbots around benefits and around Ask HR that had great success in productivity. So we started to ask ourselves, how do we rethink the work within HR and in our core talent processes.
And so about a year ago, we launched a GPT that is designed to support our year-end process. And so really helping employees as a support tool and then really helping to aid and enable our managers to have really great year-end performance conversations with their employees. And what we saw when we launched that was a ton of adoption, and we actually saw a net effect, while we can't directly correlate it to this, but we did see a threefold increase in usage of ChatGPT across the enterprise for different purposes after we had launched that tool to the enterprise.
So we wanted to take it one step further from there and really think about now how do we aid in the development? How do we use ChatGPT and AI to really aid in the development of our workforce to build the capabilities, not only that they need today, but for the work that they need to do in the future. And just for a little context setting, traditional development planning happens where an employee sits down, thinks about what their development is, then they meet with their manager and they together come up with a plan. And oftentimes, that plan is only as strong as the manager capability or the employees' desire to think about their development.
And so we really wanted to make sure we were building something that fit within the Moderna context, really helped to elevate what we're trying to achieve as an organization. And so that's where we brought in AI and ChatGPT, in particular, to really design an AI assisted process here. And so what we did was we took an API to Workday, where all of our employee data sits, and it gives great context about what's going on. It has the role of the employee as context. It has that employees' objectives, which are ultimately laddering up to what our organizational objectives are.
And then behind it, we build an understanding of what the Moderna culture is, what our philosophy is around employee growth. And then how do we think not just about the skills and capabilities that an employee needs today, but what are those skills that an employee may need in the future, especially as technology evolves and all of our roles are rapidly evolving. And that became the structure for the GPT that we then launched to the organization to help an employee write a really quality development plan anchored in context and then also really bolsters the manager because it has a consistent context behind it and thinking to really ultimately produce a high-quality plan.
This was a recent launch for us. So we just completed our cycle actually about a month ago. And so we think our outcomes are going to be measured over time and where we're really going to see the amplifying effect to this. And so over time, we'll really be looking at how does the capability of our workforce, especially in those skills in those areas that we think are critical for the success of the organization, how does that amplify over time?
We think we'll see an increase in engagement, right? Employees want to know they're being developed. They want to have that commitment. And so we ultimately think we'll see a reduction, and we'll be measuring for a reduction in voluntary attrition. And then more exciting out of this is not just what it does around this particular process, but what it can also serve as we think about the whole employee life cycle and what more we might want to do with this.
Because the data then goes back into Workday, which is our source of employee data, we can then leverage that data to think about what are the other employee solutions that we're putting in place to really bolster our workforce and drive for the company. And so things like internal mobility, we have incredible talent here. And so how do we understand where their skills are, what their motivations are and then really create a system from that where we can move our talent into new experiences and new needs of the organization, including roles that don't even exist today because they're still emerging as technology evolves.
We've got a data-rich environment to be able to really draw from it in a unique way. We also can then really make sure our learning and development programs are truly anchored into the things that matter most. And we're focusing our energy with our employee base and what we're creating within HR to really drive those skills and continue to develop through the tools or through the programs that we may create as a workforce.
So while those are our longer-term measures, we have seen some really strong good success just on the process, which tells us there's a high level of engagement. So we didn't design this with the intention of forcing everybody to go through. We designed it as something we wanted to draw the organization through into. And so what we ultimately saw was 84% of our workforce went in and completed their growth plan without it being a mandate or a requirement, which tells us that it really was a beneficial tool that we created.
And pairing along with that, which really then points to the tool that we created was we saw 87% of our workforce utilize the GPT. And we wanted to understand, did they not just go in first time and then walk away from it because it wasn't value added, but we measured the number of conversations that actually took place, which told us they actually went through the whole process. And then ultimately, put it back into Workday, put the information back into Workday. So they really did find the value in the whole tool, and that's where we see 70,000 conversations that took place utilizing those tools that drove to that 84% adoption. And then obviously, one of the net benefits that we get out of this is it takes a whole lot less time for an employee and a manager to really come up with a quality plan at the end of the day.
So I'm going to turn it over to Nathan now who's going to show you the actual tool.
Thank you, Amanda. It's going to get personal because we're going to do my own growth plan together. So it just -- yes, hang in there. So this is a pretty standard interface. I'm sure you know what ChatGPT looks like these days. And this is accessible throughout a variety of different ways. We had obviously some comms leading up to the launch of the growth plan. And we've got links available throughout our ecosystem MyModerna, which is our Intranet, et cetera. So you cannot miss this. And the usage rate just indicates that people have not missed this at all. And we've made this to be super, super easy. It's essentially a semi-structured conversation that we are leading people through and we're going to do that together.
So I talked about -- the conversation is semi-structured just because you can say really what you want. We're not expecting much, really. There are some soft guardrails that I'll mention. Essentially, it's what you put in is what you get out in a more structured manner. So it's there to -- what Amanda was saying, recognize me, so my name is Nathan. And it will go and grab in the background but of information that knows about me including my role, my objectives as well, just again add a bit of flavor to what's to come. The growth plan is about kind of that macro lens for my personal development. And here, we have a pretty good overview of what we expect to put into Workday, which is the growth goal itself, some additional flavor on what is that growth goal and a start date and a completion date.
This essentially helps us put on a silver platter what is needed for an employee and a manager to have a hopefully fruitful conversation about what's to come for 2026 and sometimes beyond given how macro sometimes these growth plans are. So here, again, it's asking me if I want to share if they want to pull my objectives, I'll say yes, sometimes the objectives need to be revisited. It's something that we prompt for in our quarterly connects and end of year cycles, for example. But here, I forgot. Oh my goodness, what do I need to do? That's right objective one, objective two, I'm all good. Very big objectives. But -- so I refreshed my kind of my objectives, and I can go and now starts a series of 6 questions. My Moderna colleagues, I hope are within the 87% of people who went through these, so they'll know them very well. And these questions have been put together so that they can offer our employees a very a best-in-class type of questioning.
So it's a lot of self-introspection, again, leading to that manager conversation a few weeks later. So we start with like any good plan about the future, we start about a few snapshots about our current situation. So here I will -- I'm a rubbish typer, so I will go and copy paste what I have in another window. Very, very fancy. And again, like I said, it's not adding anything. It is going to regurgitate what I've put in. Like Amanda said, it's got the Moderna mindsets, our corporate objectives, a lot about our -- who we are as a company in the background. So it helps to format, a lot of my inputs into something that will be again the basis of that growth plan conversation. So again, summarizing what I've put in. I don't feel like I need to go further, but for each of the questions, it's going to probe additionally to really go and nag the usage to ensure that they're giving as much information as possible to the model.
So I'll go and say no, and then we'll get on to the second question. Again, second question is mostly about current situation. So more of what has been going on about my projects, what I've had maybe some troubles with. I feel pretty good at the moment. Thank you very much. I don't need to add too much. Again, current situation, snapshot, core strength. So here, we really depend -- it's a big signal for our managers to understand if our employees know themselves. It's a big point of feedback as well. So that's a big important question that we've included here.
And I feel pretty good about that answer as well. If you remember, I've mentioned it's 6 questions. So we are now halfway there. And that was a tough one for -- all right. We're halfway there.
Now growth edge. This is where we start to slowly bring the conversation into the future. Where do I feel I can grow really. Again, I don't expect the GPT to add anything to the mix. It has that context of my objectives. It has that context of my role. I'm just kind of guiding it towards what I feel I could strengthen in terms of skills and kind of picks up on it. I don't feel I need to go further. And now really this is the -- we start to do a bit of soul searching here, what's coming up. So future horizon, what do I have in mind? Again, I have some -- I know exactly where I want to go, of course. So I have exactly what I want. And I'll just insert something here where you would think, well, easy, Nathan, I can game this and just say to my manager and [indiscernible] here, I want to get promoted and boom, 2026 promotion. Not quite as easy as that. So I also want to get promoted, rubbish text -- rubbish typing.
And so here, it's taking what I've given it in terms of my 12 months objective, but also kind of nudging me to talk to my manager. When it comes to promotion, this is something that is, of course, part of working in a place like Moderna, but it is something that is not necessarily linked directly to my growth plan. So here, we're kind of nudging to talk to managers, to engage them one-to-one to ensure that we have something that is tangible in these growth plans. And so I'm good to go here.
And so here, we come to the final question, which is the -- I think the most meaty of them all because we're really trying to make people think about the different ways that growth happens at Moderna. We have a pretty solid framework around how that happens. And so it's here exploring the ways that I think I can grow, adapt my skills for today, but also for tomorrow and the HR tech stack in my case that is coming up. And so I've, of course, given it a lot of thought, and I can input that in there.
And at the end of the day, very, very easy output, right? Nothing mind boggling. It's going to give me exactly the different elements that I need to copy-paste straight away into Workday. Workday becomes the start of the conversation for you and your manager. Your manager can consult that into Workday pretty seamlessly, and you can have that one-to-one your manager in the moment that's in and hopefully smash it out of the park in 2026.
And that's all she wrote. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Could you get it going and I'll start talking. While they're pulling up the slides, hello, everyone. My name is John Ward. I'm -- hi. I'm John Ward. I have to say I'm just humbled to be up here speaking with you today, and I'm really grateful for just all the great work I've seen that have been in the presentations that have preceded me. So I'm going to be quick today and to tell you about a GPT I created that I use every day to great results, I think.
So I'm the Trademark Attorney here at Moderna. I'm sort of a team of one, as you can tell. And I think if we can bring someone to advance my slides -- so I deal -- Trademark Attorney in the pharmaceutical industry, which I've been in-house as a Trademark Attorney in pharma for about 18 years. And all of that time, I've dealt primarily with creating drug names, right? So I handle the legal aspect of drug name creation. It's one of my primary deliverables.
And there's three components to a drug name. One is commercial, one is legal and one is regulatory. So you can go back up to the original slide. So the commercial part is -- it's a conversation that's a good name, right? So that's a very broad conversation. Everyone can weigh in on that. The legal part of it is the name that has to be, we can own the name, right? We can use it freely without stepping on anyone's toes. And the third one is regulatory, that is we can get permission to use the name from the health authorities.
So as you go down to those three, it's a whittling down of names from a big bunch of names to a smaller bunch of names to an even smaller bunch of names. And I'm going to talk about that second step briefly how I use ChatGPT and an AI, a GPT I created to address the legal screening of names, right? It's search, it's called trademark search. So trademark search is the most expensive thing that I do. It's the biggest part of my budget, traditionally, the biggest part of my budget throughout my career. I've spent millions and millions and millions of dollars on trademark search over the years.
But when I came here, I said -- I was actually hired already. I was talking to the General Counsel. And I said, "My goal -- everywhere I've worked, everywhere I go, I see waste. There's a lot of waste in this process." Unintentionally, I mean, it's just sort of baked in because you're dealing with -- you're going from ambiguity to quantifiable risks. That's what you do in this -- in my space, right? And in that process, you're going forward with a lot of uncertainty. There's a lot of dead ends but you only realize that after you spend a lot of money. That's regrettable and something I've always tried to address.
So I said to the Chief General Counsel, Shannon, I said, "My goal is to come to Moderna and build like a virtual program that is heavily reliant on technology." And so that's fortunately, the technology caught up and I was actually able to do it because I don't know if I did -- would be able to when I actually said it.
So here's the evolution of trademark search, right? So trademark search is, again, you go from this big, you're narrowing down a pool of names, hundreds of names to get down to about 20. And you try to figure out which 20 should you advance to stick into the regulatory review. And the traditional -- tradition in the industry, what I've done throughout my career is you rely on outside counsel because this is really -- it's really about scaling yourself, right? So you have to scale yourself out. It's too much work. You can't do it as an individual. So you need to send it to outside counsel.
Here, we have very good outside counsel that -- I've built a team. It's a lot of commoditized work. I rely on counsel in Eastern Europe, very, very aggressively priced, great savings, but there's only so low you could go. And the low you can go is $350,000 a project, and that's per name for search, right? And we have five or more names in the pipeline, so -- projects in the pipeline. So it's expensive. In that you can get 20 names in about 50 countries searched, take you about 3 months. That's a very competitive price. I can tell you what big pharma pays for that, but I'm not going to. It's a multiple of that.
So -- but -- in 2024, we're hit with cost constraints or constrained environment and resources. So I moved this work in-house. And I -- but I shrank down the number of countries from 20 to just our key countries. And -- but I could do it myself, fewer countries, 42 days, and I got a subscription service that allowed me access to global databases of trademarks. So I would basically do the job that here, 50 lawyers are doing this work, one in each country, that's how you do it. I'm doing it now, but I can only do it in fewer countries because that's just impossible when you're doing 20 names, 50 countries, do the math. That's a lot of searches.
So -- but I drove hundreds of thousands in savings in 2024. But this is unsatisfactory, right? Because it's a compromise in the global footprint of the search. And it's not -- I want to have the industry standard, right? 20 countries -- 20 names, 50 countries. This is moving forward with too much risk, which is sort of what a lot of companies will say, "Well, we're cutting resources. We're going to have to like live with this." I don't want to live with this.
So I created a GPT that could scale out my ability to deliver a bigger global footprint, more search, more search, right? So I went to -- I wrote a tool called [ M Clear ], in-house, relying on commercial search database. So I got my annual subscription fee, but I can do that per project for basically nothing. And this is driven -- I did the math this morning, so far this year, 7-figure savings and 7-figure savings in dollars.
So that's all kind of good. Let's see what see if I can do this. I'm going to see if I can do a demonstration of this quickly, hopefully this time. So this is sort of like unlike the projects you've seen before, which are very impressive, this is sort of like Gorilla GPT, right? I just did this at my desk over the course of about 6 weeks, I wrote this thing. And I told my boss, "Hey, look at this, I think we can drive a lot of savings with this." And so then I implemented it. But like no one told me to do this or no one said it's okay or -- but I wrote it over 6 weeks, and it's basically Python code, right?
So I just go into -- I use chat o4-mini. So we'll just start this, so what I do when I start this, I've got these -- I just built this folder. And this is all again, I guess, what someone called synthetic data or something. The name I'm going to search is not real. But -- so what I do is I -- this is what I call the [ M Clear ] engine, which is the real GPT and some 133 lines of Python code, each one a polished gem.
So then I just take a search. This is an example of 500 lines. What's in this, what I just deployed is a spreadsheet. The name that I'm creating, say, hypothetically is Syngenry, that's a name candidate. So I want to know what the risk landscape is for Syngenry. So I search it in the U.S., I get 500 senior trademarks that might be a problem for Syngenry. But I have to figure out what's the risk landscape within those 500 names, right? That's hard to do, right, without -- because you have to go through 500 lines on the spreadsheet and then rank them and then understand them. So that's hard. So -- and that's what this tool solves for. But that's what you -- that's why you outsource it to lawyers.
So here's my prompt. I'm just going to copy that here. Then I just say Syngenry. Guess I could have typed this beforehand, didn't I. And in the region, this is the U.S.A. And today [indiscernible] in front of a live audience. And then you hope you're connected to the Internet. And then you hit that and you wait a few seconds, right? So it's uploaded the spreadsheet of all those third-party rights. It's applying the Python code in the GPT. It's working in the background. For 5 seconds, it's analyzing.
Okay. So here, it will upload in the window the data, right? Here's a preview, it'll give me a preview. You can download the -- all right, let's download it, click the report, comes up here, [ M Clear ] Syngenry U.S.A. Click on that. Right, so here is the [ M Clear ] report, and I'll go back to the slides because it's easier to see there.
So there's the top row of the report that I uploaded. This is what's called -- I just think of this as the raw data. And this is just right out of the USPTO website, right, right out of the USPTO. And so to figure out what the -- to understand the risk -- it's a risk landscape for Syngenry in the U.S. To figure out what the problem marks are, and there's some in there, you have to read 500 lines of data and then keep track of what's the problem and what's not. It's hard, right? Do that 20 times and you've cleared your marks in the U.S. And some of these reports are 2,500 lines long.
So here's the [ M Clear ] report that I just opened there a second ago, but this is whatever, data, text wrapped and the windows made the right size. So it adds -- the report adds seven columns that tell me what the risks are in the spreadsheet. First, I have whether it's a high-risk company, yes or no. And in the GPT, I've identified companies that I add to that list as I go forward, like CSL, major vaccine manufacturer and so forth. So this is very good to have. And because you can just toggle just to look at the high-risk companies because they're the ones that are most likely to create problems for you, your competitors. So I have an overall similarity score that just translates medium, high, it goes from low to high. And so -- and then I usually put filters there. And so you can filter for any one of these things.
Let me see what the highest and the medium-high and high are. Then I've got weighted high-risk score. And then these are the algorithms that are running. This checks for spelling, like how many letters would you have to change in order to make the words identical. These check for two and three letter sequences. I've got a combined overall similarity score. Wow, okay. So I've got seven different things here. And these are all instantly done. As you saw, 500 lines, each one of these things was calculated in a couple of seconds, right?
So this saves an enormous amount of time, saves an enormous amount of money. I don't pay for search in any country in which is a Latin alphabet, right? It's over -- it's over $1 million this year so far in savings and the money you save -- money you don't spend on outside counsel is the sweetest money you can possibly have, right?
So and then I can go to R&D and other things. So that's it. It's very small. It's my job, but it's scaling myself out, which is exactly what I want to do. And it's part of a larger end-to-end AI solution that I'm working on because -- but with this is, is really the money driver. I broke it out and bolted it on to the traditional workflow that I've got.
Great. That's it. Thank you very much.
And last but not least, we have research, and we'll start with protein engineering, followed by antigen engineering.
Okay. Thanks for staying and for all the interesting AI talks we have here at Moderna. This has been actually really informative for me too, what's going on. So I'm going to tell you today -- well, my name is Dan Kulp. I'm a senior fellow. I run a group doing computational design and in-vitro selection at Moderna. That sits in the Protein Design department under Bill Schief. I'm going to tell you guys today about how we're using AI in protein design. I'm going to sort of teach you a little bit about how we're doing protein design in the world of AI. And hopefully, it will be interesting.
Just as a way of background, both Bill and I have been doing protein design for decades. And when I first started off in the field, and I told people I wanted to design proteins on a computer, they thought I was joking. And the field has grown tremendously since that time. However, both Bill and I have been able to design proteins on a computer that we've evolved into Phase I clinical studies. So we've been testing some of these things we've designed all the way through preclinical development into Phase I.
So as we all know, Moderna makes mRNA medicines. The RNA goes into cells. The cells are instructed by the RNA to make proteins. So it's our job to make sure that those proteins have the right shape and right function so the medicines actually work. So we spend a lot of time crafting these proteins and trying to satisfy all the requirements of mRNA medicines for our proteins.
Okay, so another way to put this is, can we choose a sequence of amino acids that help a protein fold into the shape that we want and perform the function that we need? And it doesn't sound like a hard problem. But if you start thinking about large numbers like the number of atoms in the universe, the number of chess games possible, protein design, even on a modest protein of 100 amino acids is a larger problem than that.
So we've come up with sophisticated computational algorithms to try to solve these problems in the past, and AI has helped us go even faster. So basically, designing novel biomolecules was really slow and unreliable previously. But now we can sort of rapidly create these de novo proteins with specified structures and functions, and we're just moving a lot faster than we were before basically.
Another challenge had been that we have low experimental success. It used to be that 1 in 100, 1 in 1,000, 1 in 10,000 designs would actually work for us. But now, which is -- the other day in my group, we had 1 in 10 that we order work because we're using these new AI methods. So we're basically able to go faster and build better molecules, which is pretty cool and allows us to be very creative because we can iterate faster and -- over concepts and design proteins that perform better.
Another challenge had always been sort of this limited exploration of molecular structure. So these AI tools allow us to build complex structures. And so I always think of it as it's opening this universe and allowing us to dream bigger and be bolder about what kind of proteins we actually make. And so I think it's really accelerating our preclinical discovery and broadening our potential therapeutic reach.
So I'm going to show you a few movies just to show you what the protein design cycle looks like. This is a common paradigm in the field that everybody is starting to use now for AI-designed proteins, and it's this four-step sequence. And each of these steps has a number of AI tools embedded, baked into it. And I'm just showing you the basic concepts here.
The first thing we want to do is we want to design the fold. So we got to have the protein make the right shape. So there's new diffusion methods that take atoms that can be randomly distributed in three-dimensional space. And over the course of the simulation, can start folding into things that look more and more like the target protein structure that we're trying to make. And you can see the simulation, if it finishes, will come into a structure that looks like that.
And so at that point, you have the fold that you're looking for, the shape you're looking for, but you need to design a sequence to go on top of that. So the next step in the process is a sequence design step where basically these new algorithms can just decorate these protein structures with amino acids that help it fold into that shape. And once these simulations are done, you basically have an amino acid sequence of a protein. You could go into the lab at this point and just go try to make it if you want to.
However, there's been a lot of innovation in the structure prediction field that actually the Nobel Prize in chemistry is won for this purpose because tools like AlphaFold are so good at predicting a protein structure based on its sequence, we can use it in design. We can ask ourselves, in this design sequence that we just made in this pipeline, how well does that actually fold into our target state? Sometimes it says yes and sometimes it says no. And I'm just showing you an example here where obviously, it looks like the desired protein.
The last step is a structure filtering step. This is because this pipeline generates lots and lots of designs, tens of thousands to 1 million designs, right? We're not going to go make all of those in the lab. And so I kind of think of this structure filtering as sort of the special sauce of protein design. Different companies do it differently, different groups do it differently. And so basically, you take a number of different designs and select out the ones you want to go experimentally test.
Okay. Now you're protein design experts. I'm going to show you three vignettes of how we're using this design to actually design proteins at Moderna. So first is designing vaccine candidates, okay? So here's an example where we had these two proteins, this green protein and this red protein. And we thought, hey, these might be pretty good based on the biology of proteins that we want to make a vaccine for. However, when we went and made these proteins in the lab, they just fall apart. So they're not good vaccine engines. We had no way to make the vaccine.
So what we did is we ran that cycle that I explained to you, [indiscernible]. And in the green case here, we built a de novo dimeric scaffold that actually stabilized that protein. And in this case here, what we did is we actually connected two parts of the protein with a brand-new piece of a protein. And in both cases, when we go make these in the lab now, these proteins express and are good proteins, and they behave really well.
And further than just making the proteins, we've even done mRNA delivery of some of these AI designs. I'm just showing you data here where basically the gold standard in this vaccine is in these squares and our AI design is in these triangles and shift -- curve shifted over to the right are better vaccines. So basically, our AI design in this case was more potent than the gold standard. So we're pretty excited about that.
Another class of proteins that we like to try to engineer are these proteins called self-assembling nanoparticles. These are proteins that are multivalent. And what's great about that is you can put your vaccine antigen onto these proteins and get multivalent display. Immune systems like proteins like this because it looks like a virus to that. And so they amplify their response when they start seeing multivalent proteins.
So there's -- in the past, people have used lots of naturally-occurring self-assembling nanoparticles. But now with AI, we can actually just build these from scratch. So that's what we've been doing. We were just building these de novo nanoparticles from scratch. I'm just showing an example of one here. I'm showing you data confirming the assembly of this when we go make these proteins in the lab.
Okay. So the last vignette here is this idea that there's a lot of interesting biological molecular surfaces out there in biology, and we may want to develop binders to them. One classic example here is a peptide-MHC complex. These are targets of T cells. And so it might be good for us to be able to design binders de novoed against these types of targets. So that's what we've been doing.
Here's one case where we designed what's called a mini binder. We allowed the protein to fold into any shape it wanted to as long as it could bind the target. Where is my mouse. And we diffused it just like using that pipeline, and we came up with proteins that look like this. This is a three-helix bundle protein, but we can also ask for antibody-like molecules. And so we've also been doing that with just de novo design of antibodies.
And we can see here that this is a case of one of our mini binders that basically this is a binding SPR experiment. And you can see that the on-target binding is very strong, whereas the off-target is very low. So that means a peptide-MHC complex that is closely related, but not the right one, we have no binding to. And so this specificity is actually really important for this type of application. But we're able to accomplish it through de novo design.
Okay. Besides this, I think, really exciting protein design cycle that we can do, we can design proteins of all different shapes and functionalities. Our group is using AI in many different aspects of protein design. So one is using these large language models as scientific intelligence systems that know all about the research that's going on around the world and about our research and can help us brainstorm about what are the possible next steps. I mean we've made some of these proteins, what should we do next, given everything that's going on out there. And I think that's been a really great use of AI in our group.
We've also built focused GPTs. So both computationally and experimentally, we're generating lots of data, large amounts of data. And the question is, what does the data mean and what should we do next? And so these GPTs are helping us as data analysts to analyze all that data and to help us come to some conclusions.
Lastly, there's agent AI, which you've heard a little bit about these agents previously. And we use it for designing the code to build these protein design pipelines. I've been coding for many, many years, and it's always been a slow process. But now with these agents, you can actually just launch them and have them generate the code, test the code and deploy the code. And it's just been amazing that it can do all these things so well. I mean the software engineering has been a really great implementation of these large language models.
And what's important is that, that cycle that I was telling you about on the first slide really needs to connect to a large compute infrastructure because we need a lot of computers to do what we're doing. And so these types of agents can actually build in that infrastructure for us.
So why does everything I told you matter today? I mean, first of all, this automated coding allows us to really rapidly assess new AI tools. There's new AI tools coming out all the time that are amazing, have amazing claims. Sometimes they're great and sometimes they're not so great. Sometimes they will be good for Moderna's applications and sometimes they won't. So we need really quickly to implement them, and these agents allow us to do that. They build it into the pipeline really rapidly.
I think also what matters here is that we're able to rapidly develop really high-quality drug candidates. So the proteins we're making now are just way better than the previous generation of proteins we were able to make. They're more stable, they're more specific. And I think that's going to just be better for developing medicines around the around the company really.
And the last thing is, which is I'm sort of most excited about is this idea that you can dream bigger. It allows us to think about new concepts we could engineer going forward that we really didn't have the tools in hand to do at all. And so that's one of my most exciting things about AI really for protein design. So it's -- I have this tagline here. It's like a co-scientist. It's allowing us to sort of go faster, make bolder advances and really help biomolecular design across Moderna and hopefully bring medicines to patients faster.
That's my last slide. Thank you.
All right. Thank you all for sticking around. And yes, we are last but not least, hopefully, I'll tell you some exciting updates. So I'm Kristine McKinney. I lead the cancer vaccines research team. And these are concepts we call cancer antigen therapies externally. These are pioneering medicines, and we have many in the clinic at this point, and they are all centered on and all designed by algorithms, which [ Wei ] is going to tell you a little bit about later. But both the personalized product, the individualized product, which is in partnership with Merck as well as the shared products, the off-the-shelf products are all designed by these algorithms.
And fundamentally, the way these medicines work, right, is by hacking into a common piece of biology, which is that all cells in the body are displaying on their surface a sort of fingerprint. So there are pieces of proteins that are expressed in those cells and then displayed on the surface. So what our -- what these product concepts are about, the antigen therapies, is actually trying to teach the immune system how to recognize the fingerprints that are specific to tumor cells and not normal cells.
So as you can imagine, making sure that you get that fingerprint right is at the heart of both the safety and the efficacy of the drug. And although the techniques for looking for these fingerprints are getting more sophisticated, it's a huge amount of data. It's complex data, it's noisy data, and it has a lot of features that bear both on safety and efficacy. So it's an amazing place for AI. And we've deployed it in order to make sure we're leveraging all of those data.
And not only to actually discover those fingerprints so that we can design the drug, but also in terms of which peptides are present on tumors and not on normal cells, but also looking forward to the next step, which is which of those fingerprints can actually be -- are capable of being recognized by the immune system.
So both of those, [ Wei ] is going to talk about in more details with no further ado.
I can stay here. Thank you, Kristine, for the introduction. So I'm [ Wei ]. As Kristine mentioned, I will walk you through this biological mechanism behind all of our cancer antigen therapies, including intismeran as well as off-the-shelf cancer antigen therapies.
So as Kristine mentioned, the biological pathway for this antigen display and the T cell immunogenicity is very complex. First, your source protein will go through this transcription and translation process according to central dogma, but that's not the end of the story.
After the protein is expressed, it's actually going through a really complicated pathway, depicted by this figure below, to display on the cell surface, which is that peptide-MHC complex Dan just mentioned. Once this peptide is displayed on cell surface on the MHC complex, it still needs to be recognized by T cells and trigger T cell immunogenicity, which is the holy grail that activates everything that is underlying of our drug efficacy.
So today, I will talk to you about three things. First, what is the key technology that enables us to recognize these patterns on antigen display and how we're using AI tools not only to make this pattern recognition much better, data collection much accurate, but also use it to integrate the large volume of data to make predictions. Even if we don't do a very labor-intensive experiment, we can also predict antigen display very accurately. And after that, I will talk about impacts of this technology to our current pipeline programs. And at the end, I will talk about some forward-looking things about new data modalities that's emerging and new models we're trying to build.
So first, I want to introduce this powerful technology called immunopeptidomics. Sometimes it's shorthanded as IP-MS, which stands for immunoprecipitation-mass spectrometry. Those are the two key steps used to acquire such antigen display data. After we acquire data using this instrumentation, we need to analyze this raw peptide spectral information. And right now, we are actually at a very exciting point, almost like Sanger sequencing to next-generation sequencing inflection point over 2 decades ago.
For this IP-MS field, we're seeing the explosion of data volume. We're seeing the instrumentation getting better and better in terms of data throughput and quality. And at the same time, we're working with a lot of partners using the best AI tools in the field to be able to analyze this data really faster and with better quality.
We actually did some quick calculations on how much better we're doing right now, just comparing to 1 year ago before we acquired this powerful instrument internally and deployed these AI pipelines. These days, we can actually acquire 5x more high-quality peptides that are coming through this IP-MS instrumentation. And we also got 65% higher-quality identifications just based on some key metrics in mass spectrometry field.
And we are also doing two different data acquisition mode. One is called DIA, data-independent acquisition and layer on top with a more sensitive data-dependent acquisition. By combining this and using AI to [ rescore ] the target identifications, we get 1.7x more high-quality targets.
Finally, we have integrated all these great tools that have small logos in the bottom pink box into an in-house pipeline that's fully automated and the processing time is much, much faster. When you feed it with a raw data coming from an instrumentation run, you can get the instant results after 2 hours, which is already state-of-the-art performance. And with that, I will show you two case studies of using this IP-MS technology and AI pipeline.
On the left, I'm showing you a preclinical cancer antigen therapy program we call [ Lion ] because cancer antigen therapy is shorthanded as CAT and [ Lion ] is a very powerful big cat. We have very high hopes for this cancer antigen therapy. And originally, we designed a bunch of antigens to come into this drug product. However, one of the design, as you can see from the second flow cytometry part, it doesn't have the optimal protein expression features as measured by flow. We quickly come up with multiple redesigns and highlighted two very promising designs done, the design 10 and design 12, which showed promising signals on flow cytometry.
But as I mentioned previously, protein expression is not the end step. We still need this protein to be digested, peptides presented on the cell surface. That's where the IP-MS really comes into play, where you can see with this orthogonal technology, we quickly proved that these peptides originated from design 10 and design 12 can be detected on the cell surface on the right, MHC complex.
So those are the data we collected very fast with this internal latest mass spectrometer. And 3 days after we acquired all the raw data from multiple designs, multiple technical replicates, we were able to comb through the data within 3 days and inform a locked drug candidate to go through the next stage of preclinical development.
So that's the power of wet lab and AI pipeline combined, new technology. And we also know that we're not the only one leveraging on this technology. In fact, the whole field has been painstakingly collecting such data over the decades, although the instrumentation was not as good as current -- right now. And there are a long-standing effort to try to predict what antigens can be displayed on certain HLA alleles on the cell surface. And these kind of models are very important for antigen design. And that's also -- this kind of public data is at the core as one component in our intismeran algorithm.
So what we are trying to do here is to keep developing even better algorithms that fits our purpose. And in the real application scenario such as intismeran, we care about the very specific feature of such models. We need to make sure that what we call as most likely to be displayed antigens, they are truly positive. And using this specific positive predictive value metric, we benchmarked our internally developed AI model against all the state-of-the-art models, including some really well-known ones out in the field. And you can see that the pink curve on top is the model we currently have developed in the research environment trained only on the public IP-MS data.
And I just told you that we now acquired this latest instrumentation. We have this very fast AI pipeline. So we are now collecting proprietary data. And we also have ongoing collaboration with Immatics, which is another expert in this field. So together, we're really trying to push this frontier for cancer antigen therapies and aiming to develop the best performing model.
Now the last piece is looking forward, what's next in the field. Once we have a highly accurate antigen display model developed, how do we make sure that these antigens are really triggering T cell immunogenicity. Right now, there are many great thinking in the field, leveraging AI, leveraging different biological principles, and we have seen many, many TCR-agnostic immunogenicity AI models out there in the field, and we're also developing our own. Right now, we have some ready-to-use research models that we're investigating, and they usually rely on some antigen-level specific experimental data collected through your traditional immunogenicity assays such as EliSpot or intracellular staining.
However, another very exciting new emerging trend in the field is that we're seeing more and more TCR-specific data emerging, where you will have a specific peptide on a specific HLA allele binded to a specific TCR sequence. This type of binding data were very hard to come by in the old days. But since the pandemic, we have seen Adaptive depositing millions of such binding data into the public domain, but that's in infectious disease field.
In the cancer field, we are also seeing this specific binding data to be collected at a rising data throughput. And we're hoping that with such data volume explosion and more and more novel innovative assays being developed, such as the ones in the gray bubble, using library-on-library high-throughput screening, we will be able to collect TCR-specific training data to design even more powerful AI models to hopefully get to more accurate predictions on any therapeutics that rely on T cell immunogenicity as their mechanism of action. And internally, we're also in parallel developing our own wet lab assays to first validate, be able to validate this model performance, benchmark and be able to complement all the external landscape.
So this is a very exciting time for our antigen selection, and we're very happy to leverage AI for all of these research activities. Thank you.
Thank you very much to all of our presenters. I think that was very helpful for our audience. And so I just wanted to especially thank everyone who also helped on the technical side. Thank you very much.
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Moderna — Analyst/Investor Day - Moderna, Inc.
Moderna — Analyst/Investor Day - Moderna, Inc.
🎯 Kernbotschaft
- Strategie: Moderna positioniert sich als führender Anbieter einer saisonalen Atemwegs‑Vaccine‑Franchise (COVID, Grippe, RSV, Norovirus) und nutzt die dadurch generierten Mittel zur Finanzierung von Onkologie‑ und Rare‑Disease‑Programmen.
- Hebel: Marktzugänge über langfristige Partnerschaften (UK, Kanada, Australien), Ausbau eigener Fertigung (Norwood, Marlborough, Harwell, Laval) und ein konzertiertes Produkt‑Launch‑Programm sollen Umsatzwachstum und Margen steigern.
📌 Strategische Highlights
- Produkte: mNEXSPIKE mit starkem US‑Start; mRNA‑1010 (Flu) zeigte Überlegenheit in Phase‑III; 1083 (Flu+COVID) in regulatorischer Prüfung; Norovirus Phase‑III laufend.
- Fertigung: neue DP‑Kapazität in Norwood, drei lizensierte On‑shore‑Standorte bereits online, Marlborough liefert personalisierte INT‑Supply — Ziel: höhere Auslastung, geringere COGS.
- Finanzen: 2025‑Guidance $1,6–2,0 Mrd., schnellere Kostenreduktion, Loan‑Facility ($600M first draw) zur Erhöhung der finanziellen Flexibilität.
🆕 Neue Informationen
- Capex/Assets: Ankündigung einer US‑DP‑Linie (Norwood) und laufende Zulassungen/Belieferungen aus Harwell/Laval/Clayton; Marlborough lieferte klinische INT‑Supply.
- Forschung: Ausbau interner IP‑MS (Immunopeptidomics) und KI‑Pipelines zur Antigen‑Selektion; schnellere, umfangreichere Datengenerierung.
- Finanzfolge: Loan erhöht Liquidität (Ende 2025: ~$7,1–7,6 Mrd. Cash inkl. Draw) und schafft optionalen Spielraum für BD oder Beschleunigung.
❓ Fragen der Analysten
- Regulatorik 1083: Analysten fragten, was die FDA noch fordert; Management: detaillierte Datenprüfung erwartet, mögliche Nachfragen, kein klares Nein/Ja zu weiteren Studien.
- INT‑Readout: Fokus auf Phase‑III adjuvantem Melanom (event‑driven). Management nennt Ziel 2026, verweist aber auf Unsicherheit durch Ereignisakkumulation; konnte Zeitpunkt nicht präzisieren.
- Kapital & Priorisierung: Gründe für R&D‑Kürzungen: strikte ROI‑Priorisierung; Loan soll Flexibilität für Opportunitäten bieten — Management blieb allgemein bei konkreten Projektnamen zurückhaltend.
⚡ Bottom Line
- Für Aktionäre: Klarer strategischer Plan: wachsendes saisonales Impf‑Franchise + Fertigungs‑hebel → Margenausweitung; R&D‑Umbau hin zu Onkologie/Rare bietet Upside. Kurzfristige Risiken: Zulassungspfade, Impf‑take‑up, event‑getriebene Onkologie‑readouts und Ausführung bei Produktion/Markteintritt.
Moderna — Q3 2025 Earnings Call
1. Management Discussion
Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Moderna Third Quarter 2025 Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised today's conference is being recorded.
I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Lavina Talukdar. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Kevin. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on today's call to discuss Moderna's third quarter 2025 and financial results and business updates. You can access the press release issued this morning as well as the slides that we will be reviewing by going to the Investors section of our website. On today's call are Stéphane Bancel, our Chief Executive Officer; Stephen Hoge, our President; and Jamey Mock, our Chief Financial Officer. .
Before we begin, please note that this conference call will include forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Please see Slide 2 of the accompanying presentation and our SEC filings for important risk factors that could cause our actual performance and results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in these forward-looking statements.
With that, I will turn the call over to Stéphane.
Thank you, Lavina. Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. I will start with a quick review of the quarter. Jamey will present our financial results and outlook. Stephen will review our commercial progress and clinical programs and then I will share our key value drivers as we look ahead before we take your questions.
In the third quarter, our revenue were $1 billion, driven by sales of our free approved vaccines, Spikevax [indiscernible]. The net loss for the quarter was $200 million. We ended the quarter with $6.6 billion in cash and investments. We remain highly focused on financial discipline. I'm pleased to announce that continued cost reduction efforts across the company in the third quarter of 2025 led to a 34% reduction of cost of sales, R&D and SG&A combined compared to the third quarter of 2024.
During the quarter, we made good progress across our 3 strategic priorities. Our first priority is driving use of our commercial products. For Spikevax, our original COVID vaccine, we received approval in 40 countries for the seasonal 2025-2026 train update. And next [indiscernible], our new COVID vaccine was approved this year by the FDA. We also filed and received approval for the 2025-2026 strand update in the U.S. making this the first season that mNEXSPIKE is available in the United States.
We also received approval for mNEXSPIKE in Canada. For [indiscernible] vaccine, Asia will continue to gain regulatory approval and mRESVIA is now approved in 40 countries. We have a strategic partnership with 3 countries, Canada, the U.K. and Australia, where we have established manufacturing facilities and secured a multiyear offtake agreements. In each of these countries, we have achieved important milestones. In Canada, we delivered the first made in Canada, mRNA vaccines to the Canadian government for used this season.
In the U.K. and Australia, our facilities were granted licenses by their respective regulatory agencies. Second priority, advancing pipeline to grab sales growth. We announced in July, positive Phase III full efficacy data which we believe will advance both our flu vaccine program, mRNA-1010 and our flu plus COVID combination program, mRNA-1083. For the flu plus COVID combination program, our filing continues to be under review by the European Medicines Agency.
In Oncology portfolio at the European Society of Medical Oncology, ESMO, Congress in October, we presented encouraging Phase Ib data for cancer antigen therapy, mRNA-4359. Unfortunately, we also announced recently that despite the progress made by the Safe community in understanding the CMV virus our CMV program did not meet its primary efficacy endpoints for conceal -- we will discontinue the development of our CMV vaccine in this indication.
Third priority, executing with financial discipline. The team continues to diligently advance our cost improvement program. Over the last 4 quarters, Q4 2024 to Q3 2025, we delivered a $2.1 billion improvement in costs across cost of goods, SG&A and R&D versus the prior 4 quarters. I want to thank the entire Moderna team for this great achievement, and we continue to work on prioritizing our ID pipeline, growing productivity equaling by the use of more digital tools including a large number of GPs, also better pricing with our suppliers across the entire company.
Thanks to this good progress and momentum, we've reduced projected 2025 cash cost by approximately $500 million since just the last quarter investor call in August 2025. And by approximately $900 million since the beginning of the year. With this, I will hand over to Jamey.
Thanks, Stefan, and hello, everyone. Today, I will provide an overview of our financial results for the third quarter and share our outlook for the remainder of 2025. Let's start by reviewing our commercial performance, which you can follow on Slide 7. Year-to-date, total revenue was approximately $1.3 billion, with $900 million from the U.S. and the remainder from international markets. In addition to product sales, revenue also includes collaboration, grant and Stan ready revenue associated with our strategic partnerships.
For the third quarter of 2025, our total revenue was $1 billion, U.S. revenue was $800 million in the third quarter, the vast majority of which was from our COVID vaccines, which included the successful launch of our new COVID vaccine mNEXSPIKE. Stephen will give more detail on the U.S. COVID vaccination season at a moment. Revenue outside the U.S. was $200 million. Approximately half of international revenue in Q3 was delivered to Canada. -- where we began executing on our strategic partnership through our in-country manufacturing facility.
As a reminder, we have similar strategic partnerships with the Australian and U.K. governments and expect to begin shipping locally manufactured product in 4Q '25 and 1Q '26, respectively. For the full year 2025 outlook, we are narrowing our revenue range to $1.6 billion to $2 billion from our previous guidance of $1.5 billion to $2.2 billion. For the U.S. market, we expect fourth quarter sales of $100 million to $400 million. This would bring our updated full year U.S. revenue guidance to $1 billion to $1.3 billion versus our prior guidance of $1 billion to $1.5 billion.
Our original guidance assumed year-over-year revenue to be flat to down 33%, excluding onetime items. Our updated guidance now assumes a year-over-year decline of 15% to 33%. COVID vaccination rates remain the largest variable to this range, which Stephen will walk through in a moment. For international markets, we now expect revenue to be between $300 million and $400 million in the fourth quarter, bringing the full year to $600 million to $700 million versus our previous guidance of $500 million to $700 million.
We have a tighter range on our international sales as most of these sales are for contracted volumes leaving delivery timing and file vaccination rates as the only remaining variables. Moving to Slide 8, I will review our 3Q financial results in more detail. Total revenue was $1 billion in the quarter, as I just discussed on the prior page. We had net product sales of $973 million and other revenue of $43 million from grants, collaborations, royalties and stand ready fees. The 45% year-over-year decline in revenue was expected and primarily reflects lower COVID vaccine demand.
It's also worth noting that last year's third quarter included approximately $140 million from a true-up adjustment to prior period sales provisions. That benefit did not repeat in Q3 this year. Cost of sales for the third quarter was $207 million, representing 21% net product sales for the quarter. This was a 60% year-over-year decrease in our cost of sales from $514 million in Q3 last year. The improvement was driven by lower inventory write-downs, reduced unutilized manufacturing capacity and lower volume. Overall, these results reflect the productivity gains and the efficiency improvements we've achieved in our manufacturing operations.
R&D expenses in the third quarter were $801 million, a 30% decrease from last year. The reduction mainly reflects lower clinical trial costs as we completed several large Phase III studies in our vaccine portfolio as well as efficiency gains across the organization. Last year's results also included an expense related to the purchase of a priority review voucher. SG&A expenses were $268 million in the third quarter, a 5% decrease year-over-year. The decline mainly reflects lower consulting and external service costs across multiple functions, along with reduced digital and facility spending. These savings reflect the cost discipline we've built into the organization and our continued focus on streamlining how we operate.
Our income tax provision for the quarter was immaterial, consistent with the prior year. We continue to maintain a global valuation allowance against the majority of our deferred tax assets, which limits our ability to recognize tax benefits from losses. Net loss for the quarter was $200 million compared to net income of $13 million in Q3 2024. Loss per share was $0.51 compared to earnings per share of $0.03 last year. We ended Q3 with cash and investments of $6.6 billion, down from $7.5 billion at the end of Q2. The decrease was primarily driven by seasonal impact to working capital.
With that, let me take a minute to share the progress we've made on our cost reduction goals. As a reminder, our original target this year was to reduce our GAAP operating expenses from $7.2 billion in 2024 to $6.4 billion in 2025. On a cash cost basis, excluding stock-based compensation, depreciation and other noncash charges, that represented a decrease from $6.3 billion in 2024 to $5.5 billion. I'm happy to report that we are now on track to beat our 2025 cost plan by over $1 billion on a GAAP basis and by $900 million on a cash cost basis, both at the midpoint of our projections.
During our previous 2Q call, we have lowered our GAAP and cash cost by $400 million each, with GAAP costs lowered from $6.4 billion to $6 billion, and cash costs lowered from $5.5 billion to $5.1 billion. Today, we are further lowering our 2025 expense guidance due to additional progress across the company to drive efficiency gains and continued investment prioritization. Our GAAP operating expense guidance is being reduced by another $700 million from $6 billion to $5.3 billion at the midpoint. This reduction is $500 million of cash costs, plus $200 million of noncash reductions in stock-based compensation and depreciation.
The $700 million GAAP reduction from prior guidance is split evenly between cost of sales and R&D. We are lowering our cost of sales forecast by $300 million to $400 million from $1.2 billion to a range of $0.8 billion to $0.9 billion, which reflects an acceleration of the efficiency programs we are targeting as part of our multiyear cost-out plan. We are also lowering our R&D expense range to $3.3 billion to $3.4 billion and approximately $350 million improvement due to continued investment prioritization and efficiency gains in the execution of our clinical trials. In just 2 years, we expect to reduce our cash cost by approximately 50% from nearly $9 billion in 2023 and to $4.6 billion in 2025. We are now ahead of our plans, and we'll update improvements to our 2026 and 2027 targets at our upcoming Analyst Day on November 20.
Importantly, we continue to target cash breakeven in 2028. I would like to take this moment to thank all my Moderna colleagues for their hard work and commitment to improve the financial profile of our company. Moving to Slide 10. I will share our updated 2025 financial framework. For total revenue, as I mentioned in my earlier remarks, we are narrowing our range to $1.6 billion to $2 billion. From our previous guidance of $1.5 billion to $2.2 billion. For cost of sales, our updated guidance is $0.8 billion to $0.9 billion, an improvement from our previous guidance of $1.2 billion. This updated range assumes a higher cost of sales in 4Q versus 3Q, which factors in similar sales volume and higher unutilized manufacturing charges.
Newly introduced tariffs are not expected to have a material impact on our business, but we continue to monitor changes to global tariffs. Our revised R&D range of $3.3 billion to $3.4 billion, projects an increase in 4Q spend due to the seasonality of vaccine trial spend as well as studies in support of regulatory approvals. SG&A expenses are expected to be $1.1 billion, similar to last year, we expect SG&A expenses in the fourth quarter to increase primarily due to commercial related activity. We expect taxes to be negligible in 2025. We expect our capital expenditures are also supposed to be approximately $300 million. We are increasing our year-end cash guidance to $6.5 billion to $7 billion, an increase of $0.5 billion to $1 billion from our prior guidance of approximately $6 billion.
This increase is projected to increase year-end cash due to the reduction in our operating expense for the year. In summary, we have made strong financial progress against our 2025 financial objectives. We have tightened our sales range because of increased visibility into our seasonal sales. And we have lowered our 2025 cash cost estimate by $900 million from $5.5 billion to $4.6 billion, resulting in a higher projected year-end cash balance of $6.5 billion to $7 billion.
With that, I will now turn the call over to Stephen.
Thank you, Jamey, and good morning or good afternoon, everyone. Today, I'll review our current commercial positioning in the U.S. as well as our progress across our pipeline. As you know, COVID vaccine sales still represent the vast majority of our revenues. And as Jamey pointed out earlier, the U.S. is our largest market in 2025. .
Slide 12 reviews the U.S. COVID vaccination market during the fall of '24 and the cumulative vaccinations to date for the retail channel for the fall of '25 as reported by IQVIA. As a reminder, the retail channel represented 72% of the total vaccinations in the fall of 2024. We expect this segment will represent a similar proportion of the market in 2025. As Jamey noted earlier, our U.S. revenue guidance is $1.0 billion to $1.3 billion. This range is based on our preseason expectation for a 20% to 40% decline from fall 2024 retail vaccinations of approximately $26 million.
As of October 24, and of this year, cumulative retail vaccinations were $13.2 million, down approximately 30% year-over-year and well within the 20% to 40% decline we had assumed in our 2025 U.S. revenue outlook. Moving to Slide 13. Our COVID retail market share is 42%, up 2 percentage points from last year. We are most pleased by the strong market uptake for mNEXSPIKE even given a midyear launch. mNEXSPIKE now makes up 55% of our COVID vaccination volume.
Slide 14 is a summary of our prioritized pipeline. This pipeline now consists of 3 approved products, 2 programs with positive Phase III results and 5 more candidates in clinical studies with registrational potential.
Moving to Slide 15, which outlines the latest developments in our late-stage respiratory portfolio, I think to start with our COVID vaccines. As mentioned earlier, Spikevax updated 2025, 2026 formula is now approved in 40 countries. For mNEXSPIKE, we received approval for the 25-26 formula in the U.S. And we are also approved in Canada. We have also applied for approval in Europe, Australia, Taiwan and Japan and would expect to launch in those countries in the '26, '27 seasons. For mRESVIA, our RSV vaccine, it has been approved for adult age 60 and older in 40 countries and also approved for high-risk adults aged 18 to 59 in 31 of those 40 countries. We recently presented multiple data sets from the mRESVIA clinical program at IDWeek. For our flu vaccine candidate, MRNA-1010, we expect to complete regulatory submissions for approval in the United States, Canada, Australia and Europe by January 2026. The -- the positive results from our Phase III vaccine efficacy trial were presented at both ID Week and the European Scientific Working Group on influenza or as we, this past month. Moving on to mRNA-1083. Our combination flu covid vaccine candidate. Our filing for approval is under review with the European Medicines Agency. And we expect to refile with Health Canada by the end of 2025.
In the U.S., we are awaiting further guidance from the FDA on our plans to refile. We presented Phase III immunogenicity subanalyses for our flu COVID combination program at [indiscernible]. Now turning to our nonrespiratory vaccine and rare disease portfolios. Our ongoing Phase III norovirus study has not yet accrued sufficient cases needed to conduct the interim analysis after the first season. And as a result, we will proceed to enroll a second Northern Hemisphere season this winter.
As before, the timing of the Phase III readout will be dependent upon accruing sufficient cases to trigger the interim analysis. For mRNA-1647, as we announced in late October, we did not meet the primary endpoint for prevention of infection in our Phase III CMV efficacy study. We are discontinuing development in congenital CMV. However, we will continue to evaluate mRNA-1647 in an ongoing Phase II trial in patients who are undergoing bone marrow transplantation.
In rare diseases, I'm happy to announce that we have reached target enrollment of the registrational study for our propionic acidemia or PA program. We also had the opportunity to present data from our ongoing Phase I/II study at the International Congress of inborn errors of metabolism medical meeting during the quarter. For methamolonic acidemia, or MMA, we presented interim data from the Phase I/II trial at that same meeting, and we expect our MMA registrational trial to start in 2026.
Turning now to our oncology portfolio. We continue to make significant progress in advancing our programs. For entisparan, which is partnered with Merck, we have several late-stage studies underway. Our Phase III trial in adjuvant melanoma is fully enrolled and accruing events towards its interim analysis. Our Phase II adjuvant renal cell carcinoma trial is also fully enrolled. And as we have disclosed previously, we have 2 Phase III studies in non-small cell lung cancer and multiple randomized Phase II studies, including a Phase II study in high-risk muscle-invasive bladder cancer and a Phase II study in high-risk non-muscle invasive bladder cancer, all of which are still enrolling.
We've also expanded our entizimirin program into the metastatic study with a Phase II study in first-line metastatic melanoma and a recently opened Phase II study in first-line metastatic squamous non-smelter cell lung cancer. Both these studies are randomized trials. Neoantigen from neoangine analysis from our Phase II adjuvant melanoma trial was presented at the Society for Melanoma Research meeting in October. Now moving to mRNA-4359, which is enrolling a Phase II study in first-line metastatic melanoma and first-line metastatic non-small cell lung cancer patients. The decision to proceed to that phase -- into those Phase II was based on encouraging Phase Ib data, some of which was presented at the recent ESMO Medical Congress.
In early-stage oncology, we are dosing patients in a Phase I trial for our cancer antigen therapy program, mRNA-4106. For for our T-cell engager program, mRNA-2808, I'm happy to announce that the first patient was dosed in the Phase I trial during the quarter. Finally, the IND for our cell therapy enhancer, mRNA-4203 is open, and we look forward to enrolling and dosing the first patient in that study. We're pleased by the growth and breadth of our clinical stage oncology pipeline and the continued strong momentum of the multiple Phase III and randomized Phase II trials within our intecmarin clinical trial program conducted in partnership with Merck.
With that, I will hand the call over to Stephane.
Thank you, Stephen and Jamey. Looking at the 3 value drivers of our business: commercial, pipeline and financial. Commercially, we are seeing the benefit from market share gains of mNEXSPIKE, which we believe will continue in 2026 and beyond. Next year, our commercial business will benefit from the full year contribution from our strategic partnership in Canada, U.K. and Australia. From a pipeline standpoint, we look forward to potential approvals of our combination of flu plus COVID vaccine in Europe. The file is currently being reviewed. And in Canada, where we expect to revise soon.
In the U.S., we look forward to refiling further guidance from the FDA. Later this year, we filed our seasonal pro vaccine mRNA-1010 for approval in the U.S., Canada, Australia and the EU. We also expect to see 2 critical milestones from our Intismarin program. First, the 5-year follow-up data from our Phase II adjuvant melanoma study; and second, the efficacy data from our Phase III adjuvant animal study. We look forward to the Phase II data from our cancer [indiscernible]. We have to look forward to a Phase III efficacy data from norovirus vaccine and the restriction an efficacy study data for PA program propylitic acidemia in rare disease.
We have exercised strong financial disciplines so far this year -- we have ahead of our initial 2025 cash cost production by $900 million. We will continue to improve our cost structure and drive productivity. For [indiscernible] cash balance projection, we have increased our year-end projection to a range from $6.5 billion to $7 billion, up $500 million to $1 billion from our prior guidance of around $6 billion. We know that a higher cash balance to exit 2025 and a much ecostructure when we enter 2025 is the right strategy as we transition from a single pandemic product company to a large diversified portfolio of commercial products in seasonal vaccines, oncology medicines and rare disease medicines.
In closing, I want to recognize the entire Moderna team for their net less dedication to our mission. For our progress, scientific, clinical, commercial and operational is focused on our mission, delivering the greatest possible impact to people for mRNA medicines. With this, operator, we'll be happy to take questions.
[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Salveen Richter with Goldman Sachs.
2. Question Answer
As we look to the expense management on the forward here, can you help us understand what's being deprioritized or change to allow for these changes. And then secondly, in accordance with kind of Roivant and the IP dynamics that are playing out here, can you just frame your strategy here on the board as we look to 2026.
Sure. Thanks for the questions. I'll take the first one. So it depends on your reference point in terms of what you talk about from a cost-out perspective over the last few years, as I mentioned, we're down 50% from a cash cost basis. But a more recent in our recent $500 million to $700 million reduction, that split evenly across R&D and cost of sales. So cost of sales is purely driving efficiencies, everything that the teams are hard at work and have been hard at work doing. They're just accelerating and getting it done faster. So that's unutilized manufacturing capacity that is all the waste that we saw in materials. They're doing a great job reducing that, driving productivity within the labor force. So that's not really a deprioritized investment. On R&D, it's a bit of both. It is -- the execution of our clinical trials has been much more efficient.
We've talked in the past about the fact that we were operating for speed -- and this time, we are operating for cost as well in efficiency. So a lot of this is just the execution of our trials. But we are making decisions here and there to not continue to advance to Phase II or Phase III or even out of Phase I here and there. Broadly, we're taking down our just big picture story from the last couple of years. Our large Phase III vaccine trials are really running down and winding down, including CMV recently and flu combination vaccine. And after that, we are moving into oncology, which is a different amount of patients that are under those trials. So there is some prioritization in there, as we've always said, but a lot of it is also execution. But we still have prioritized our pipeline. So we are excited about the 9 or 10 late stage programs that we have that Stephen highlighted in his prepared remarks, and we look forward to continuing to take out additional costs, and we do see that coming down over the coming years, and we'll update you more at the Analyst Day.
And good morning, Salveen. On [indiscernible], the trial in the U.S. is scheduled for March 9, 2026. We remain confident in the groundbreaking technology with Pioneer, including our lipid-nanoparticle delivery system were vigorously defending the case and responding to new filings outside the U.S. We believe that our technology does not infringe any valid patents asserted by [indiscernible]. .
Our next question comes from Gena Wang with Barclays. .
Maybe 2 very quick questions. First one is regarding the U.S. COVID revenue, $781 million that I assume majority of this basically is the inventory build up delivery to the pharmacists. So maybe how often do you track pharmacies to maintain their inventory? And what are additional color you can share regarding your estimate of the revenue for the remaining of this year? And then second question is regarding the CMS -- sorry, CMV vaccine. So what is the learning there? Why immunogenicity data did not translate to clinical benefit?
Okay. So thanks, Gena. Good to hear from you. I'll take the U.S. sales. Yes. So ultimately, the end measure is vaccinations in the U.S. that shots and arms. And so in the third quarter, yes, we ship a lot of our product into wholesalers and then they take it down to our pharmacists, whether that's a retail pharmacy or an IDN network, a doctor a physician's office. And so we track that almost daily. And really, what we put what Stephen shared with you on the screen is that's why we show shots and arms. We believe that's the ultimate measure. And if you look at season to date through October 24, shots and arms are down in the U.S., 30%. There's a lot of reasons for that, some of which we anticipated.
And if I take this back to our guidance, -- when we originally guided at the beginning of the year, we said $1.5 billion in the U.S. sales, $1 billion to $1.5 billion. The $1.5 billion was essentially flat year-over-year for all aspects, whether it's market share, competitive dynamics, vaccination rates, et cetera, excluding a onetime item from the prior year. And the $1 billion, as I said, is down 33%. So we obviously anticipated that the vaccination rate, which is the largest variable here, could go down. And so now we've seen that go down and we've reduced our range. So we said that we believe vaccination rates will now be down 20% to 40%. And we are in the heart of the vaccination season. We're probably half to 2/3 of the way through. So we have good visibility to this. We are measuring shots in arms. We talked about our share as well. And we also look at every single day and every single week is there more pull down? Is it more pull down to the physicians? Is it more pull down to retail -- are there more shipments even in the fourth quarter. So -- and we feel very comfortable with our range now of $1 billion to $1.3 billion, but we do not see vaccination rates in the U.S. getting back to flat, which is the change from the high end, from going from $1.5 billion to $1.3 billion.
Great. And Gena, I'll take the CMV question. So first, we really only have, at this point, the top line data from that trial. And over the coming weeks and months, we will get a tremendous amount of more information, including detailed information on a bunch of other immunogenicity and potentially even correlate production and have the ability to generate hypotheses on what maybe didn't work. What I can say at this point is, as you know, going into the trial, we and the field had high hopes that a pentamer neutralizing antibody response, which had not been a part -- a strong pentup Neutrogin invite response, which had not been a part of previous attentive vaccine was going to be the missing piece for being able to prevent infection with a CMV vaccine.
Prevention of infection with the herpes virus or in CMV was an incredibly high bar. It was a difficult bar to go after. But ultimately, the only one we thought that we could test that had a chance at meeting our target product profile for prevention of congenital CMV. So I guess what we can say at this point until we get that additional data is it looks like and pentamer neutralizing antibodies weren't the missing piece and that it wasn't sufficient by itself to drive a dramatic improvement in the prevention of infection with CMV. now we'll dig into the data as we get it over the coming months, obviously, look forward to publishing and sharing it at medical conferences. And hopefully, the entire field can learn where vaccine development in CMV might need to go next. But ultimately, Pentamer wasn't enough.
Our next question comes from Cory Kasimov with Evercore.
I shift gears over to the pipeline. I want to ask about your norovirus program. Are you surprised at all by the low case accruals here? Or is this kind of anticipated? And do you believe this offers any sort of reflection on the commercial opportunity or potential demand for the product should it be approved?
Thanks for the question, Cory. So predicting epidemiology and norovirus is still an early space. And so we had always designed the study as a potential 2-season study. In fact, we're we'd always expected that it was possibly going to be necessary. That happens in flu vaccines that has happened in other respiratory vaccines, other vaccines based on case accrual happened to us here. I think we believe we're getting better at predicting where that epidemiology will be, where we cite the trials and ultimately being able to recruit cases that are matched to the vaccine come position. And I think we are hopeful that with this additional second season, which was always a possibility that we'll be able to show -- or accrue enough cases to conduct that and ultimately demonstrate the efficacy of the vaccine.
The impact on commercial target product profile we forward, I would say we don't believe that there's been a change to that. At the end of the day, what matters here is hopefully a highly effective vaccine against preventing norovirus. It is a well-established burden of disease globally. And we do believe that the health economic benefit of prevention of of severe to moderate infections with norovirus will be clear, particularly those that are at highest risk, including those that live in long-term care facilities or for other occupational reasons might be at risk. So we still feel strongly about that target product profile. -- and think that the epidemiology challenges of the last season will be addressable with the second season of enrollment.
Our next question comes from Luca Issi with RBC
Great. Maybe, Jamie, can you just talk about what gives you confidence that you can reiterate your cash breakeven guide for 2028? I appreciate you're making some fantastic progress in terms of like managing the OpEx and the CapEx, but still the cash cost at the midpoint this year is $4.6 billion. So I think in order to break even in 2028, you really need your top line to reinflect quite materially from here. So can you just talk about that? I mean, it looks like COVID is still declining. RSV, maybe it's [indiscernible] and done for now. CMV did not make it. IMP initially, it's going to be just for adjuvant melanoma. So what are the near-term product that you think can really inflect the top line in the foreseeable future? And then maybe second, Stephan, quickly. I think a few media outlets have reported in Moderna is working on potential large deals with pharma. So wondering if you can comment on that. And then maybe bigger picture, what's your latest thinking on [indiscernible] these days.
Thanks, Luca. There's a lot in there. And I -- we recognize it's on everybody's mind, and we're going to lay this out at the Analyst Day, just so now. So -- but I'll mention a couple of things here. When we say and we all commit to breaking even, it is both a mix to your point of revenue growth and cost reduction. And so on the cost reduction side, as I mentioned earlier, to Salveen's question, we see ample opportunity. And I mentioned that we will update our 2026 and 2027 framework at the Analyst Day, but there's still plenty to do on that front. .
On the revenue side, we have -- we see a lot through geographic expansion through our strategic partnerships that I mentioned in my prepared remarks, through new product introductions. We'll get them to lay that out in a more fulsome way at Analyst Day. But -- we remain committed, but yes, it is a mix of both the revenue side growing as well as the cost side reducing, and we still feel confident in our plan.
Thank you, Jamey. And on the deal side, as we spoke about in several of our last calls, we really want to get products like the latent vaccine like EBV, for example, to patients. As we've said, part of our privatization of our portfolio, we do not want to fund a Phase III by ourselves. And so we are talking to our companies. We are talking to financial sponsors. As you know, we have a partnership with Blackstone that we did on flu, mRNA-1010. So those discussions are ongoing. And when we have something to communicate, we will. .
Your next question comes from Tyler Van Buren with TD Cowen.
This is Greg on for Tyler. It looks like -- next is already taking the slight majority of your COVID vaccinations over Spikevax. So -- how do you expect the split between these 2 vaccines to continue to evolve? And I'd also be interested to hear what feedback you're hearing from pharmacists and other clinicians about mNEXSPIKE so far.
Thanks for the questions. So we're obviously really pleased with that launch. It has become our leading product in the overall COVID franchise. And that's been, frankly, exceeded our expectations in a positive way. It really speaks to the profile. We think the clinical data as well as the overall sort of momentum in the market towards higher risk populations. Some of that is a result of changes in recommendation in this country, towards -- in the United States towards higher risk individuals and those over the age of 65.
We're continuing to build out that medical story, and the data has been shared obviously at ACIP, but in medical meetings. And we hope to continue to build momentum behind the mNEXSPIKE brand as our leading product in the franchise.
Now Spikevax will always have a place. And as you know, Spikevax is the only approved product in pediatrics down to 6 months to 4 year olds. And that is an important population, particularly for those with high risk factors, those with lung disease or those with underlying comorbidities, even in the young population. So we will always expect some portion to be at Spikevax, but over time, we would hope that the older adults and higher risk populations might migrate to mNEXSPIKE. That's consistent with the feedback we've been getting. And in fact, if you look at many of our large customers, both health systems and pharmacies, that is how they are thinking about the products and using them.
We'll be working with governments around the world as we move to not launch mNEXSPIKE -- sorry, as we move to launch mNEXSPIKE outside of the U.S. for the next season, and we hope to continue to see growth in that brand as a part of our overall franchise. But as I said, we will always have both. I don't have specific guidance on the split because at the end of the day, this is a decision made by health care providers and customers about what's the most appropriate choice for their patients.
Our next question comes from Jessica Fye with JPMorgan.
[indiscernible] for Jessica. How is the U.S. COVID vaccine, demand tracking disease relative to your projections? And what about the ex U.S. season? And also, can you orient us around the potential annual revenue contribution tied to the manufacturing sites in the U.K., Canada and Australia.
Yes. So Yes, I'll break it down, the U.S., so U.S. and then the manufacturing contribution. So -- it's track. I think I mentioned this a little bit already. So our revised guidance is $1 billion to $1.3 billion in the U.S. We anticipate the vaccination rates are -- could be in the range of down 20% to down 40%. And -- that's not too different than what we thought at the outset of the year that it could be flat to down. We definitely incorporated a scenario where vaccination rates going to be down. But we feel good about it. We are mostly we're halfway through the season and feel good about and have confidence in our U.S. range. .
Outside the United States, we actually raised the bottom end of our revenue guidance. So we used to be $0.5 billion to $700 billion. now it's $600 million to $700 million. That's due to -- everything is now contracted. A lot of it has been delivered. And as we look to the last couple of months of this year, what's really coming down with the only variables left or delivery timing, whether some of this falls into the first quarter of 2026 or in remains in 4Q '25. And then there are a couple of markets that are predicated upon vaccination rate. So the demand is still tied vaccination rates.
So we feel very comfortable with our range outside the United States as well. Then in terms of the strategic partnerships, if you remember in, I think, the second quarter, we said that -- the deliveries for our U.K. strategic partnership has already shifted outside the year, which was the reason we dropped the high end from $2.5 billion at that time to $2.2 billion. So we do not expect any revenue inside this year. That will be pure growth in the year 2026. I mentioned in my prepared remarks that half of our international revenue was in Canada in the third quarter. So Canada is up and running. We believe Australia will be up and running from a revenue perspective, that is in the fourth quarter and then the U.K. in the first quarter of next year. So we feel good heading into next year that we should be able to see some revenue growth from our strategic partnerships.
Our next question comes from Geoff Meacham with Citigroup.
The 2 for you. So the first 1 on the cost reduction and just looking at the 2028 breakeven target, I was curious if your pipeline evaluation process has evolved, just to look at maximizing ROI on your R&D investments. And then on the rare disease platform, what's the capacity in this TA to add more programs? It does seem like it could be quicker to get the proof-of-concept data, but I just maybe wanted to compare that to oncology and how you guys are thinking about it.
Thanks for both those questions. So first on R&D, I think it was a couple of years ago and reiterated last year that we said as far as large Phase III programs in our infectious disease pipeline, that we would defer further Phase III investments until we crossed breakeven -- cash breakeven in 2028. And then as a result of that, there would be this substantial downshifting in our R&D expenditures over last year and this year and the next year ahead as the large Phase IIIs for flu, [indiscernible] COVID, for CMV and even norovirus runoff. And so we've maintained that position all the way through how we've been constructing our pipeline, which I would say is not necessarily ROI maximizing. It is cash and investment optimizing. .
We do believe we have several compelling Phase II programs. EBV is one example of a vaccine against evexamonnucleosis and perhaps multiple sclerosis, but 1 that we are not moving forward with in terms of investment. I believe that ROI is attractive and positive we do, but we will wait to make investments until we've shown we can break even based on the current products. And so that's the way our portfolio has been evolving from a construction perspective. Now there are instances and for instance, in our oncology space, where we do see an opportunity to make cash investments within our prior guidance, whether that's with the Intisar in program or with 435 that we think are -- have a very attractive ROI and again, can fit within our breakeven guidance for '28. And so those are instances of where we will continue to move forward. And maybe that's a natural segue to the last part of your question, which is that is also true, to some extent, in the rare disease space. We have the 2 programs, PA and MMA that are moving towards or in the case of PA fully enrolled in their potential registrational studies. And it is a platform where we do believe we can do much more.
There is a very large number of diseases for which we think the technology can work. But again, we want to demonstrate discipline. And so we are not prioritizing making further investments in the rare disease space. until we have PA and MMA through those registrational studies and ideally until we also achieve our breakeven targets for '28. It is a lower cash investment to move those programs forward. And so as you alluded to, it might be a place that naturally as we get more comfortable over the next year or two that we start moving perhaps a third or a fourth program through. but that will have to be balanced against further investments in oncology like the 4359 programs or potentially the reinitiation of pivotal investments in our infectious disease portfolio. And at this point, we'll make those decisions in the future and haven't got a strategic view one way or the other right now.
Our next question comes from Courtney Breen with Bernstein.
Just wanted to probe a little bit more on the R&D cut. Perhaps kind of and contrasted Salveen's question, perhaps a little bit more forward-looking. As you think about kind of the efficiencies that you've garnered and the new approach -- are there more cuts that you can make going forward to that R&D plan? Or would that require actually stopping of programs or changing kind of your prioritized list of assets that you have in the pipe
Yes. Thank you for the question. So we do expect further reductions in costs. We've previously communicated how we were moving towards breakeven. And so today's cash costs for 2025, while they are better than our guidance. They are not done. And we expect further reductions in our GAAP cost for R&D over the coming year and two purely based on the sunsetting of our existing prioritized investments. And so we believe that those reductions will happen without further stops and we will continue to do investment in the early stage space as well, which as you know, is a less cash-intensive, capital-intensive area.
So at this point, we believe we can continue to drive efficiencies and further cost reductions in our R&D investment in the coming years simply by completing the work that we had started several years ago in our infection disease vaccines portfolio.
Our next question comes from Myles Minter with William Blair.
This is John on for Myles. So maybe a follow-up to an earlier question on the CMV program. I know that you're still going through the data, but I was wondering if you could speak to any read-through from the CMV trial missing to any of your other latent vaccine studies. -- or if you view the CMV miss as an isolated event?
Thanks for the question. So CMV was unique in our pipeline in that it is the only pivotal study, a Phase III study that we were running against a latent virus and the only one that was going after a prevention of infection. So we do believe that prevention of infection was unfortunately the only way to try and demonstrate a potential for the vaccine against congenital CMV, but it was by far the highest bar. Vaccines generally don't prevent infections, they prevent diseases from the viruses. And even in the case of CMV, we still believe that there's an opportunity for mRNA-1647 to have an impact in patients undergoing bone marrow transplant, where they are already infected, but they see a reactivation of their CMV that can have serious potential morbidity and mortality. And for that reason, we think there's an opportunity for a vaccine to help control that reactivation even a vaccine against CMV. .
So I guess I would say we don't have other programs in our late stage or prioritized pipeline that have a similar read-through or read-through from the CMV results because we are not trying to prevent infection with any of them. We're trying to prevent diseases. And even in the case of CMV, we see a potential opportunity in an indication like bone marrow transplant, CMV reactivation, where again, target product profile is going against prevention of a disease prevention of infection.
[Operator Instructions] I'm not showing any further questions at this time. I'd like to turn the call back over to Stephane for any further remarks.
Well, thank you, everybody, for joining today. We look forward to talking to many of you in the coming days and weeks. And we look forward to seeing many of you here on campus on November 20 for Investor Day. Have a great day. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's presentation. We thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect, and have a wonderful day.
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Moderna — Q3 2025 Earnings Call
Moderna — Q3 2025 Earnings Call
📊 Quartal auf einen Blick
- Umsatz: $1,0 Mrd. im 3Q25 (−45% YoY; Nettoproduktverkäufe $973M, sonstige $43M).
- Ergebnis: Nettoverlust $200M; Verlust je Aktie $0,51 vs. Gewinn $0,03 im Vorjahresquartal.
- Cash: $6,6 Mrd. Ende Q3 (down von $7,5 Mrd. Ende Q2).
- Kosteneffekt: Kombinierte Kosten (COGS, R&D, SG&A) −34% vs. Q3‑2024; $2,1 Mrd. Einsparung über vier Quartale.
- Guidance‑Update: 2025 Revenuerange auf $1,6–2,0 Mrd. eingeengt; US‑Umsatzerwartung $1,0–1,3 Mrd.
🎯 Was das Management sagt
- Kommerz: mNEXSPIKE‑Launch läuft gut (55% des COVID‑Volumes); Spikevax/Produktzulassungen in ~40 Ländern stärken Saisongeschäft.
- Pipeline: Positive Phase‑III‑Daten für mRNA‑1010 (Grippe) und mRNA‑1083 (Grippe+COVID); Onkologie‑Programme (mRNA‑4359, Entisparan mit Merck) weiter vorangetrieben; CMV‑Programm für Verhütung eingestellt.
- Finanzdisziplin: Operative Kostensenkungen beschleunigt; 2025 GAAP‑Opex‑Midpoint von $6,0 auf $5,3 Mrd. gesenkt; Ziel: Cash‑Breakeven 2028.
🔭 Ausblick & Guidance
- Umsatzrahmen: Gesamt 2025 $1,6–2,0 Mrd.; US‑Jahresrange $1,0–1,3 Mrd.; internationale Full‑Year $600–700M.
- Kostenrahmen: Cost of Sales $0,8–0,9 Mrd.; R&D $3,3–3,4 Mrd.; SG&A ~ $1,1 Mrd.; CapEx ≈ $300M.
- Cash‑Ausblick: Jahresend‑Cash neu $6,5–7,0 Mrd.; weiter Zielaufbau zur Transition von Pandemie‑ zu Portfolio‑Geschäft.
❓ Fragen der Analysten
- Kostensenkungen: Analysten fragten, welche Programme gestrichen vs. nur effizienter ausgeführt wurden; Management: Mix aus Effizienz und selektiver Priorisierung, besonders weniger Big Phase‑III‑Investitionen.
- COVID‑Nachfrage: Tagesaktuelles Tracking von "shots‑in‑arms"; US‑Saison bisher −~30% YoY, größte Variable für Guidance.
- Pipeline‑Risiken: Gründe für CMV‑Fehlschlag unklar; weitere Analysen angekündigt; Norovirus‑Studie benötigt zweite Saison wegen niedriger Fallzahlen.
⚡ Bottom Line
- Schlussfolgerung: Deutliche Kostenfortschritte reduzieren finanzielle Risiken und verlängern den Runway; Umsatz bleibt stark von COVID‑Saison und Impfquoten abhängig. Pipeline‑Erfolge (Grippe, Kombinationen, Onkologie) bieten Upside, aber Rückschläge (CMV) erhöhen klinische Unsicherheit. Ziel Breakeven 2028 ist erreichbar, hängt jedoch von weiterer Umsatz‑Re‑Inflektion und anhaltenden Kostensenkungen ab.
Moderna — Shareholder/Analyst Call - Moderna, Inc.
1. Management Discussion
[Audio Gap]
Some time with us. We're really excited about sharing with you some new data that we just shared earlier today on one of our assets, 4359 that's quickly becoming one of our newest late-stage assets similar to INT, which you've heard a lot about. I'm going to walk you through some of the INT data. And then we're just pleased to have some experts in the field that have joined us tonight to talk to you about melanoma and to talk to you about the data that was presented, the 4359 data, and that's Dr. Sullivan and Dr. Pinato. So we'll bring them up shortly.
But before we do, let me just talk to you about our pipeline. So at Moderna, we use mRNA in many different creative ways. We use it for personalized therapies, which is our Intismeran autogene program, and I'll talk to you a little bit about that. We also have some off-the-shelf therapies. Those are our cancer antigen therapies, which we affectionately call our CATs, C-A-T. We have T-cell engager program, and I'll share some preliminary information about where we are with our T-cell engagers. And then we also have some cell therapy enhancing an in vivo cell therapy programs, which are also really exciting for us to advance into the clinic.
All of these programs have, we believe, the promise of potential efficacy across a broad range of indications as well as a broad range of different settings from early stage disease to all the way to metastatic settings. And what I'll share with you this evening is that if you had looked at a pipeline slide like this a couple of years ago, it would have been about half the size. So this is a testament to the hard work that our clinical development colleagues have done as well as our research colleagues to bring all of these new programs in the clinic and to expand those programs in clinic to so many different indications.
So as an example, our Intismeran program now is evaluating efficacy across melanoma, lung cancer, renal cell, bladder, we have metastatic melanoma study. So many different indications that we believe INT could have the potential for efficacy. And then across our cancer antigen therapies, we have both our 4359 program as well as our 4106 program. And then our T-cell engager, as I mentioned, 2808, which we have our sites open and active. And then lastly, we have our sites open for 4203, which is our cell therapy enhancing program.
I'll walk you through Intismeran. So many of you may be familiar with Intismeran, but in case you're not familiar with it. Very quickly, it's a program that is extraordinarily unique in the field and not just unique in terms of the oncology field, but unique overall. There's never been a medicine that is quite so individualized as Intismeran. So Intismeran is a program where we start with understanding the patient and the patient's tumor. We take that biopsy from the patient's tumor as well as blood sample. We look at and sequence the tumor DNA as well as normal tissue DNA, we HLA type. And then we do an assessment of the mutation status and compare that to normal tissue and tumor tissue. We look at the different mutations. We decide what the unique mutations are in the tumor.
We use that information to put into the algorithm along with their HLA typing. This algorithm then predicts which ones of these mutations maybe more immunogenic. We also, as I didn't mention, do RNA seq to understand how many of these mutations may lead to RNA and eventual proteins. The algorithm predicts the antigens that are most likely to cause an immune response. And then we encode these into concatemer. We encapsulize this into an LNP. And then we ship this back to the patient who can then receive Intismeran. And we do all of this in less than 3 weeks -- less than 6 weeks.
This is our 3-year follow-up data that we presented at ASCO, and this data comes from our randomized Phase II trial. This is P201. P201 Was a randomized trial looking at high-risk patients with melanoma who had their tumors resected. These patients were then randomized to receive Intismeran plus pembrolizumab, the standard of care, or pembrolizumab monotherapy. We followed them for a recurrence-free survival, distant metastasis-free survival. And we are also following them for overall survival.
Our 5-year follow-up is expected to mature later this year, and we hope to have data to share either at the end of the year early in 2026. These are the data that we presented on RFS. We reduced the risk of recurrence or death by 49%, which was super exciting. And this is the data that led us in an earlier snapshot to proceed with our randomized Phase III study.
RFS was not the only end point, however, where we saw some benefit. We saw a 62% risk reduction in distant metastasis or death, and then we also saw a trend towards an improvement in overall survival. These are the safety data from our randomized Phase II trial. Importantly, we did not see any increase in immune-related adverse events. And overall, it was very well tolerated. There's some pain in the arm, some fevers and fatigue, but those were self-limited and went away over a couple of days. And this has been very consistent across our platform. So these type of safety data or data that we've observed now with 4359. We've also observed this with Intismeran. And frankly, it's similar to our other products in our platform, including our ID vaccines.
As I mentioned, it was these data that led us to mount the randomized Phase III trial. This is called INTerpath-001. This study has already finished accrual, and we're following up for events and we hope to be able to assess these patients next year. The study is very similar to our randomized Phase II with the 1 exception is that we're allowing some patients with earlier stage disease to enroll, and those are stage 2 patients.
And as I mentioned, we're now in the midst of a whole series of different trials, some Phase III trials, some randomized Phase II trials and we even have an ongoing P101 study that's assessing pancreatic cancer and gastric cancer in single-arm studies. We hope to have data from some of these studies over the next year or so.
Okay. With that overview of Intismeran, I'm going to turn things over to Dr. Sullivan, who'll talk to you about the melanoma landscape, in particular, the metastatic melanoma landscape and that will lead us into the results that we observed with 4359. So Ryan, thank you.
Thank you very much. So my task is to talk about the advanced melanoma treatment landscape, which will make more sense when Dr. Pinato talks about the update that he presented earlier today. So this is a busy slide that we've been making busier over the last 15 years, which is a wonderful story in and of itself. I'm not going to go into the details. But just to say that in the advanced space, we have a lot of things at work. We have the first immune checkpoint inhibitor approved in advanced cancers and Ipilimumab, we got to try and do that. We can read. We had the first anti-PD-1 antibody approved for any indication in 2014, followed soon after by -- with pembro then nivo, we had the first BRAF targeted therapies. We had the first combination checkpoint inhibitor, the first oncolytic virus. We've done well. We've had a lot of success. But remarkably, despite all of success, we still have more work to do.
I'm not going to take you through all of the data supporting this slide and the statements I'm going to make on the slide. But needless to say, if a patient arrives in our clinic, remarkably armless. Even if they have arms, we have 3 options. We can give single-agent anti-PD-1, we can give the combination of an anti-PD-1 antibody and anti-LAG3, which would be Opdualag for single agent that the approved agents are KEYTRUDA and Opdualag. And then we can combine anti-PD-1, anti-CTLA4 with ipi/nivo. Even if you have a BRAF mutation, this is better. And that's been shown in a number of studies.
And here's a summary of that work. Basically, if you look across the agents, you see varying response rates, but combination therapy is typically more effective than single-agent therapy, both from a response rate, progression-free survival, overall survival, melanoma-specific survival. And while the CheckMate-067 study was not powered for overall survival, which is the ipi/nivo trial versus nivo versus ipi, the 10-year OS and the 10-year melanoma-specific free survival are higher than for nivo alone. And the nivo data and the pembro data are actually fairly comparable.
And so it likely is true that a patient who has 1 of 2 options, if you were ipi/nivo or single agent PD-1 has a similar chance of being alive 10 years if you get either of the single agents, but a little better chance if you got ipi/nivo, we don't have 10-year data with nivo. Rela, we have 3-year data. The first 3 years look pretty good and comparable to ipi/nivo, but there's a long way to go there.
All of that said the majority of our patients don't respond or if they do respond they recur. And so despite we have with ipi/nivo slightly more than 50% melanoma-specific survival. The majority of our patients die from melanoma -- from metastatic melanoma. And of course, the patients that are not candidates for trial who almost always die from metastatic melanoma were not enrolled on to these studies. So in the scenario where we have PD-1 resistance, we have also a few options if we're just not very clever and just say, "well, we gave this, let's try that."
And so there's actually now data from all of these scenarios where there's arrows. So if you were to have received anti-PD-1 single-agent and receive combination anti-PD-1, anti-CTLA4, there's an approximate 25% to 30% response rate for that population of patients. If you've got anti-PD-1 single-agent -- or sorry, anti-PD-1, anti-LAG3 and then received a combination of ipi/nivo, response rate is less, it's about 11%. And although there's now data that's just being published about anti-PD-1 or anti-PD-1, anti-CTLA4 pretreated patients receiving anti-PD-1, anti-LAG3 which looks better than this. But ultimately, the current data that is published and available is about 11% response rate, although the updated data that was -- so this is from a prospective study of nivo and Rela following anti-PD-1 either single-agent or a combination treatment.
There's a real-world publication that got published last week, so I didn't put it in, but it's actually about a 25% to 30% response rate with anti-LAG3, anti-PD-1 following a frontline PD-1 single agent or combo. So that's what exists. That's the actual standard of care, but for 1 additional thing, which is in a scenario where a patient has received checkpoint inhibition, we have 1 additional option certainly in the States anyways, which is tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte therapy with Lifileucel or we have clinical trials or we can recycle checkpoint inhibitors.
So if that patient has a BRAF mutation, that patient can go on to a BRAF MEK inhibitor combination and almost always, that treatment will fail that patient within 6 months to 12 months. So there's still an awful unmet need here because -- well, TIL looks promising and obviously received approval, it's not perfect. This is just a summary. I decided not to show you all the clinical trial data with Lifileucel, but needless to say, response rates in the early days of TIL, which was developed at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, 25% to 50% response rates that was included pre-PD-1, post PD-1. With Lifileucel, response rates of 30% to 35%. And for the first time, seeing durable responders not just in complete responders, but in patients who had partial responses, which was never seen at the NCI. It was either CR robust.
There's randomized data from Netherlands Cancer Institute, randomized trial of their TIL approach, which is very similar to Lifileucel and the NCI compared to ipilimumab and mostly previously anti-PD-1 previously treated patients, which showed an almost 50% response rate and a clear improvement in progression-free survival. Lifileucel was approved in February 2024, and there's a randomized ongoing study in the front line. What I'll say about Lifileucel, it's not for everybody. It requires lymphodepleting chemotherapy, it requires then receiving your TIL, which you see isn't the big deal and then receiving IL-2 following that. It's a big ask for a patient. It's about a 3-week hospitalization.
It can be amazing, and it's associated with durable responses. And so we totally believe that this is the right option for some patients, but it's not the right option for all patients who are in the setting of PD-1 resistance for melanoma and clearly, suggests that the more approaches are necessary, both in cell therapy and beyond. There are some additional data that's emerging with other TIL products. It's a very interesting study that was updated at ASCO. This year with OBX-115, it actually avoids the IL-2 because there's conditional expression of membrane-bound IL-15 that actually gets activated when you give a carbonic anhydrase inhibitor. And the early data suggests that there's a better toxicity profile if you like, figure out when you should give the carbonic anhydrase inhibitor, which was sorted out and may have equally good efficacy. It's a big statement. There's a randomized trial that's happening.
And there's also a randomized trial with a PRAME-Specific T-cell receptor, T-cell that is looking at, again, the targeting PRAME, and that data has been presented and is in now a definitive study in patients with anti-PD-1-resistant melanoma. So that's where we are with -- that's the state of the field. I don't know, Cory, should I take questions now or just get all the data and then take questions. How would we like to do it? After. Then you're up -- sorry, Kyle.
Okay. So thank you, Ryan. A great overview of the melanoma space. We're going to move on to the next mechanism. After Intismeran, we also now have some cancer antigen therapies including our most recent presentation, which was 4359. So 4359 got a mechanism slide.
Here is -- targets both PD-L1 and IDO. This is important because it can help with immune evasion and help get rid of some of the tumor suppressor T regs, but it also may target the cancer cell itself by activating T-cells against the target when the tumor may be expressing PD-L1. So it may work in multiple different mechanisms. We presented our safety data last year at ESMO in 2024.
And today, we had our first presentation of our efficacy data. We presented that was safe and well tolerated last year with toxicities that Dr. Pinato will describe in detail. But we're excited about seeing some preliminary evidence of antitumor activity and where this may lead for further development options for 4359. So with that, I'll hand things over to Dr. Pinato and you can walk through the data with us. Thank you.
Thank you, Kyle. good evening, everyone. The first advantage of me being able to give this presentation tonight is that I can do it a little bit more relaxed way without having just 5 minutes to concentrate all the data and for a non-native English speaker, you can imagine that every time you stress, you lapse back into your regional language. For me, it's Italian. So my accent might not have sounded exactly British earlier on.
So thank you very much for the opportunity to represent this data to you, which basically go and show how mRNA-4359, which is a lipid nanoparticle mRNA molecule that is characterized by its ability to enhance T-cell responses against 2 key fundamental actionable drivers of anticancer immunity. PD-L1 does not need an introduction. But I think IDO specifically is one of those targets that was actually -- one of the first that created the bubble of anticancer immunotherapy to birth, especially when the enzymatic inhibition of this enzyme, which basically catalyzes the transition between tryptophan and kynurenine. So deprives the T-cells from a nutrient, tryptophan and catabolizes the kynurenine, which is a toxin for the lymphocytes themselves was actually attempted to be targeted. But unfortunately, the data in lung and melanoma were a failure by targeted inhibition of this enzyme.
So 4359, at least it's a different mechanism of action, uses these 2 flags, as I describe them, to my patients whenever they come to clinic and get these type of treatments, little flags outside of the tumor cell or the microenvironment as a specific target. And the way I tell my patients about how this drug works is that it gives the immune system a sort of an instruction booklet to try and identify a better and more tailored, the more precise way to treat cancer as a result of a specific and targeted approach.
So the data that we presented today stem from an ongoing Phase I/II clinical trial, where the objective initially was to describe the safety as we always do in drug development. But then one of the features of Phase I trials in oncology is that we give these molecules to patients with active disease and the most legitimate question that we have is are the drugs working? What is the efficacy? And although the data that we presented today are essentially preliminary in nature without control arms.
I think it's very important to go through the data with you, particularly in the CPI resistant refractory melanoma cohorts. So this is the patient distribution with 29 patients. And specifically, there were 2 different sub-cohorts to the group of patients that we're talking about tonight, 14 that received the dose of 4359 of 400 micrograms and 15 that received the dose of the 4359 at 1,000 micrograms. Together with this, the backbone PD-1 therapy of pembrolizumab was continued. We have seen what the expected response rate is for these patients who are basically challenged with the PD-1 inhibitor.
And the median follow-up was in the region of about 20 weeks. You can see on the right-hand side that there is a bit of a difference in terms of duration of follow-up between the 1,000 micrograms cohort and the 400 micrograms cohort.
Reason being that, as you can imagine, the study was done in a dose escalation manner. So patients treated with 400 micrograms are the ones that were treated first, patients treated with 1,000 have got necessarily a shorter follow-up.
Another important aspect to say these patients are the classic early phase clinical trial population. So good organ function, good performance status, heavily pretreated. And the unifying factor though, for this population is a definition of CPI resistant refractory, which stems from clearly defined criteria by the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer. So these include patients that might have either had a response, an initial response, to anticancer immunotherapy and then have developed resistance as a secondary mechanism or those that had primarily refractory disease, so those where there has never been a response and basically patients progressed later on.
So these are the safety data, which as we said, it's one of the primary objective of this study is the treatment, potentially going to be deliverable in these patients. And whenever I look at safety data, I do this little scanning in my head, so I always go to the type of adverse events that would concern me as an oncologist.
And there is a formal way of grading adverse events. Grade 3 events are the events that cause patients to turn up to hospital, are those events that especially in the setting of anticancer immunotherapy alarm as for the concept of synergistic toxicity. So if you combine more immunotherapy agents together, and it's certainly been the case of ipi/nivo, you have a certain likelihood of increasing the chances that the patient will have an adverse event.
So what we can see here is that we had to divide events on the basis of relatedness to either 4359 or the background therapy, pembrolizumab. And as you can see, the 4359 associated adverse events, which are listed here. First of all, they are not particularly different across the cohorts. Those that are characterized by an incidence above 20% are essentially fairly well manageable. So we're talking about tiredness, injection site pain, which is expected from any of these therapies, a tiny bit of fever, erythema, chills, flu-like symptoms. But there is nothing that really speaks for the high-grade immune-related adverse events that can be either systemic or organ specific.
We do have a few of those, but those are classically related to pembrolizumab. And the ones that I would like to basically point out are the ones that were specifically labeled as immune-related so the ones that require steroid therapy, et cetera. Those are in the region of 13.8%. So it is what is normally expected as a result of exposure to PD-1 monotherapy only.
This study because it's an early phase study, look at DLT. So dose limiting toxicities, if there are any events in the follow-up of the patients through subsequent dosing lead to the treating clinicians to say we must stop the treatment. Or this is a serious event that does not warrant us continuing in that individual patient. And for this particular group, there were absolutely no events that were labeled as DLT, which is also quite important as well as very strong and debilitating or potentially little adverse events were not registered in this cohort.
Moving on to the efficacy. So we have a stratified efficacy data on the basis of each individual sub-cohort per single level of dosing. In looking at the differences between 38% and 8%, you have to consider that the maturity of the data across the 2 cohorts is unbalanced and so are the characteristics of the patient population. So if you were to read the Phase III randomized clinical trial, you can infer differences across the 2 columns here. We have to read the data descriptively. We have an overall response rate of 24%, which in the setting of a refractory patient is notable, and you can see the description of each individual response. Mostly, we are talking about partial response. There is a complete response and some stability of the disease. The disease control rate is a measure that encapsulates also the proportion of people that have got disease stability, not just shrinkage of the tumor.
And that is actually quite good considering that we have a lot of patients that were very heavily pretreated, including the responders over 50%. So the idea of having stability of the disease in the majority of patients across the different arms as well as in the totality of patients is fairly encouraging at this stage. But one of the things that is perhaps differentiating this specific molecule compared to others and was also picked up by the discussion is the fact that we do need biomarkers. We need to know whether or not there is scope for this specific treatment to identify a subset of patients, which is the holy grail of oncology, precision, trying to pre-identify who are the patients that would benefit.
And I think it's fair to say that overall response rates are early surrogates of what the natural course of the disease would be. But in a study of this kind, seeing a difference based on the PD-L1 TPS, so the number of tumor cells that are picking up one of those flags, the PD-L1 flag is actually quite encouraging. And you can definitely see an enrichment in all the patients that score more than 1% of 67%, which is compared to data in the PD-L1 negative extremely encouraging.
Here, you can see the waterfall plot. So this is the unidimensional view of how the response looks like in the individual patient, expressed as a percentage change compared to baseline. You can see that one patient obtained a complete response. A lot of patients had partial responses, but there is definitely a differentiating factor, which you can see in the color red versus blue, which is the PD-L1 status. And if you're not convinced by this, you can also look at the other aspects of the data which is this spaghetti plot, which looks at essentially the characteristics of the reduction in size over time.
So this is important because it enables us to understand what is the durability of the response throughout the course of treatment. And some of those responses are highly durable especially in the red patients, the PD-L1 positive. This data are, to me, particularly important because when we try to develop new drugs, especially in early phase clinical trials, we have to ask ourselves whether there is enough support for the predicted mechanism of action of the drug that we are developing.
This is important because it enables sponsors to make go/no-go decisions, enable clinicians to understand how we're using these drugs, what is it that we are targeting. And so on the left-hand side, there has been a meticulous collection of peripheral blood mononuclear cells. So we've been asking our patients to donate extra samples for research to try and understand how these drugs work. And some of these patients donated a sample at baseline.
The sample of treatment is at the point of maximal response to the treatment. And in these 2 assays, basically the T-cells as well as the peripheral mononuclear cells are basically incubated against the very antigens that actually compose the treatment itself. So IDO1 and PD-L1 and there is an imperfect, which was pointed out by the team earlier, relationship between the responses as measured as an immunological readout compared to the responses measured radiologically.
So there is not a perfect correlation. You can see that some of the patients have a trend towards -- an upward trend, both in the IDO1 and PD-L1 responses irrespective of whether they have a response, but the trends are actually quite important more to see whether or not there is any form of immunogenicity, not as a predictor of response in these patients, which I think is very, very important here. And then on the right-hand side, you have something that to me was even more appealing. So one of the key characteristics of anticancer immunotherapy is to expand T-cell clones. And in this particular graph, you can see that across the 2 dosing cohorts, in patients, particularly that achieved a CR or a PR, you can definitely see that there is an emergence of new clones, so T-cell clones that were not present before.
And again, this goes to support the fact that these patients may not have had an intrinsically present immunogenicity to the antigens, but they acquire such immunogenicity and the clones expanded thereafter. So I actually personally like these images very much, perhaps even more than the response data because they go and support the mechanism of response, which is ever so important in early development. And with that, I thank you very much for the attention, and I'm happy to answer questions.
So thank you for that overview. The data are exciting enough for us to expand our current protocol where we have now amended the study to include different treatment arms. So we have Arm 2a, which was the arm -- was the pembrolizumab frontline with 4359. We have ARM 2c, which is the frontline melanoma arm that includes 4359 in combination with ipilimumab and nivolumab. Arm 2d is an arm where we're looking at melanoma patients, but this is an expansion of the previous data where we're expanding upon CPI refractory patient population.
And we're -- because of the data that we've observed, we're restricting that arm to patients who have some evidence of PD-L1 expression. And then we're also looking at 4359 in non-small cell lung cancer patients. This is in combination with pembrolizumab in the patients that have a TPS score of greater than 50%.
Moving on to our next product in this class of cancer antigen therapies, which is 4106. This is a program that we're rapidly advancing through our Phase I trial. This is a cancer antigen therapy that has antigens that are across a broad range of different targets in multiple different tumor types. It's, again, an off-the-shelf program so that we can manufacture large batches of drug and administer this to patients.
So far, we've escalated through dose level 1, dose level 2. We're now enrolling in dose level 3. And I'll share with you that we're seeing so far, similar types of safety and toxicity events that we've seen with our other programs.
In terms of our T-cell engagers, I'll move on to our 2808 program. This is a program that we're evaluating in patients with multiple myeloma. The T-cell engager program has sites active. We haven't enrolled our first patient yet, but we hope to have that happen very soon. This is a multi-targeted program that targets different targets on myeloma cells, including GPRC5D, FcRH5 and BCMA.
And the study design is similar to other study designs that you might expect from a Phase I trial, where we have multiple dose levels that we're escalating and then an expansion cohort to evaluate efficacy. We also have plans to expand on our T-cell engager program in other tumor types with other targets as well as looking at targets not only that are displayed by the cancer cell but also targets that are displayed by MHC. And those allow us to target then the internal antigens that may not be expressed on the surface of the cell.
So it opens up a whole new range of different targets that perhaps haven't been used in the past. And then lastly, I'll walk you through our cell therapy enhancing an in vivo cell therapy programs, so mRNA-4203. This is a collaboration with a partner called Immatics. They've been an outstanding partner, and Ryan talked a little bit about this program earlier where they're seeing exciting results with their IMA203 program, which is a cell therapy program.
One of the challenges, however, with cell therapy in solid tumors is that the cells are unfortunately not something -- don't have a long lifespan. And so by administering an antigen through the use of a vaccine type approach, we can expose the antigen to these modified and engineered cells and therefore, make it more potent and durable and hopefully improve the clinical efficacy of IMA203.
This study is open at a few different sites. We have patients that are consented and enrolled, and we hope to be able to present data hopefully, in the next year or 2 on this program. But it's an exciting new way to evaluate our platform.
And then lastly, another exciting new way to evaluate our platform is looking at in vivo cell therapy programs. So as Ryan mentioned with TILs, but also with other cell therapies, it can be very difficult to administer cell therapies to patients because it involves my ablation. It involves then engineering these cells with shipment, which is very difficult to manufacture and then reinfusion protocols by delivering an in vivo cell therapy, we can achieve similar results without the manufacturing challenges and without the toxicities of myeloablation.
Okay. That's a review of our oncology pipeline. And I think with that, we probably can go ahead and begin with questions both me and Dr. Sullivan and Dr. Pinato. Thank you for your attention.
Great. Thank you so much. And a special thanks to Dr. Sullivan and Dr. Pinato for sharing their expertise with us. So we'll start with any questions from the room.
[Operator Instructions]
2. Question Answer
This is Greg from TD Cowen representing Tyler Van Buren. Can you please elaborate on the mRNA-4359, PD-1 and IDO mechanism in particular in the flags outside the cancer cells? And how it is differentiated from the IDO inhibitors that did not succeed.
I can -- do you want to go ahead? Well so the small molecule IDO inhibitors targeted the mechanism inside the cell for -- as you mentioned, reducing that cell therapy -- the T-cells from being active. Unfortunately, it wasn't very effective, but we target IDO in a very different way.
We target it using cell -- a direct effect on the cell, either through reducing the T-regs, which helps with the immune evasion techniques or we use it also for T-cells to attack the cancer cell itself by using that as you mentioned, a flag, to directly affect the cancer cells.
So we're having a direct effect on the cell as opposed to an effect internally at reducing the metabolism from IDO. Anything you'd want to add to that?
IDO is a fascinating target, but I think if you think about blocking it from the perspective of its function, rather than using it as a flag to identify cells that have it or don't have it, I think there is still a lot that we don't know about how IDO really works enzymatically.
There are a lot of other enzymes that, like IDO, support that process of depleting the T-cells from the nutrients. And so as part of the failure of the old programs, I think we've been left with a lot of questions as to why, for instance, other enzymes could have overcome the blockage of IDO specifically. But with 4359, the mechanism is completely different. So we're not using IDO inhibition, but we're using IDO as a flag that pertain the characteristics of the tumor microenvironment.
Our next question?
Salveen Richter, Goldman Sachs. I have a couple of questions for 4359, the discussion today mentioned that they -- or yourself that you need to see T-cell response at the tumor site to validate efficacy. Have you seen any data there or any early indications?
So my answer was relating to the fact that in a Phase I trial of this kind in an expansion cohort with limited patients, Imagine having paired biopsies of pre- and post-treatment. Technically speaking, is what we would all want to have. But practically on an individual patient level, it's actually very difficult to prove those changes in the tumor microenvironment prior to and after treatment.
So it's challenging to rebiopsy the same lesion. It's challenging to also standardize the evaluation of the changes in the tumor microenvironment. And although I believe that this data are in support of the mechanism of action. Ultimately, whether or not a drug makes it and I put my own academic drug developer hat on is whether or not they actually change the natural history of the disease from a response perspective.
So I believe that those data are important. And together with Moderna, we're working on a lot of additional translational endpoints in the biopsy materials. Some of this will be presented at other meetings later on this year. But I do believe that the key differentiating factor is whether or not a drug of this kind is capable of shrinking the disease. That's an early indication. We did mention the IDO1 program, the old one. I mean, drugs of the likes of Epacadostat, for instance, which was one of the IDO inhibitors, which unfortunately didn't make it, had a 0% response rate. So they didn't have any form of single-agent activity.
So you can imagine that in absence of any surrogate evidence of the drug changes in natural history of the disease, it becomes very difficult to support the ongoing development. Whereas, on the other hand, the biomarkers are absolutely interesting. They're very, very important.
In this case, we have one that is perhaps placed at the early beginning of the patient's journey, which is PD-L1 status as opposed to the dynamic changes across different biopsies, which would also be very difficult to propose from a clinical perspective. I'm not sure?
I will share though that we have been asking patients to have biopsies because it is important. And so we have captured some tissue and that analysis is ongoing. So hopefully, we'll have some data, but as you mentioned, it's difficult for patients who don't have accessible tumors and even patients who might have really great responses, we no longer have tissue to be able to biopsy. So it's not easy, but we're going to try our best to capture that tissue and then analyze it.
And the only thing I'd add is, with all due respect to the question, not yours, but the question that was asked, the most -- we're not, I guess, to the discussion, the most important thing is do you actually have clinical benefit. So we've been able to show that if you -- I mean there's a 35-year history of tumor vaccination data that shows that you can immunize but not actually therapeutically advance -- the care of that patient.
So if you're actually able to immunize, that's great. If you're able to get the proof that the T-cells are in there, that's even better, if you're actually able to show that the tumors shrink in the setting of the therapy, that's actually more important. They're all important.
But the end point is are what we're seeing clinically better than what we'd expect if we're giving pembrolizumab alone. And so that's the question that's out there. In the absence of a randomized trial, all we can say is it looks like a higher response rate than we would expect if we were just giving pembro to those patients.
And just a question on the INT program here. Can you speak to the mechanistic rationale for going after metastatic melanoma versus adjuvant melanoma? And also just given the number of programs you have ongoing, if you could give us a sense of the timelines beyond the Phase II, 5-year data.
Sure. So for INT, we've always wanted to explore the metastatic setting. And in fact, the 4359 data gives us more confidence in this approach for Intismeran. Now most people in the field have stated that this approach with antigen therapy is likely only to be effective in adjuvant settings because you have a very small amount of disease.
But 4359 taught us that it can be effective even outside of the adjuvant setting, and that gave us confidence that maybe Intismeran could be effective in that setting as well.
I will also share with you that in our P201 study, we had patients who had stage IV disease, who did well on therapy with preventing their recurrence. And we had patients who had ctDNA positive disease. And I would argue that they were close to metastatic as close as could be and still had benefit with clearance of their ctDNA.
So that also gave us confidence that maybe we'd have activity in the metastatic setting and why we wanted to explore it further. So we're excited to see the results of that 012 study. And I'm sorry, you had another question, I think, right?
The Phase III readout in 2026, I think.
Yes, 2026, yes, we'll get it next. And I wish I could give you an exact date on that, but unfortunately, it's an event-driven study, and we have to wait for the events to mature before we can run our first analysis. So I can't predict when patients will have their recurrence, and I hope no one does. Maybe we won't have a result until 2027. That'd be the great news for patients, right? But we're thinking the way events are tracking, it will be some time in '26.
Okay. Next question?
Martial Descoutures, ODDO BHF. The duration of the response was not reached, however, could you give us maybe the first feeling on the trend that compared to the standard of care? And is it possible to come back on the nature and the persistence of the new T-cell clones receptor, what could we learn for the future on these aspects?
I'm not sure I followed the first part of the question.
So how -- if I understood correctly, how the duration of response for 4359 compares with the duration of pembro on its own?
Yes.
Yes, so there is an advantage from adding not just on the response rate, but on the durability of the responses. I mean, to be honest, in the setting of rechallenge, when we rechallenge patients and I don't treat melanoma patients.
Yes, I can take that one. So in melanoma patients, mostly when you get a response, it can generally lasts -- not always, but the majority of patients, if you have a -- if you see a curve like this in the frontline setting or in the -- sorry, front-line setting or even second line setting with the checkpoint inhibitor single-agent or combo, if you see a response, it tends to look like this. That there tends to be durability.
Now not everybody's response tends to be durable, and this is going out certainly 1 year, 1.5 years for many of those patients. It's hard to know what to expect in years 3 through 5 or 2 through 5. But I think it looks like we -- it looks like a melanoma response curve in patients who are benefiting from immunotherapy, which is a good thing.
I don't think that cheapens the impact of 4359. I think it sort of suggests that if you can trigger this response in a patient with melanoma, even if they're PD-1 resistant, you might be able to have that durable controlled disease.
What have you learned about the T-cell responses. Well, maybe we could move the following slide to the back to the graph. So what do I think when I see these graphs. So two things: First is whether or not there is a difference in people that have or don't have a clinical response. So looking at these curves versus these curves. And being mindful of the small numbers, we have to allow for the fact that these are exploratory analysis, so they're not definitive on hundreds of patients.
But I think it's very important to look at the trends and to look at what happens to these patients. So the T-cell clonality is a readout of whether or not there are existing clones or new clones. A new clone is expected if we think that there has been a new immunization in the patient. So if the patient's immune system has been exposed to something new that wasn't seen before because let's say, the cancer had their own ability to hide that information from the immune system itself, seeing an increase over time.
So we are thinking here is cycle 1, 2, 7, so over a protracted duration of time enables me to be more confident that what we are seeing is due to 4359 as opposed to pembrolizumab. So it goes back to your original question around the durability of responses.
The vast majority of immunotherapy agents that we have, they work against what we call anonymous antigens. So we know that something happens in the patient. We know that we announced the capacity of the immune system to see something, but what that something is remains a mystery and it can be different from one patient to another.
When, however, you see a clonality -- a clonal response of 0 at baseline, it means that, that patient did not have that capacity to recognize that specific stimulus, but then it becomes educated later on. And that education can only really and truly come, especially in a patient that has been refracted to immunotherapy, stop responding before and can only really come if you give that instruction booklet to the immune system.
Am I making sense? What is this making me learn about -- yes. This is, to me, is some of the most exciting data, to be honest, because it could be that these immunotherapy agents might not work the way we think they are. But actually, presenting this data so early and also having done the experiments gives you a little bit more credence as to what is it that you're seeing because the responses are a blind readout. You know the cancer has shrunk, but you need to understand why. And I think this is actually particularly important.
Maybe I'll also share my comments on this slide. From the T-cell-specific responses. If you look just at the patients who had partial responses, those are the purple patients, those patients all had T-cell-specific responses either to IDO or PD-L1. And you can see the increase in the purple lines.
Now there were some patients who had stable disease or progression and still had the responses. So I think that T-cell-specific response may be necessary for a response, but not sufficient. You can have T-cell responses but still have progression of disease. But what we're seeing here is that the patients who had partial responses had T-cell specific responses to the targets.
Great. I'll take some questions from online. Dr. Sullivan, you just spoke to potentially potentiating IO therapy in these highly refractory patients. Can you also speak to the safety profile of the combination of 4359 and pembrolizumab and if there's anything remarkable there?
It's a good question. I think the most important thing that we can -- there's a few different things you can look at with tox. Are you seeing additive toxicity that are independent of the 2 agents together. And then are you seeing synergistic toxicity. We're certainly seeing toxicity from 4359. It's injected intramuscularly, people's arms hurt, there's fevers, people feel a little ill for a day or two, but generally get over it pretty quickly.
And then there's the toxicity from anti-PD-1 and the rate, as Dr. Pinato mentioned, was about at least significant immune-related adverse events was about 14%, which is about the rate we'd expect with single-agent anti-PD-1.
It certainly doesn't look like there's an additive immune-related adverse event or synergistic immune-related adverse event rate with the combination. And ultimately, those are the toxicities that we worry the most about. You don't love that patients have a sore arm and are not feeling great for a day or two after receiving treatment. But that's very different than a combination therapy that dramatically increases the rate of colitis or pneumonitis or myocarditis or any of the other [ entities ] that we see and call immune-related adverse events.
So I would say that each agent causes toxicity. They don't potentiate the toxicity, but may potentiate the efficacy. And so if that's actually what's happening, that's an ideal combination for this because as much as an immune checkpoint inhibitors have transformed the way we treat this disease, one of the major issues that we struggle with is the development and the management of immune-related adverse events.
Another one from online. Dr. Pinato, you mentioned differences in follow-up between 4359 dose cohorts. What was the median follow-up for 4359 at the 400-microgram dose versus the 1,000 microgram cohort?
It was close to 20 weeks, if I'm not mistaken, the 400 micrograms, I think it's one slide earlier. We can -- one earlier again, there we go. So it is -- probably one slide earlier. There we go, yes. So the follow-up is here at the top of the table. So it's 22.5 weeks for the 400 micrograms and 10.4 weeks for the 1,000 micrograms. So that's the difference.
The overall median follow-up time is 20 weeks for the whole cohort. So when we're looking at the overall response rates, we should take into account the 20 weeks. But then when you look at the different cohorts, there is that difference.
Okay. And is there monotherapy overall response data for 4359? And can you recap that, please?
Monotherapy.
We have not published that data. I believe have we published the monotherapy data? Oh, that was part of the ESMO presentation, yes. So the monotherapy data, which we don't have in this slide, but it's hard to interpret the responses because we had multiple different dose levels in that program, and we did not see any partial responses or complete responses in that cohort in those escalations.
But again, it did -- it enrolled a whole variety of different tumor types, including colorectal cancers and other cancers that maybe you wouldn't expect an immune therapy to have an effect on.
Well, there are definitely some stable diseases that lasted longer than we would have anticipated, particularly in MSS colorectal cancer.
And for the key opinion leaders, can you remind us what you think pembro retreatment gives you for ORR in PD-L1 positive patients specifically?
As a single agent?
As a single agent.
In PD-L1 positive, there's 0 data that's been presented or published or probably even been looked at in that population. We can say with good confidence that the anticipated response rate of single-agent anti-PD-1 after patients have had progression on an anti-PD-1-based therapy is less than 10%. And I don't anticipate that it would be substantially higher than that in PD-L1 positive patients. But there's actually no data on that.
One other question from online, and this may be our last question. Can you speak to competitor data with a similar mechanism of action with a peptide approach and why they are seeing higher PD-L1 negative response.
Yes, happy to do so. I think they're probably referring to the IO Biotech data, if I would take a guess, which will be presented on Monday. There's a couple of critical distinguishing factors between the IO Biotech data and what we've presented here with 4359.
One is they're very different populations. So we're studying a refractory -- CPI refractory population, which is very different than the population that they're studying, which is a frontline patient population.
The other important factor here to consider is that they're looking at different endpoints. So their assessment was on a PFS endpoint, our assessment is on a response rate endpoint. And in fact, if you compare response rate to response rate, IO Biotech showed a higher response rate in frontline melanoma in the PD-L1 positive patients. So they actually had a similar type of efficacy that we've observed in 4359. So I don't honestly think that they might be that different. But we'll see the response rate data on Monday, hopefully, they'll present that.
And then the last thing I'll just mention, when you're comparing the two is that there's a different scoring method that was used between how we're scoring patients for PD-L1 positivity and how they're scoring. So they use the MELD score for their Phase III study, and we're using TPS for our scoring method, which has some nuance on how you declare PD-L1 positive, and that could amount to some differences between the two.
Are there any differences between an mRNA approach versus a peptide approach?
Yes, for sure, there are differences. So we believe an mRNA approach is very effective at amounting an immune response for a couple of reasons. One, there's a natural processing of the protein that is created intracellularly that then is displayed on the surface of the cell. And I think that can mount a particular heightened immune response. We also are seeing both the CD4 and CD8 response in our platform, and this is true for Intismeran that we published.
We've also seen both the CD4 and CD8 response across our ID vaccine portfolio. So we would expect the same to be true for 4359, and I think that may lead to increased efficacy for 4359. Early days, and we haven't assessed the difference, the CD4 and CD3 population in our T-cell assessments, but we will be doing so. And I think -- I would expect we would see the same for 4359.
Okay. Great. And that exhausts all the questions, both online and in the room. I want to just thank our speakers, again, thank you so much, Dr. Pinato and Dr. Sullivan and Dr. Kyle Holen.
Thank you, Lavina, and thank you all for coming.
Thank you.
We'll be around for questions.
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Moderna — Shareholder/Analyst Call - Moderna, Inc.
Moderna — Shareholder/Analyst Call - Moderna, Inc.
🎯 Kernbotschaft
- Takeaway: Moderna zeigt bei mRNA‑4359 (targets: PD‑L1 und IDO) ein klinisches Signal in CPI‑refraktärem Melanom mit einer Gesamtansprechrate (ORR) von 24% in 29 Patienten und starker Anreicherung bei PD‑L1‑positiven Tumoren (TPS>1%).
- Sicherheit: Keine dosislimitierenden Toxizitäten (DLT); typische Impf‑/Injektionsreaktionen und immune‑related AEs ≈13.8%, keine offensichtliche Synergie‑Toxizität mit Pembrolizumab.
- Mechanismus: Translationaldaten zeigen Emergenz neuer T‑Zell‑Klone und periphere Immunantworten, unterstützt die „Flag“-Strategie (Antigene außen an der Zelle vs. enzymatische IDO‑Hemmung).
🎯 Strategische Highlights
- Pipeline‑Breite: Moderna treibt parallel Intismeran (personalisiertes mRNA), CATs (4359, 4106), T‑Cell‑Engager (2808) und in‑vivo Cell‑Therapies (4203) voran.
- Intismeran: Randomisierte Phase‑II P201: 3‑Jahresdaten zeigten 49% Risikoreduktion für Rezidiv oder Tod; INTerpath‑001 (Phase‑III) hat Rekrutierung abgeschlossen, Event‑getriebener Readout erwartet 2026 (oder später).
- Programm‑Expansions: 4359‑Studie wurde erweitert (Frontline mit Pembro, Kombination mit Ipi/Nivo, CPI‑refraktäre Expansion eingeschränkt auf PD‑L1‑positive; NSCLC‑Cohort mit TPS>50%).
🔭 Neue Informationen
- Efficacy‑Signal: Erste publik gemeldete Wirksamkeitsdaten für mRNA‑4359: ORR 24%, DCR >50% in stark vorbehandelter Population; stärkere Ansprechraten in PD‑L1‑positiven Fällen (gezeigte Enrichment‑Signal).
- Translational: Nachweis neu auftretender T‑Zell‑Klone bei Ansprechern und Immunantworten gegen PD‑L1/IDO in peripheren PBMC‑Assays; Korrelation radiologisch versus immunologisch ist inkonsistent, aber supportive.
❓ Fragen der Analysten
- Mechanismus‑Unterschied: Warum anders als frühere IDO‑Inhibitoren? Antwort: 4359 nutzt IDO/PD‑L1 als „Flag“ für Immunerkennung statt enzymatische Hemmung; andere Enzyme konnten frühere Inhibitoren kompensieren.
- Biomarkerbedarf: Kritisch: Tumorbiopsien sind begrenzt; Management sammelt Proben, sieht PD‑L1 (TPS) als frühe Selektionsmöglichkeit, will aber weitere prädiktive Marker validieren.
- Robustheit & Follow‑up: Kritik: kleine N, unterschiedliche Follow‑up (400µg median 22.5 Wo vs. 1000µg 10.4 Wo) – Management betont deskriptiven Charakter und Bedarf an randomisierten Daten.
⚡ Bottom Line
- Implikationen: mRNA‑4359 liefert frühe Proof‑of‑Concept‑Signale (ORR, T‑Zell‑Clonierung, akzeptables Sicherheitsprofil) und rechtfertigt Protokollerweiterungen; wirtschaftlich relevant nur bei Bestätigung in randomisierten/expansiven Kohorten und validierten Biomarkern. Investoren sollten auf randomisierte Vergleiche, Biopsie‑/Biomarker‑Daten und den INTerpath‑001‑Event‑readout (2026) achten.
Moderna — Bernstein Insights: Healthcare Leaders and Disruptors - 2nd Annual Healthcare Forum
1. Question Answer
Fantastic. Hi, everyone. It's great to have you here today. Thank you so much for joining us. I am privileged to be sharing the stage with Rose Loughlin here from Moderna. For those of you who do not know me, my name is Courtney Breen. I cover the U.S. large cap names here at Bernstein. And we're hoping to have a bit of a conversation, particularly into the oncology portfolio at Moderna today.
We're going to start first, though, with a bit of a presentation to get some context around this part of the business because I think -- it hasn't necessarily been front and center over the last kind of 5 to 10 years of the Moderna story. And so this will be a great opportunity to perhaps dive into that a little bit better.
And then we will shift to Q&A. As a reminder for everyone in the room, please feel free to use the Pigeonhole app. You can put through some questions if there's something that's burning that you really want answered, and I'll work to integrate those into the question set that I already have.
So with that, I'll perhaps hand over to you, Rose, to walk us through the presentation and any other opening comments that you have.
Fantastic. Well, thank you very much for having us. We, of course, are incredibly excited about the work that we're doing in oncology and recognize that we want to share that more broadly.
So today, we want to share right. Well, we'll start the clicker out. Maybe we can -- but we want to share an overview power an overview of our oncology portfolio. So as we look to establish ourselves in the field of oncology, we are advancing a portfolio that takes multiple different therapeutic approaches and uses multiple parts of our platform technology. And in doing this, it's letting us address multiple different types of cancer as well as different stages of cancer. So we'll walk through the different parts of the portfolio and give you a sense of where we are.
So we'll start with Entismeran Autogene, which is also known as INT for individualized neoantigen therapy, or mRNA-4157. Now this is a truly individualized therapy. So for every patient, we take a sample from their blood, which we consider healthy tissue and from their tumor. We sequence those samples and compare them. So we can identify mutations that are present only in their tumor. Now those mutations are specific to that patient. We refer to those as neoantigens. We then use our own proprietary algorithms to select neoantigens and design this therapeutic just for that patient. We then manufacture it and get it back to that patient within weeks so that they can start their therapy.
Now we have previously shared last year results from the 3-year follow-up of a Phase II randomized study, where we combined INT with Keytruda and compared that to Keytruda alone. So in that study, the primary endpoint was recurrence-free survival and we'll walk through the 3-year data, but we also want to highlight that we'll have that final 5-year follow-up available in 2026, and we look forward to sharing that as well.
So what we saw in our 3-year follow-up has been very encouraging, and I think you'll see it's driven substantial investment in expanding the settings in which we are testing INT. So when we look at recurrence-free survival, what we saw was that by combining INT with Keytruda, we could reduce the risk of a patient having their cancer recur, or death by 49% versus Keytruda alone.
When we look at some of our secondary endpoints, such as that risk that a patient might develop a distant metastasis, we see that we can reduce the risk of that by 62% by combining INT versus Keytruda alone. And importantly, for a large portion of our oncology portfolio, we see a safety and tolerability profile that is we believe, differentiating. So when you combine INT with Keytruda, you see a well-tolerated profile, you do not see, we believe, enhanced safety or tolerability events on top of Keytruda alone.
And so for patients particularly in these early settings where they're thinking about that risk-benefit equation, we think being able to offer clinical benefit with no additional safety or tolerability issues is particularly differentiating.
Now we are currently in a Phase III study in the adjuvant melanoma setting, where we are combining INT with Keytruda, and this study completed its enrollment at the end of 2024. Now the design of the study is again looking at recurrence-free survival. So we actually will need to accrue a certain number of cases before we are able to look at those data. We have gone, of course, as we look at that case accrual and modeled it based on our Phase II study as well as other Keytruda studies. And so we are cautiously optimistic that we'll be able to share data from this study in 2026.
Now in addition to this pivotal study in adjuvant melanoma, we've started a development program for INT that expands across multiple different tumor types. So for example, you'll see we have two additional pivotal studies running in non-small cell lung cancer and SCLC. We have studies that are Phase II randomized studies in high-risk muscle-invasive bladder cancer, renal cell cancer and non-muscle invasive bladder cancer.
Now as we look through these studies, in addition to testing different cancer types, we have the opportunity to test INT in different combinations. So for example, in the non-muscle invasive bladder cancer setting, we're able to test INT on top of BCG, which is standard of care there as opposed to Keytruda and also as a monotherapy. So we're excited to see those data.
And then finally, we most recently announced that we started a study in a late-stage setting. So first-line metastatic melanoma to really understand what INT's potential is in those more advanced patients. So based on the data that we saw in INT, we've been very encouraged about this therapeutic approach for oncology, and we've expanded our pipeline of cancer antigen therapies And as you can see from the small graphic there, where INT is individualized, our other cancer antigen therapies -- our other cancer antigen therapies, we actually refer to them as off the shelf.
So they target antigens that are shared among many patients, so they do not need to be individualized. They can be manufactured once and available when that patient appears and their clinician is ready to treat. So there are two flavors of our cancer antigen therapies that we'll talk through.
The first is mRNA-4359. So 4359 is designed to encode antigens from the PD-L1 and IDO protein and to train your immune system to kill the cells that overexpress those proteins. Now there are two types of cells that do that. One are cancer cells. So you can imagine, simply to the immune system to kill the tumor.
The second are immunosuppressive cells, and we think this is an important aspect of the mechanism of action of 4359. So you can think about T-regulatory cells, myeloid-derived suppressor cells. The types of cells that create that environment that makes it hard for your immune system to recognize and then get activated as it's finding antigens on tumor cells. Do you think about it as taking the brakes off of the immune system?
Because this is such a central mechanism in cancer, we believe mRNA-4359 will be applicable in multiple different types of cancer. So we think of it more like the pipeline and a product type of concept. We've previously shared data from the Arm 1A shown here, the dose escalation at ESMO last year, I believe. And that is looking at 4359 as a monotherapy in advanced metastatic patients.
We are looking forward in October of this year at ESMO to sharing additional data from the Arm 1B of the study, where we are looking at 4359 in combination with Keytruda, and looking in melanoma and NSCLC patients who are again advanced in metastatic and checkpoint inhibitor refractory. So these are very heavily pretreated patients that we're going into. We're excited to be able to show those data shortly. In addition, we are planning Phase II Arms, we're expanding into different indications, including first-line in NSCLC with PD-L1 high, as well as first-line melanoma.
Now as we think again about that mechanism of action, we've been excited to see as we think about some of our translational data that we're seeing those regulatory T cells and those myeloid-derived suppressor cells being depleted from the periphery in our studies. We're actually seeing less T cell exhaustion.
So we're starting to see that the therapy is creating that much more permissive immune environment for your body to identify and tackle a cancer. And in doing that, we're still seeing that safety and tolerability profile. It's pretty similar to what we saw with INT. So quite favorable, well tolerated, your adverse events are very low grade.
So coming back to our office-shelf therapies, we have another flavor that is specifically tumor targeted. So the antigens that it encode are present in those tumor cells. And our lead program there is mRNA-4106. So for mRNA-4106, this therapy, it encodes for multiple tumor targets. We have designed this therapy such that when you look at an indication within cancer, we expect a broad population to have these antigens present in their tumors. So we do not need to go and sequence their tumors. We do not need to go and look and see if their tumors are expressing these proteins.
So in addition to covering a broad set of patients within a type of cancer, if you look at a single patient, we anticipate their tumor will also be expressing multiple antigens within our design for this therapeutic. As it turns out, when you look at the different types of cancer, many of them actually share underlying biology. So even though this is not going after a central immune pathway, it is going after antigens present in cancer cells, they are actually shared across quite a number of different types of cancer. So we do believe that mRNA-1046 and the cancer vaccines we're developing in this space will be broadly applicable as well. So 4106 is currently in a Phase I study, where our primary objective is safety and tolerability. We're looking at it as a monotherapy and in combination with checkpoint inhibitor therapy.
So now we'll take a bit of a pivot in the portfolio in terms of the therapeutic approach that we're taking on oncology. So as opposed to our cancer antigen therapies, which we think of as really training the immune system to identify and kill cells, we think those T cell engagers is actually guiding your immune system towards the cells that you want to eliminate.
So we have two flavors of T cell engagers that we are developing. The first is focused on targeting what we call surface antigen, so proteins on the surface of cancer cells. So the T cell engager is a secreted protein, and it will bind to CD3 on any T cell, and it will bind to this protein on the surface of a cancer cell, hold those two in proximity, help activate that T cell and help that T cell kill that cancer cell.
Now as we think about developing T cell engagers with our mRNA platform, we have two key advantages in this space that we believe are differentiating versus recombinant protein approaches. So the first, is what we refer to as multiplexing. And we specifically use that vocabulary as opposed to combination because from a regulatory perspective, our products are a single product. So within one product, not a combination, we are able to encode for T cell engagers that can identify three different surface antigens.
We believe this is important as you're thinking about antigen escape when you're treating different types of cancers. We also believe that this is important to address tumor heterogeneity. Not every cancer cell is identical. They don't all express all of the same targets. So by being able to go for multiple targets at the same time, you have a better chance of getting that deep and durable response.
The second differentiating factor for us is that we can also encode for proteins that can provide some of those important co-stimulatory signals which can both increase your T cell activation and increase your specificity. You wouldn't just want to increase T cell activation without giving it that specificity, but we have the ability to do that with our mRNA platform.
I'll come back to mRNA-2808 in a second, but to see the second flavor of T cell engagers that we're developing, are in combination with our collaboration partner, Immatics and these rather than targeting proteins on the surface of a cancer cell, actually target intracellular antigens that are presented on that cancer cell. Now what's important for us in this aspect is that it allows us to open up that antigen space. So there are more targets available to us to pursue.
And in addition, some of these proteins that only appear inside cancer cells are very, very specific to those cancer cells. They are not appearing. They are not expressed or presented in your healthy tissue. So you're broadening that therapeutic index and being able to offer a potentially, safer and more tolerable therapeutic.
So coming to our lead program in this space, mRNA-2808 is in a Phase I study now in relapsed multiple myeloma patients and who have been triple class exposed. So our primary endpoints are safety in this study. And we are quite keen to see the translational and clinical outcomes of this study, for example, looking at impacts on different B cell populations in these patients.
So moving to the final portion of our oncology portfolio. We have what we refer to as our cell therapy enhancers and our In vivo cell therapies. So I'll start on the top here, but I'm actually going to do a bit of an aside to talk about ex vivo cell therapy. Now we are not developing Ex vivo cell therapies. However, we do believe that we can improve the performance of them. So for those who are familiar with Ex vivo CAR-T or Ex vivo TCR-T, these have been truly transformative therapies for the hematological malignancies.
In solid tumors, they have shown some pretty interesting effect, but they haven't shown the same level of effect as in this malignancies. So what we believe, based on clinical data that you continue to see this correlation between the persistence of those engineered T cells and to the state, the health, if you want to think of it that way, of those engineered T cells in a patient and clinical outcomes.
So our cell therapy enhancers are designed to improve those two things in the patient. So in collaboration with Immatics, who's developing an Ex vivo TCR-T, you can imagine Ex vivo cell therapy, what you first do is you take the cells out of the patient, you activate them, you proliferate them, you engineer them. You have to lymphodeplete the patient so killing a bunch of their remaining immune cells, then you infuse those cells back into the patient. So you have the engineered T cells back into the patient is extremely arduous and individualized process.
We can then administer our cell therapy enhancer, which is designed to encode the exact antigen that the engineered T cells recognize. So we can actually boost the T cell response of the engineered T cells in the patient's body. And we can do this over time. They only get those cells infused once, but we can boost as often as is needed. So we currently are in a Phase I study, where we are combining our mRNA-4203, which, as I mentioned, was designed explicitly to activate the engineered T cells of our partner, Immatics and their IMA203 therapy.
So this is in patients with cutaneous melanoma or synovial sarcoma. And again, our private endpoints are safety with the translational and clinical data from the study that we'll be watching closely.
Now I'm going to come back actually to the bottom half of this slide, which is In vivo cell therapy. So as I described, Ex vivo cell therapy, I think you can start to imagine some of the hurdles both that patients go through, that clinicians go through, that your manufacturers go through in providing that drug. And we think if you're able to have cell therapy that uses an mRNA-LNP based approach, you could eliminate many of those barriers.
So our first approach is what we refer to as CARM. You can think of the M as standing for monocytes. So using mRNA-LNPs, we transfect monocytes and macrophages within the patient's body and encode a CAR, just like you would imagine, in CAR T. Now with that car expressed on these monocytes, they are going to traffic to the tumor within the tumor, that car finds its antigen, binds to it. That monocyte or macrophage will then get activated.
It will start secreting immune stimulatory cytokines around it. It will start phagocytosing and eating those cancer cells around it. But perhaps most importantly, in doing that, what it does is start to present even more antigens from those cancer cells to the rest of your immune system. So it actually broadens the response well beyond the CAR that was originally encoded in the therapy because once it gets into the tumor, it's showing many, many, many different antigens to immune system.
In vivo CAR-T similarly uses LNP technology to transfect T cells so that they express a CAR. And again, once they recognize that antigen on the tumor through the CAR, they will directly kill those cancer cells.
So thank you again for the opportunity to share some of our oncology portfolio with you. We are really excited about the diversity of therapeutic approaches that we were able to take. We're excited about the different parts of our platform technology that we are able to leverage in this space. And we really like the opportunity that it offers to be able to treat different types of cancer and different stages of cancer to truly have an impact on those patients.
Absolutely. Thank you so much for taking us through that because I think there's a lot there. There's a lot that sits kind of behind the INT, which has been kind of your leading asset in many ways. Can you talk a little bit about kind of how these pieces fit together? It feels like there's a lot of different approaches to come at patients, perhaps kind of shifting from individualized, but it's all built on the backbone of the mRNA. So can you talk about kind of the portfolio strategy?
Yes, absolutely. So as we are thinking about it, we are thinking about this as building a toolkit that can engage with the immune system in different ways based on what's needed in different stages of cancer.
So for example, if you were thinking about a patient that is in a preventative or precancerous state, you might only need to prime the immune system such that when one of those cancer cells develops, it quickly recognizes it and eliminates it.
If you are thinking about an early-stage cancer patient, perhaps they've had a resection, you might want to train the immune system with a cancer antigen therapy to prevent recurrence after they've had their tumor removed. If you start thinking about some of your more advanced patients that are later line, their immune systems might not be quite as competent, you might want to access a broader population of T cells.
You might think there that in order to really, again, have deep and durable responses, you might want to use something like a T cell engager that is multiplex and can handle a complex heterogeneous tumor. You might want to consider a cell therapy where, instead of just guiding your immune system, you're just engineering it to go in and fight that cancer. So we think of it as the different ways to leverage the immune system that will be most relevant in those different stages of cancer.
Absolutely. And I think kind of in a couple of different places, you're doing kind of concept of off-the-shelf versus your own personalized work plus kind of perhaps potentiating other personalized work when it comes to the CAR T space as well. How do you think about kind of the utilization of those opportunities and kind of is there the potential that off-the-shelf can perhaps deliver the same types of durable responses as the personalized or how might you think fit together?
Yes. Ultimately, the data will determine whether an individualized approach or a sort of off-the-shelf approach may be superior as we go forward. We are seeing similar safety profiles from those two, which we think is encouraging. Ultimately, some of the other differentiators might actually be the availability. So when you think about the manufacturing of those individualized therapies, you do need a window to design and manufacture.
And when we think about some of the off-the-shelf therapies, they may be available as soon as the patient arrives. And so those may fit really well together in a sort of complementary way.
Absolutely. Because I think it's about a 6-week window or so for your INT study. One thing that I just wanted to ask about because I think it popped up in the presentation, the 4203, which is kind of potentiating the cell therapy interventions. As you look at those, I think the early studies are in solid tumors predominantly where CAR T hasn't necessarily had the kind of full deep durable effects in the same way as we've seen in liquid. Is that the space where you think the most opportunity is? Or could these also be used to help increase the response rate or increase the durability of responses or perhaps even reduce the amount of CAR T that needs to be infused in the heme space as well?
We do think any space where you may not have the same access to antigen or you may be in an immune suppressive environment we do believe a cell therapy enhancer could have a benefit. Those are perhaps exaggerated in the solid tumor settings, but it's not that they are not present in some of those other liquid tumors.
Got it. That's super helpful. As you kind of walk through that, it feels like there's a lot going on as we kind of looked at kind of -- and a lot early as well as kind of some big readouts for the INT program as well. Can you talk about kind of some of the big catalysts we should be looking out for, you mentioned kind of some of the data we're going to get in 2026. Can you talk about kind of expectations on what you might be looking to deliver and kind of the goals there?
Sure. So if we go sort of in a chronological order, as I mentioned at ESMO this year, we are looking forward to sharing Arm 1B data from 4359.
And as we roll into 2026, we should be able to share the 5-year follow-up from INT in that Phase II randomized study in adjuvant melanoma. So again, the same setting as the pivotal study that we have ongoing. The pivotal study. We are cautiously optimistic that we will have enough cases to be able to share data over the course of 2026.
And when you look through the other indications as they are coming, our study in adjuvant RCC, renal cell carcinoma with INT has also fully enrolled. So that is likely next in line for providing data we may also have some smaller, more opportunistic readouts this year, because we still have Phase I cohorts running with INT in exploratory setting, so spaces like pancreatic and gastric where we're really going into different cancer types that have very different profiles of the tumor microenvironment and tumor mutational burden.
And maybe to that point that you just finished on the different types of tumors that kind of perhaps immune sensitivity of those tumors as well. As I look through your portfolio, in many ways, it's about potentiating enhancing or directing being in system to target -- to target kind of that particular tumor type.
Melanoma is kind of a good place to start always highly immune-sensitive cancer. Some might then say non-small cell lung cancer is another place, triple-negative breast is another place that's potentially being very responsive to checkpoint inhibitors as well. How do you think about that strategy and your ability to perhaps kind of double down in a place like melanoma or non-small cell lung versus being able to broaden and go across different tumor types?
I think what you're seeing us do is a very methodical exploration of those different variables because we believe INT has the potential to bring clinical benefit in the different settings. So starting in melanoma, as you pointed out, tends to have high tumor mutational burden, given that many, many years ago when we started INT, thinking about the design, it is required to have sufficient mutations to be able to design it.
And so starting in an environment where you have a high tumor mutational burden and sensitivity to checkpoint inhibitors and IO therapies makes a lot of sense. So starting out in early settings in adjuvant melanoma. As we proceeded through, you can think through how you walk down on tumor mutational burden. So in NSCLC often comes next. We then look at things like bladder cancer, renal cell carcinoma as you're working through.
We've also been thinking about things like the tumor microenvironment, what sort of T cell infiltration you have there. So how hot is that tumor microenvironment. And you can sort of see us walking down that as well. And then the last variable that we've introduced is truly that stage. So when you think about that early adjuvant setting, many of these patients, they've had a resection. And so you're really looking to stop recurrence, you don't anticipate having a very large tumor bulk as burden.
So we're exploring that area first, but we are still looking to see if we have the potential for impact in those later-line patients that may have more tumor burden and potentially metastatic disease who sort of explored those in chronological order.
Fantastic. And I do want to kind of ask, I mean there's a few other players out there, and so we'll get into kind of some of the read across kind of questions. But even within your own portfolio, as you're getting kind of scientific questions, answers for one of these assets or one of these profiles, how much are you able to feel like that derisks the others? Because I think kind of safety is clearly one area where you feel really good and that almost is carried across from COVID, and kind of where you began in terms of a commercial product and the safety that you've been able to carry through.
What other markets are you looking for for success in particular indications or with particular assets that give you confidence for the rest of the portfolio as well?
So as we look at the data coming out of INT, I think you've already called out safety as the first piece that we believe translates across our cancer antigen therapies. We also believe, as you look at our ability to drive really strong CD8 and CD4 T cell responses that we're understanding a lot about that in the individualized setting and then reinforcing those learnings with mRNA-4359. And we do believe that, that will pull through into the rest of the portfolio.
And I would say there are also quite a few translational endpoints that shouldn't be underestimated. As you start to recognize over the course of multiple studies initially with INT as it's most advanced, what those transitional signatures are that are -- that appear to be correlated with your clinical benefit. So those could be -- you think of things as how broad the T cell response is, not just what did we encode in the vaccine. We believe that, that translational understanding will also inform the rest of the cancer antigen therapies.
Fantastic. And maybe getting to the competitive set, kind of BioNTech is out there doing some similar things in the mRNA space. What are the read across is that you're looking at from data you see out of them? I think IO Biotech is also doing some work on some of the components that you're experimenting with. And so what data do you look to coming from those players as giving you either positive signals or things that you get worried about?
Sure. I would perhaps make the general statement and then go into the more nuanced and the general statement being where we and our competitors are exploring similar biological hypotheses, I think we look forward to that as potential read-through and derisking for us as well.
But we -- all three of us utilize slightly different platforms, and that's where some of the nuance does come in for us. As we think about BioNTech's INS to their individualized therapy, there are some differences. We can't necessarily say which one may or may not make a difference, which is why we're sort of looking to those readouts, but they, for example, encode 20 neoantigens, we encode 34.
We each have our own proprietary algorithm for selecting those neoepitopes and designing those therapies for patients. They do have an mRNA-based platform, but they actually use a lipoplex that they IV infuse, whereas we use a lipid nanoparticle that we inject intramuscularly. So you may have different antigen presentation within the body.
So there are some of those platform differences that we want to keep in mind as we start to see the different results.
As we look at IO Biotech, so their lead asset is a peptide-based vaccine for PD-L1 and IDO. So very similar in concept to what we're approaching with 4359. So they recently released actually their Phase III data in first-line melanoma, which, of course, we were watching closely.
And as we look at those data and the biological hypothesis that we tested, so is this the right therapeutic approach? Are those targets relevant? Can they have clinical impact? We feel like they did demonstrate that biological hypothesis.
As the trial read out, they did narrowly miss on the statistical significance. But from the -- what do we read through to our vaccine for mRNA-4359, we feel like that's helped derisk it as well and encouraged us to continue aggressively developing in that space.
From a platform perspective, they are still a peptide-based platform, and we have slightly different antigens that we encode. We've chosen to encode slightly broader antigens for broader coverage. And again, we look to the mRNA platform to drive particularly strong CD8 and CD4 T cell responses, which we think are really critical to that mechanism. So we do believe that there is still some nuance between a result that would be generated with their vaccine and a result we would generate in the same setting.
Absolutely. One other area that I did want to touch on with the T cell engagers and kind of the work -- some of the earliest work that you're doing and kind of trying to bring conformationally these cells close together and ensure that they can have real impact. Why is that the next place to go after kind of presenting antigens. Why is this the next place for Moderna to begin to advance this technology?
Yes, absolutely. So as we mentioned, as you get into some of these other later lines of cancer. You may not have the same immune confidence. You may not be able to take just one T cell population. You may have immune dysfunction. You may not be able to say I'm going to use a cancer antigen therapy approach in that setting.
And so in that case, if you use a T cell engager, you can actually access any T cell in that patient's body, and you can administer these repeatedly over time. We also find that the heterogeneity, as you get into those settings is particularly well addressed by our platform. So -- and this has actually been playing out in clinical data in the field. If we think about multiple myeloma, where some of the earliest T cell engagers have shown their promising data.
Right now, I believe it's moving to pivotal now. There's data taking to T cell engagers that were developed separately that look very promising and clinically combining those recombinant proteins in patients and when doing that, the results look like an improvement in your overall response rate.
And again, durability of response starts to look even better. And you start to see patients that have some of the more complicated disease responding in a perhaps parallel thought experiment, there are protein engineering approaches that others are taking so that they can actually target both of those antigens.
So instead of a clinical combination. They're designing it all into one protein, which is pretty complex protein engineering and also seeing similar clinical benefit, remarkably, both of these are not seeing additive toxicity, which is fantastic for patients and developers alike. So when we look at that data, we see a significant opportunity to expand multiplexing.
So mRNA-2808, our lead asset in that setting, happens to target three cell surface proteins, but there's no actual reason that we need to necessarily limit to three from a platform perspective.
Wonderful. That's very exciting. This is kind of a journey that Moderna has been on for a while. kind of as I said earlier, it hasn't necessarily been at the front of the conversation or the company story. And so through this, you've also partnered with a number of other companies kind of along the way and Merck being one of the big partners when it comes to INT and combinations with Keytruda.
As you look to these newer assets coming through, you've got a couple of partnerships here and there, but -- what are the capabilities that you're looking to bring in from the outside? Is it kind of particular assets that you want to combine with? Is it clinical development capabilities? Is it commercial capabilities? What's going to be important for Moderna to succeed with these assets going forward and building the partnerships and collaborations around the assets?
And just for those who aren't familiar, in INT, we are partnered with Merck. It's a 50-50 cost and profit sharing relationship. So we share our costs, including our CapEx. We make our decisions together. It also means that we and Merck together are able to access some pretty substantial development and commercial capabilities that are already in place that has allowed us to accelerate that development program into so many different settings, which has been fantastic.
Now our partnership with Immatics comes from a very different angle. It's in a very early space where they brought deep biological expertise in T cell receptors. And we were able to combine that with the power of our platform to really start these new concepts early in development.
So as we think about the rest of our portfolio, we are in a fortunate state where we have many different investment opportunities. So should a partner be able to bring capability to that, that could accelerate a development program or let us explore a broader set of spaces where we believe we may have that type of pipeline and a product opportunity, and we would be open to doing that to create even more value
Fantastic. Often, if is the trade-off of what can I start today? What do we have to wait to start next year and the year after because of those constraints and kind of derisking those opportunities while making sure you're fully investing simultaneously, which can be really, really, really tough.
In the last couple of minutes, I do want to hear just a little bit about kind of -- the -- as you think about your oncology strategy and the whole theme of this conference has been leading and disrupting. It feels like kind of you're on a path to disrupt some of the ways that we have traditionally gone after some of these cancer types. Kind of, how will you know that kind of you're on the track before perhaps all these drugs eventually make it to market? How will you know the kind of successes around the corner? And what are those disruptive milestones that kind of will kind of derisk this portfolio for you over time?
Sure. I think for our earlier programs, we are certainly looking at some of those translational data that you can get out of your early clinical studies because as you look across the field, you can start to interpret translational data and translate that into what you would anticipate as clinical effect.
I think for INT, as I mentioned, it's sort of a methodical walk through all of the different settings in which it can work. And so we'll be watching that and sort of adjusting and potentially adding to our development program in certain places where we see success and potentially exploring new spaces. Depending on what we see in some of those transitional data.
Fantastic. Very exciting time ahead. Any final comments on kind of what you hope Moderna to look like when it comes to oncology over the next 5 to 10 years?
Well, I'm obviously very excited about the different therapeutic approaches that we've been able to take. It is an incredibly diverse portfolio for a company. And for us, it utilizes different parts of our platform technology that we have invested in and derisked in actually very many different settings from infectious diseases to rare diseases. So for us, this is really fulfilling the mission that we've had to have a really significant impact on patients' lives because it's opening up just such a vast opportunity space to do that.
Fantastic. Thank you so much for your time today, Rose. It's been a pleasure.
Thank you for having me.
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Moderna — Bernstein Insights: Healthcare Leaders and Disruptors - 2nd Annual Healthcare Forum
Moderna — Bernstein Insights: Healthcare Leaders and Disruptors - 2nd Annual Healthcare Forum
🎯 Kernbotschaft
- Kernaussage: Moderna positioniert die mRNA‑Plattform als „Toolkit“ für Onkologie: individualisierte Neoantigen‑Therapie (INT/mRNA‑4157), Off‑the‑shelf‑Krebsimpfstoffe, T‑Cell‑Engager und in‑vivo/ex‑vivo Cell‑Therapie‑Enhancer. Fokus liegt auf klinischer Wirksamkeit bei gleichzeitig differenzierter Verträglichkeit und translationalen Biomarkern als De‑Risking‑Hebel.
🔍 Strategische Highlights
- INT (individualisiert): INT kombiniert patientenspezifische Neoantigene mit Pembrolizumab (Keytruda); Phase‑III Adjuvant‑Melanom vollständig rekrutiert, 5‑Jahres‑Follow‑up der Phase‑II für 2026 avisiert.
- Off‑the‑shelf: mRNA‑4359 (PD‑L1/IDO) und tumor‑targetierte mRNA‑4106 sollen breite Populationen ohne Tumorsequenzierung abdecken; 4359 Daten (Kombi mit Checkpoint‑Inhibitor) bei ESMO angekündigt.
- T‑Cell & In‑vivo: Multiplex‑T‑Cell‑Engager (mRNA‑2808), In‑vivo CAR‑Ansätze (CARM, In‑vivo CAR‑T) und Cell‑Therapy‑Enhancer (mRNA‑4203) zur Überwindung heterogener Tumormikroumgebungen.
🆕 Neue Informationen
- Termine & Readouts: Arm‑1B‑Daten von mRNA‑4359 bei ESMO (Oktober dieses Jahres) und das 5‑Jahres‑Follow‑up der INT Phase‑II in 2026; Phase‑III‑Adjuvant‑Melanom wurde Ende 2024 voll eingeschrieben.
- Kein Guidance‑Update: Präsentation liefert keine neue Finanz‑Guidance oder Umsatzprognosen; Schwerpunkt auf klinischen Catalysts.
❓ Fragen der Analysten
- Portfolio‑Fit: Wie ergänzen sich individualized vs. off‑the‑shelf praktisch? Management: komplementär—Verfügbarkeit vs. potenzielle Tiefe der Antwort; Daten entscheiden.
- Timings & Manufacturing: INT braucht ~6 Wochen Produktionsfenster; Diskussion um Verfügbarkeit versus sofort einsetzbare Off‑the‑shelf‑Optionen.
- Wettbewerb & Read‑through: Read‑throughs von BioNTech/IO‑Biotech werden beobachtet; Unterschiede in Plattform, Antigen‑Design und Verabreichungsweg betonen begrenzte Direktübertragbarkeit.
⚡ Bottom Line
- Fazit: Klinisch fokussierte Roadmap mit mehreren potenziell wertschöpfenden Readouts in 2025–2026. Positive Sicherheits‑ und translationalen Signale können das Risiko für die Pipeline senken, aber viele Programme bleiben früh‑stadial und von binären klinischen Ergebnissen abhängig. Partnerschaften (z. B. Merck bei INT) stärken Entwicklung und Kommerzialisierung, reduzieren aber nicht das klinische Risiko.
Moderna — Morgan Stanley 23rd Annual Global Healthcare Conference
1. Question Answer
All right. Great. Thanks for joining us, everybody. I'm Terence Flynn, Morgan Stanley's large-cap U.S. biopharma analyst. I'm very pleased to be hosting Moderna. We have Stéphane Bancel, who's the company's CEO.
For important disclosures, please see the Morgan Stanley research disclosure website at www.morganstanley.com/researchdisclosures. If you have any questions, please reach out to your Morgan Stanley sales representative.
Stephane, thank you so much for joining us. Really appreciate the time today.
Thank you for having us.
Absolutely. Maybe you could just start. Obviously, we were talking a little bit before about some of the cross currents on the policy side. It's been a pretty active period for the industry, both on drug development, but also policy and some of the uncertainties. So just as you think about strategic prioritization, making investments in these long-dated pipeline cycles, how are you navigating this period?
Sure. So I would say, if you look at the FDA, we're actually quite pleased how our team have been working with the FDA over the last 6, 9 months since the new administration and the new commissioner, and we're very thankful for the FDA. We've got 3 products approved in the last 3 months, actually 3 mRNA vaccines. And if you just would read the headline and the [ tweets ], you will think this will not happen. I know a lot of people thought back in January, February that this will not happen. But again, we had very strong files, with very strong clinical data. We had good relationship with the working teams at FDA to review those data and those 3 approvals happened. And they were in mRNA vaccines, and you would think -- and 2 of them were mRNA COVID-19 vaccines. So I think very good relation with the agency.
Now what happened with the lack of ACIP recommendation as of today is in some states, there's no issue for pharmacists to deliver the products. But in some states, by state regulation, the pharmacists can only deliver a product if it's ACIP recommended. That's what you have seen happening since the new strain of the COVID shots were approved 2 weeks ago now. What you're starting to see happening is the states rewriting legislation so that the state basically is decoupling from ACIP. And we saw it last week in Pennsylvania. We saw it also last week in Massachusetts. California is currently passing new legislation to do the same thing.
So I think the 16 states that has hardwire ACIP recommendation to allow pharmacies to deliver a vaccine without a script from a clinician are basically disappearing because they're being decoupled from those states. So again, we'll see what the seasons look like. We have strong demand from the retail channel, which, as you know, we have direct contracts with the retailers. There's no PBM for vaccines. So we'll know more in a few weeks, but the start of the season is very good.
How long will that decoupling process take? Because it sounds like it kind of varies by state. But if you look ahead, like is this a week's thing that's going to happen? Or is it like months?
We're talking weeks. We're talking weeks. So again, some have already made it happen and the other ones are weeks. I think everybody is trying to make sure that by mid end of September, when really you start to get into thinking about flu shots and COVID shots and so on, that this is not a limitation for people just walking into our pharmacies. In those states, if you e-mail your doctor and you get a script to your pharmacy, you can still go there. But of course, you have leakage there. Some people don't want to do it, they forget or whatever. So the states have a very high incentive to make sure it's easy as it was last year.
And that's going to be true that decoupling is not just for the COVID vaccine, but its going to be for any vaccine across the board. So any recommendation, there will be a decoupling?
Correct.
Okay. All right. And then, I guess, as you think about this environment, I mean, this new kind of steady state, it feels like you're confident that you can navigate this and deliver on your kind of strategic objectives despite some of the policy dynamics.
Sure. Because if you look at what we are trying to do before is to finish the respiratory portfolio and then to create basically a cash cow of that business because if you think about it, we have 2 COVID shots approved. Think about it as a high dose like flu and low dose. RSV, we have now positive Phase III on flu and positive Phase III on flu plus COVID combo. So at a different time with different policy environment, we might have wanted to do RSV, COVID flu combo, which we have shown data in preclinical. But we're not going to invest the capital for it. We don't think it warrants it now. Maybe later, we can restart it. And so really, those investments in respiratory disease are mostly behind us. We have a little bit of a tail in R&D because as you do vaccine, sometimes you have multiyear safety commitment post launch.
But if you think about it, basically, we have a business that this year, we said is $1.5 billion to $2.2 billion of sales. You're launching the high-dose product. We think this should allow us to take market share because the retailer will make more profit because of a higher price. And then we have flu, which is a market 3x the size of COVID. So it's a market where we're not participating now. And then the flu/COVID combo is going to be helpful across the world. But I would say, especially outside the U.S., if you think about it, when you are one payer system like the NHS in the U.K. or in France or in Germany, you want people to get the best coverage they can so that you don't pay hospitalization.
And so you can force what you cannot do in the U.S., but in those countries, you can force the consumer that this is the product they're getting. And so the flu COVID combo is going to be quite interesting to drive compliance on COVID and to drive volume for us. So think about the respiratory business, you're going to have very nice growth in the coming years. You're going to have improvement in gross margin because given we have a platform, we do not have to invest CapEx to launch new products. And so you're going to have improvement in gross margin, R&D coming down, as we spoke about, and SG&A being flat. And you could tell me, Stephane, how can you have SG&A flat when you launch a new product? Well, because it's a B2B setup.
We're not selling detailing to doctors, the flu vaccine or the combo vaccine. We're directly negotiating with CVS and Walgreens and Walmart and all the big retailers have a pharmacy or grocery chains that do pharmacy. So we can handle those products without adding salespeople. And actually, we get actually more leverage because we can do portfolio negotiation, which we couldn't do last year where we had only 1273. So if you look at the next 2 to 3 years and you think about what we're trying to do strategically is like finish respiratory franchise, we will end up being the company that has the most product in respiratory of any company selling to that channel, create cash flow from that business, invest it in oncology.
And so of course, oncology people are highly aware of the INT program that we're doing with our colleagues at Merck, which we should have a 5-year data of a Phase II coming either late this year or in January, but also the Phase III melanoma coming next year in '26. And we have 7 studies that are currently ongoing. And you can see us doing with Merck what Merck has done with KEYTRUDA before, which is when you get a good signal, just expand the number of tumor types and keep learning and keep expanding the use you can have of the product for patients. But if you look behind that product, we have up to 10 additional products that are really exciting that we own 100% of the economics with this mRNA-4359, which we're going to be presenting new data at ESMO in Germany in mid-October, where we've said that we accelerated the Phase II recruitment in lung and in melanoma because what we saw is patients that were in Stage IV cancer that were refractory to checkpoints.
So they have failed KEYTRUDA and some of them have failed KEYTRUDA and Opdivo. And then you give them mRNA-4359 with KEYTRUDA and you see a response. For people having stage IV cancer metastatic. So we are enrolling the Phase II in lung and in melanoma because it's metastatic, you could see data potentially in '26 because unlike when you go early in disease, those, unfortunately, you see data quickly. And that could be a first-line metastatic setting for lung and melanoma to start with. And that asset we own. And same that asset because we made in the platform, you don't need to add $1 of CapEx to launch this product. So I think what we're going to start to see in the next few years is really now that we've resized manufacturing post COVID because we have to build 2 billion doses and then go back to more of a normal volume. But I think you're going to see is nice gross margin expansion across the portfolio, more products coming and Moderna using most of its capital investing into oncology and rare disease.
Okay. Great. I know one of the other strategic priorities is cash flow breakeven by 2028. And so given everything you've just walked through, given some of the policy cross currents, you're still confident in achieving that goal?
Yes. And I think there's a few things. First is we control the cost. So if you look at the work we have done with the team on cost, the cash cost of the company in 2023 were almost $9 billion, $8.9 billion in 2023. Last year, we were at $6.3 billion cash cost. So really, a lot of work happened to take this down. We entered the year guiding $5.5 billion of cash cost for the year. On the Q2 earnings call early August, we said because we are way ahead of plan, we should be at $5.1 billion of cash cost this year. So $6.3 billion last year, $5.1 billion this year, and I'm going to work really hard. This is not guidance, but I'm going to work really hard to beat that $5.1 billion. And the team is doing a great job. And then we've said that we should be around $4.7 billion next year and $4.2 billion in '27. So that's for what we can control.
We always said, look, if the sales are not there, we will reduce costs further. Remember, I was there when the company had 10 people or actually 2 people and not spending even $20 million a year. So we will titrate the R&D investments. We will partner. As you know, we have partnered over the years with pharma companies like Merck and Vertex and AstraZeneca. Last year, we partnered with Blackstone, and they actually funded 100% of the Phase III study for flu. And so we'll be very happy to do things like that. We've said publicly that we are looking for partners for latent virus products like EBV. Of course, if CMV is positive, most probably we will partner this product. I don't think it will make sense for us to build a new sales force just for CMV. But for a lot of companies that are doing women's health and also pediatric setting, that will be a great product to add to the bag of our sales rep.
And there's no CMV product approved, no vaccine approved. So that will be quite interesting. And so that's a bit of what we're trying to do, which is really work on growing the top line again. And I think another piece that people sometimes underappreciate is how outside the U.S. is going to be important for us. Because as you know, in U.K., Canada, Australia, we've signed multiyear, 7-year deals with those governments to supply vaccines. So we have volume commitment. And then every year, we just choose the split of products between COVID and flu and combo and RSV and so on. But if you do the math based on public information, it will be close to $1 billion of sales starting next year that will be recurring. So you're going to see growth next year outside the U.S. and then you're going to see stability and visibility for many years to come.
As you know, in Europe, there was a contract that was done out of the legal framework of tenders in Europe during the height of the pandemic in the spring of 2021 between Pfizer and the President of Europe, Ursula von der Leyen. There never was a tender for that deal. So we are basically excluded from Europe last year, this year and again in '26. But at the end of '26, that contract expired. Already some countries like, for example, Poland sued Europe, won and we're able to exit that contract. And actually, we won tender in Poland. And as those countries start to use all their Pfizer volume commitment, they're starting to want a higher efficacy product because, as you know, many, many real-world evidence studies have shown that Spikevax has had efficacy in the elderly and high-risk people than COVID-19.
And now we've also show that mNEXSPIKE in Phase III study has higher study head-to-head to Spikevax. So you can start to see the market differentiating the product. And so if you are in Holland, if you are in the Nordics and you already have used a lot of Pfizer doses, you can start using Moderna doses for your high-risk population, keeping the Pfizer doses for the low-risk population. That's what we're seeing more and more. So you're going to see a bit of progress in '25, much more in '26 and then full market access in Europe in '27. So between Canada, U.K., Australia helping us a lot in terms of growth, potentially up to $0.5 billion of growth next year. And then the reopening of Europe, you're going to start to see the respiratory business. And then you have flu.
I'm excited about flu mono before even flu combo with COVID because flu is 3x bigger than COVID as a market in the U.S. And we've seen the payers willing to pay a higher price for high efficacy product. We've seen with Fluzone HD that retail around 3x higher price than the standard flu product that is given for a healthy population. So if you look at all those factors, I think we have quite a number of drivers for growth, then we manage the cost. So last year, we lost $4 billion. This year, we lost $3 billion of cash, next year $2 billion; '27, $1 billion and then '28 breakeven.
What -- maybe just before we go on to some other topics about market share, I mean, I think you guys right now are kind of 40% versus Pfizer, BioNTech is like 60% in the U.S. and again, ex U.S. is probably a little bit less. But where do you think that ultimately shakes out, given what you were just walking through. I mean, does this become a 50-50 market? Or do you think you can deliver above 50%?
So it's a great question. Our goal is going to try to be able to deliver above 50% because as you say, from a portfolio standpoint, we have a few things, and it's going to take several years. I'm not talking about just next year. First is the mNEXSPIKE product with a premium pricing should allow us to gain share, right? Because the channel is going to make more profit versus selling the Spikevax or selling the COVID-19. And as we get more and more products in the portfolio, we can start to bundle. Last year, we know we lost share to Pfizer in the pharmacy sector because they give discount on Prevnar. We couldn't give discount on the Prevnar like product. We don't have it in the bag.
But as you start to have more products and as you start to have products that are unique that your competition doesn't have, like a flu COVID combo, Pfizer won't have that product because we are back to square one in the clinic. Then norovirus is another product that will be sold in the pharmacy that we are not aware of anybody else being in the Phase III with norovirus. And so if you think again about what the portfolio is in '26 and then in '27, it's going to be one of the most important portfolio for the retailers in terms of their own EBIT growth. And so as we map this out from a customer point of view, we think it's going to be quite interesting for us to be able to drive sales and to drive share.
Okay. And then just maybe coming back to COVID for a second. As we think about the timing here of this unbundling that's happening you still think this current season, if we look at like total vaccinations, it's still going to be roughly similar to what we saw last year, just on a high-level basis in the U.S.
That's what we think, again, as you know, we still have a wide range to the year because there's some unknown that will allow us to still be in the range, but on the low side of the range. Indeed, if you look at what happened in the spring, especially in what we call the hard core vaccine use, people that get their shot and follow the recommendations and so on, it was actually flat in the spring of 2025. And it's quite interesting because there was no government support for vaccination. If you look at previous years, for the seasonal COVID booster in the spring, there was always advertising done by the CDC on local radio for elderly, on local TV program for elderly. This year, everything was cut. And so despite that, we saw the same volume as you saw last year in '24, which is a good indicator.
We look at the claim data. And you really have this group of people in the U.S. that no other high risk, either because of age or because they have a risk factor or because they have a loved one, like a spouse or a parent in the same household that has a risk factor. And those people, we call them internally the hardcore vaccines. If you look at the claim data, they are compliant to everything. They get their shingles shot, they get their Prevnar shot, they get their fall and then the spring COVID shot, they get their flu shot, they get the RSV shot, they follow everything. And so we really believe that those people is where the market has come down too and they are going to provide a strong base of foundation. So as we start adding mNEXSPIKE, with a higher price, start adding flu and then flu plus COVID combo and then noro, you're going to see how we're going to create the growth based on that base.
Yes. Okay. One you didn't mention as much as just RSV. And I'm guessing that's partly because there still has some uncertainty about how kind of revaccination plays out. So maybe just level set us in terms of where that fits in terms of the portfolio strategy, and then we'll come back to the flu side.
Sure. So RSV, I think there's 2 things as you articulated, there's the market and then the channel with a lot of products in it right now. So let's start with the market. As you know, the first season RSV was approved. It was a great season, surprised everybody to the upside, I think mostly because of pricing more than volume. And then what happened the year after is ACIP did not recommend a booster for RSV. And that's why I think everybody got a cold shower, including the manufacturers and the channel. Because what happened basically is on the first year, you got those same hardcore vaccine I just spoke about. But they're like, okay, there's a new vaccine, it's recommended, I'm going to get it. But those people did not come back the following winter.
And then if you look at the sale of distribution of vaccines, you have much less people in that second cohort that don't follow all the recommendations. And so you have a volume massively down. And then you have the channel totally stuff of product because the channels, the manufacturers were expecting a strong year as well, plus there was a lot of discount given after our approval because there's a 1-month window between our approval and our ACIP recommendation. So it was a kind of a good way for the competition to go kind of get more product into the channel. So you went into that season with a lot of products in the channel and no boosting. So very small demand. There's still a lot of product in the channel.
So I think until we get clarification from health care experts in terms of when you vaccinate, is it every 3 years, every 4 years? What is good is that people have got this first class of vaccines are being followed in terms of hospitalization rate. And I think that as we start to see the vaccination -- the hospitalization rate going up, the boosting recommendation will come up. So is it every 3, every 4 years, we don't know yet, but that most probably what's going to look like. And by the way, it's not so surprising, if you look at the epidemiology, people 65 and above get sick again from RSV every 2, 3, 4 years. So that's kind of in that ballpark.
Okay. So you think it's going to come down to really like hard data on hospitalization rate and then that will ultimately drive a recommendation or something?
Recommendation and something. And the payers will go behind it just because of hospitalization costs.
Okay. Okay. Understood. All right. Maybe just going back to the pipeline and the flu program. I mean here, do you feel confident in terms of the regulatory outlook on the flu side?
So we feel good about it because, again, the data -- I mean, you saw the top line, we're presenting at medical conferencing and publishing the data. The data is as clean as you can get in terms of safety and so on. There's a precedent of 2 products for high efficacy, high dose for the people at high risk, again, elderly and younger adults at high risk. So we think there's a playbook that has happened before us. So we will -- we are preparing the filing for the FDA. We'll submit the file to the FDA and to agencies around the world. And then we will refile in the U.S. the combo.
The good news in Europe, as we've said, is that we are not asked to withdraw the file of the combo. We will file the Phase III flu data as an amendment. So we might get another 3 months clock stop, but not a full restart of review. So there's a world in which the combo is approved in Europe before the U.S. And as I said, in a lot of countries outside the U.S., there's a strong appetite for the combo in order to increase the COVID compliance by just putting it in a product and having people because they are under one national system to get it.
And then maybe just remind us, so you're going to file in the U.S. by the end of this year, that's still the guidance?
We have not given precise guidance. We are working as hard as we can. I mean those are the 2 products we have to file the flu and the combo. Thankfully, the combo, we already had filed. So we have everything but the flu data, and we're going to have flu data that are going to go in a flu file. So we're just going to copy and paste it. So I think the flu COVID combo is not a lot of work for us. It's really getting the flu file because as you know, those -- you have to go back and those are not 100 people studies. Those are 10,000 people, 30,000 people studies. So you have a lot of work to do with medical and safety team just to clean up the files to make sure we have good data that we can send it to the regulator.
Okay. So that's in the U.S., the path is to get the flu filing in and then get an FDA decision and then you go forward with flu...
COVID combo.
Ex U.S., it's more of a parallel path, it sounds like?
Correct. In a lot of countries, they let us keep going with the combos, will be parallel paths. In some countries, it is like the U.S. versus with drug because they look up to the U.S., and we're going to refile behind. So we're going to have those 2 situations outside the U.S.
And how -- maybe talk a little bit about post-marketing commitments and how that plays into the investment required here for vaccines? Because it seems like that's another area where there's some uncertainty. I know with COVID, maybe you have more visibility on what that post-marketing commitment looks like. But should we expect something similar with the flu program, for example, and how you're thinking about this postmarketing report?
So it is possible with flu that we'll have the same requirements. We don't know yet because we have not filed the fact, obviously. For COVID, we don't have a full sense for the cost because discussions are still ongoing with the agency, and we're very active discussions because, of course, we want to make those study happen. So once we have a final plan approved by the agency, we'll communicate the cost impact. But that's a bit what we have today.
Okay. Maybe we'll pivot over to oncology now. I know you mentioned this is another area where you're scaling on the respiratory vaccines, but then you're taking some of that cash flow, investing in the cancer side. There's a lot of focus on the INT program that you mentioned you have partnered with Merck here. Maybe just remind us about, I think the next major readout we're expecting is the Phase III adjuvant melanoma study. Maybe just remind us about the confidence in that study, what gives you guys the confidence there? And then any thoughts on timing of the data study?
So let's start on the easy part. On the timing of the data, there's nothing new since our last Q call, which is 2026. because as you know, those are case based. But again, our statistician, we run the numbers regularly because, of course, case are accruing all the time, given it's a big study. And they confirm before the Q when we confirm '26, they confirm '26. As we get closer and we have more cases, of course, we will reduce that window. So what gives us confidence, I think, is 2 things. First is the Phase II data. As you know, I know everybody is not as familiar as you are on the Phase II data. This was a randomized study, a group of around 1/3 of patients got KEYTRUDA monotherapy and another group, 2/3 of patients get KEYTRUDA plus INT.
If you look at the data and the survival, if you look at the distance metastasis, which, of course, is always a leading indicator in cancer, you had 2 out of 3 people in that study, there was 150 people, 100 people, let's say, on active INT. You had 2 out of 3 people that 4 years out had no death or distance metastasis. And as we know, what kills people is rarely the primary tumors. So if you look at that data and if you look at the mechanism of action, which we have shown at ASCO several years in a row, which is we have shown that we're able to take blood from patients on INT before we start INT. We know from sequencing the tumor and sequencing the healthy cells where they have mutations and which mutation we cause in the 34 mutations going into our product. We know those. So what we do, we do take the blood of cancer patients before we start dosing INT. We basically test their T cell for the epitope.
We know are coded in our product. They don't respond. And we've shown that if you take the blood of those patients, 3 to 4 those after having done 3 to 4 cycles of INT, you have T cell response against those epitopes. So I mean, at least to my knowledge, there's no better proof that you have basically reprogrammed T cells of patients to be able to recognize the epitope that we want to put in the product. Based on that mechanism and the clinical data that we have so far of the Phase II, that gives us the confidence. I think, again, Merck has a lot of experience in oncology. If you think about what they are agreeing to do with us, which is now I think we have 7 studies, Phase II or Phase III that are ongoing across a lot of tumor type of KEYTRUDA plus INT. I think it's a good proof that some people could argue and say, okay, what does Moderna really know about oncology because you guys are an infectious disease company.
Well, of course, as you know, we have a lot of oncologists that we hired from BMS and Merck and great companies in oncology. But Merck is being part of all of those decisions. Merck pays 50-50 of any study. So it's a huge amount of capital for Merck. Some studies they even run themselves, like the Phase III melanoma is 100% run by Merck. We run the Phase I/II before. And so I think given what Merck has delivered with KEYTRUDA and what they have seen of the data and the patient data that they have seen in all the studies, I think the best -- it for me is the best confidence that they believe like we do, that the signal is real, which is where we've been investing so massively. We also invested together 50-50 in the manufacturing facility because while we spoke about the margin improvement for the rest of the portfolio 5 minutes ago, as we launch more products and as we grow volume, we're going to see very nice gross margin expansion.
INC because it's individualized, it's a different manufacturing process where here we are shrinking everything. And so that plant is built. It's in Massachusetts, so it's in the U.S. So we have no tariff issue or risk. It's in the U.S. and we've already done PPQs. And so that plant will not be critical path to launch because as you know, we're getting that plant ready for potential accelerated approval. And so really the only thing we're waiting to file the BLA is the Phase III data. And so that's good news that manufacturing won't be critical path.
Okay. I know this is in the adjuvant setting. And when we talk to KOLs, they have enthusiasm for the adjuvant setting, but there's more debate on, say, the metastatic setting. But you guys made a decision to advance into metastatic. And so maybe just talk to us about that dynamic and why that decision now to go into metastatic as well because I think, again, from a first principles perspective, it seems like there's a lot of data to suggest why this could work in adjuvant, but metastatic, it's, I think, more of a debate?
Yes. So look, in cancer, every time you try something new, people are skeptic. And as we know, a lot of things don't work and cancer is complicated. So I'll start there that we have to do the clinical experiment to know. The reason Merck and us think it's an experiment worth running is, again, we have proof of mechanism on the technology. We have a lot of data, including mRNA-4359 in a metastatic setting using the same core technology of mRNA with the same manufacturing process showing some interesting responses. And so -- and then we have data that we have seen across a lot of different studies, including the early studies, monotherapy in combo, including in lung, head and neck. So there's just a lot of data that we're spending a lot of time to look at, again, on the patient-by-patient case. And we think it's an experiment we should really run. And so we are running it. And again, the fact that Merck is willing to pick half a bill, I think it is a good sign that they think there's merit in doing that experiment.
And is that ultimately going to move -- this is melanoma is it ultimately going to move to other metastatic tumor types? Or is this kind of a POC and you see where it is...
So I think it's a bit like what we've done for everything, which is starting melanoma, like has been done for checkpoints, starting melanoma. And when you work on it it's always work only melanoma, so start another tumor. So we're just expanding the chess board by going into many tumors going later with metastatic. And then I think we talked about that I want to see happen and when something has been decided, we'll communicate, of course, I want to go monotherapy early. Because if you think about, for example, lung is a good example. There's a lot of people who get diagnosed through an x-ray of Stage I lung cancer.
But most of those people do not get a checkpoint because the side effect of a checkpoint is so profound. It's literally life altering. So of course, if you're in a metastatic setting or if you're going to die, better to have an autoimmune disease from your checkpoint than dying, obviously. But if you are a Stage , could you get an INT monotherapy? We know we can report on T cell. We've shown it to people that are much more advanced disease. So we believe that people that are early in disease should have a stronger immune system.
And so what does it look like if you could deliver to a stage 1 cancer lung patient, a therapy that you could take that has a side effect profile of a vaccine. Not like chemotherapy, not like immunotherapy, but like a vaccine, where literally, you might be tired for a day or have slight fever for 24 hours and then be fine. That's the side effect for cancer. That will be pretty phenomenal for patients. And so that's an experiment I think we need to go around. Nothing has been announced yet, but that's something that, again, you keep expanding and learning. So you don't stop there, but that's a logical place to go.
And then just in lung, I mean, that's another question when you talk to the KOLs, we'll say, well, everything works in melanoma, but when you go to cold tumor type, it's harder to know. So how should we think about translatability in the event of positive Phase III adjuvant melanoma data, how much translatability is there to non-small cell lung cancer?
So we think it's a pretty good odds. Again, I don't want to get ahead of myself because we have not run the Phase III study. But if you go back again to data we showed at ASCO in 2018, we showed monotherapy people in lung cancer responded to INT monotherapy before we combine with KEYTRUDA and some INT-KEYTRUDA responded in lung setting like in head and neck and other tumor because we did a typical Phase I basket study with all comers. And so people just have to do the work and go back to the data. So again, of course, we do that for a living. We know the data pretty well. But the data are out there. So does it mean it's going to work with 2 out of 3 patients doing better than KEYTRUDA like in distant metastasis for melanoma, I don't know. Nobody is in the world, I think, know because it's oncology, and we have to run the clinical experiment. But do we think it's an experiment worth running because if it's materially better, you have a product and you already have a manufacturing infrastructure and it's lung, which is a big indication that has a huge number of patients in the U.S., but also around the world. So we think, yes, it's worth running. And that's why Merck and us decided that it's worth investing the capital.
Okay. Maybe just in the last minute, the other one we're expecting some data on is the norovirus vaccine later this year. Maybe just help us think about the market opportunity because I think there's a lot of debate among investors in terms of, is this a very niche market or is this a much larger opportunity? And so how do you see that market opportunity?
Sure. So it's interesting how people react to things. I think anybody who got noro before doesn't want noro again, right? And I think I know somebody who got noro once in my life before. So if it's a pharmacy product where you don't need the script, that makes the bar much lower in terms of adoption. And then if you start to do market research, which, of course, we have done before investing the capital, as you would expect us to do, you have not only demand in the elderly and again, adults at a high risk, again, going back to the respiratory similar setting. So you have that population. But then on top of that, you have health care professional, because, again, do market research with doctors and nurses. They don't like to get noro regularly from their patients, which they do.
If you start asking educators, do kindergarten and kindergarten first grade, second grade, like literally lower school. I go ask the teachers how much they like noro and they don't. And so -- and as young parents who had noro from one of the kids, how much they like noro, they don't really. So if you start to add those numbers, you start to get to very significant numbers. And again, if you think about the way we think about this in really a multiyear study, we're not doing this to manage next quarter EPS. This is a onetime R&D investment. I have 0 CapEx to invest. I have 0 sales and marketing to invest into the same sales force.
And I get more leverage with my customers because I get a portfolio with unique products. So think that might be 2, 3 years from now, if I have flu plus COVID alone or maybe down the road with Novavax, Sanofi, we'll see. And if I've got noro, so how much do I need to justify a good return on investment? It's not a crazy high number of dollars because, again, I don't have to invest CapEx. And I make my cost of goods for all our products better by absorbing on my fixed cost. So we think it's a really good investment of our capital.
Great. Well, I think we're up on time, Stephane. But thank you so much. I Have the pleasure.
Thank you. Thank you so much.
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Moderna — Morgan Stanley 23rd Annual Global Healthcare Conference
Moderna — Morgan Stanley 23rd Annual Global Healthcare Conference
📣 Kernbotschaft
- Kurzfassung: Moderna verschiebt Fokus von COVID‑Überkapazitäten hin zu einem profitablen Respiratory-Portfolio (mNEXSPIKE, Grippe, Grippe/COVID‑Kombi) zur Erzeugung wiederkehrender Umsätze und Margen, parallel Ausbau von Onkologie‑Programmen (INT – individualized neoantigen therapy) mit Merck; Ziel: Cash‑flow‑Break‑even 2028.
🎯 Strategische Highlights
- Respiratorische Push: Zieljahresumsatz für die Respiratory-Sparte dieses Jahr $1,5–2,2 Mrd.; Premiumprodukt mNEXSPIKE und Flu/COVID‑Kombi sollen Marktanteile und Einzelhandelsmargen (Retail‑Verträge mit CVS/Walgreens/Walmart) erhöhen.
- Kostendisziplin: Cash‑Kosten gesenkt von ~$8,9 Mrd. (2023) auf $6,3 Mrd. (2024); Ziel ~ $5,1 Mrd. (2025), ~ $4,7 Mrd. (2026) und ~$4,2 Mrd. (2027) — Kern für 2028 Breakeven. (CapEx = Investitionsausgaben)
- Onkologie‑Ambition: INT‑Partnerschaft mit Merck: Phase‑III Adjuvantes Melanom erwartet 2026, mehrere laufende Studien; mRNA‑4359 zeigt frühe Signale (ESMO‑Präsentation geplant).
🆕 Neue Informationen
- Zulassungen & Policy: Management berichtet über drei mRNA‑Zulassungen in den letzten Monaten; mehrere US‑Bundesstaaten decouplen ACIP (Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices) schnell, was Apothekenvertrieb erleichtert (Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Kalifornien erwähnt).
- Internationale Verträge: Mehrjährige Lieferverträge (z.B. UK, Kanada, Australien) schaffen ~ $1 Mrd. wiederkehrende Umsätze ab 2025/26; EU‑Marktzugang erwartet sich sukzessive bis 2027 nach Auslaufen spezifischer Verträge.
- Studien & Timing: Norovirus‑Daten bis Jahresende angekündigt; Flu‑Mono‑ und Combo‑Filing in Arbeit, EU‑Combo möglicherweise vor US‑Zulassung.
❓ Fragen der Analysten
- Policy‑Risiko: Nachfrage, Vertrieb und Timing der ACIP‑Decoupling‑Maßnahmen — Bancel: erfolgt in Wochen, Ziel Klarheit bis September, aber regionale Unterschiede bleiben.
- Marktanteilsziel: Kann Moderna >50% US‑Marktanteil erreichen? Management setzt auf Preisprämien, Portfolio‑Bündelung und Retail‑Hebel; Zeithorizont mehrjährig, kein sofortiges Versprechen.
- Onkologie & Kosten: Kritische Nachfragen zu Zuversicht in INT (Mechanismus, Phase‑II‑Signale) und zu erwarteten Post‑Marketing‑Pflichten/Kosten — Management nennt robuste Phase‑II‑Signale, bleibt bei konkreten Zusatzkosten aber vage.
⚡ Bottom Line
- Relevanz: Moderna präsentiert einen klaren Re‑Raising‑Plan: Respiratory‑Produkte und Retail‑Verträge liefern kurzfristige, wiederkehrende Einnahmen; Kostensenkung kombiniert mit potenziell blockbustergleichen Onkologie‑Readouts bietet signifikanten Upside. Hauptrisiken bleiben Zulassungs‑/Erstattungs‑entscheidungen, Post‑Marketing‑Auflagen und staatliche Policys, die Saisonalität und Zugänglichkeit beeinflussen.
Moderna — Q2 2025 Earnings Call
1. Management Discussion
Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Moderna's Second Quarter 2025 Conference Call.
Please be advised today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Lavina Tulupta, Head of IR. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Kevin. Good morning, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining today's call to discuss Moderna's second quarter 2025 financial results and business update. You can access the press release issued this morning as well as the slides that we'll be reviewing by going to the Investors section of our website. On today's call are Stephane Bamsell, our Chief Executive Officer; Stephen Hoge, our President; and Jamie Mock, our Chief Financial Officer.
Before we begin, please note that this conference call will include forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Please see Slide 2 of the accompanying presentation and our SEC filings for important risk factors that could cause our actual performance and results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in these forward-looking statements. With that, I'll now turn it over to Stephane.
Thank you, Lavina. Good morning or good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. I will start with a quick review of Q2. Jamie will present our financial results and outlook. Stephen will review our clinical programs, and then I will come back and share our key priorities and catalysts before we take your questions. Let me start with a review of our financials. In the second quarter, our revenues of $0.1 billion and a loss of $0.8 billion were in line with our expectations, and they reflect the highly seasonal nature of our respiratory vaccine business.
We ended the quarter with $7.5 billion in cash and investments. We remain highly focused on financial discipline. I'm very pleased to announce that continued cost reduction efforts across the company in the second quarter of 2025 led to a 35% reduction of cost of sales, R&D and SG&A combined compared to the second quarter of 2024. As you know, we are very focused on cash cost, and I'm happy to report that on a cash cost basis, we reduced operating expenses by $581 million in Q2 2025 versus Q2 2024, which is a 40% reduction year-over-year.
During the quarter, we made solid progress across our 3 strategic priorities. Priority one, driving use of our commercial products. We made strong progress in securing 3 approvals from the U.S. FDA. On May 31, we were very pleased to announce the FDA approval of m-NeXpike, our next-generation COVID vaccine that has shown even higher efficacy than our Spikevax vaccine. In mid-June, we received FDA approval of our mRESVIA vaccine for high-risk individual aged 18 to 59.
As a reminder, we are also approved for adults 60 and older in the U.S. and in 38 other countries. And in July, the FDA granted full approval of our Spikevax COVID vaccine for high-risk children aged 6 months through 11 years. This vaccine has previously been used under EUA. These approvals support our broader goal of driving use of our commercial products and driving the company back into sales growth. On our second priority, advancing our pipeline to drive sales growth. We are very happy to announce positive and strong Phase III efficacy data for flu, which we believe will advance both our flu program and our flu plus COVID combination program. Stephen will discuss these results shortly.
And our third priority, executing with financial discipline. The second quarter 2025 marked the fourth consecutive quarter we have reduced combined R&D and SG&A expenses by double digits year-over-year. Additionally, in the second quarter, we expanded our cost reduction plan well beyond what we announced in the first quarter. We estimate that these measures will take an additional $400 million out of 2025 cost structure we previously laid out. This cost reduction includes a very difficult decision that we announced yesterday to reduce headcount by around 10% to better align Moderna cost structure and capabilities with current business conditions while also sustaining investments in our mRNA pipeline.
This decision was obviously not made lightly. It impacts people who have dedicated themselves to our mission, teammates and friends who have built Moderna. I want to express on behalf of the entire executive committee, our deepest thanks to all of those affected for what they have contributed to the company. These colleagues will always be part of the Moderna story. Finally, before I hand to Jamie, you may have seen that in the last couple of hours, the U.K. Court of Appeal issued its decision. The court has decided to uphold the High Court's finding that Moderna's EP-949 patent is valid and infringed by Pfizer and BioNTech. Moderna will continue to pursue and enforce its patent rights globally to protect its innovative mRNA technology. Jamie?
Thanks, Stefan, and hello, everyone. Today, I'll cover our second quarter financial results. our updated 2025 full year outlook and share our strategy to achieve our 2027 operating cost targets. Let's begin with our second quarter financial results on Slide 7. Net product sales were $114 million, primarily driven by COVID vaccine sales. The U.S. accounted for approximately 80% of sales this quarter with the remainder from international markets. While product sales declined 38% compared to the second quarter of 2024, sales were slightly above our expectations due to a stronger-than-expected U.S. spring booster season. .
We also recorded $28 million into the revenue, bringing total revenue to the quarter to $142 million. The year-over-year decline in other revenue was primarily driven by a $30 million upfront licensing payment that was recognized in the second quarter of last year. Cost of sales for the quarter was $119 million, which was relatively flat compared to $115 million last year. It represented 105% of net product sales this quarter, up from 62% in the prior year, driven primarily by lower volume.
R&D expenses were $700 million in the second quarter, down 43% from last year. The decline was primarily driven by the wind down of our respiratory trials and lower clinical manufacturing costs. We also had year-over-year reductions in preclinical and external service costs, reflecting ongoing portfolio prioritization and productivity efforts. Last year's results also included an expense for a priority review voucher. SG&A expenses were $230 million for the quarter, down 14% year-over-year. The decrease reflects broad-based cost reductions across external services, personnel and commercial activities as we continue to streamline operations and manage expenses with discipline.
Our income tax provision for the quarter was immaterial, consistent with the prior year. We continue to maintain a global valuation allowance against the majority of our deferred tax assets. which limits our ability to recognize tax benefits for the quarter. Net loss for the quarter was $825 million, a $454 million improvement compared to a $1.3 billion loss in the second quarter of 2024. The Loss per share was $2.13, an improvement from a loss of $3.33 in 2024. We ended Q2 with cash and investments of $7.5 billion, down from $8.4 billion at the end of Q1. The decrease was primarily driven by the operating loss for the quarter.
Moving to Slide 8, I will share our updated 2025 financial framework. For total revenue, we are updating our 2025 projected revenue range to $1.5 billion to $2.2 billion, reflecting a $300 million reduction at the high end. This change is primarily due to a timing shift of U.K. COVID shipments from the second half of 2025 into the first quarter of 2026. The timing shift for the U.K. shipments is due to the government's use of their fiscal year minimum purchase -- product purchase for the spring campaign in 2026. So our deliveries will now deliver in 1Q 2026. This represents the vast majority of the $300 million impact. Importantly, the timing shift does not impact the total value of our long-term multiyear contract with the U.K. government.
Our updated revenue range continues to reflect the uncertainties in vaccination rates the competitive market environment, the size of the RSV market and timing of licensure of our factories and product approvals in Australia and Canada. On a geographic basis, we are updating U.S. product sales -- we are expecting U.S. product sales of $1.0 billion to $1.5 billion, international product sales of $0.4 billion to $0.6 billion and other revenues of approximately $100 million, where the majority is international. For U.S. product sales of $1.0 billion to $1.5 billion, the high end of the range assumes flat year-over-year performance after adjusting for last year's $200 million prior period return reserve reversal.
The low end of the range factors the potential combined impacts from lower vaccination rates and competitive market pressures. For international product sales of $0.4 billion to $0.6 billion, the low end of the range is mainly from secured contracts, while the high end factors in incremental revenue from active tenders. The range now also reflects the shift in shipments for the U.K. from the second half of 2025 to the first quarter of 2026. For other revenues of $100 million, we've already recognized $50 million in the first half of the year and expect a similar amount in the second half. The majority of the revenue is associated with our new manufacturing sites but also includes some grant, collaboration, licensing and royalty revenue.
The split of our 3Q and 4Q revenue mix will be dependent on timing of regulatory approvals across the world, and the number of days available to ship in the third quarter. We expect the revenue split of 40% to 50% in Q3 with the balance in Q4. Our cost of sales estimate of $1.2 billion remains unchanged and reflects year-over-year improvements in manufacturing efficiency, offset by increased costs associated with the go-live of our new international manufacturing sites. Newly introduced tariffs are not expected to have a material impact on our cost of sales. We continue to monitor changes to global tariffs.
We are lowering our R&D expense forecast from $4.1 billion to a range of $3.6 billion to $3.8 billion due to Phase III trial wind-downs, continued portfolio prioritization and productivity. Our revised R&D guidance projects an increase in the second half versus the first half, driven by the seasonality of vaccine spend as well as studies in support of regulatory approvals. SG&A expenses are still expected to be $1.1 billion.
Similar to last year, we expect higher SG&A expenses in the second half of the year, primarily due to commercial-related activity but also due to severance charges associated with the workforce reduction we announced yesterday. We expect taxes to be negligible in 2025 and our capital expenditures projection has been lowered from $400 million down to $300 million due to our continued prioritization and efficiency gains. We still expect to end 2025 with approximately $6 billion in cash and investments.
Moving to Slide 9. As discussed on last quarter's call, we are planning a total reduction in annual GAAP operating expenses of over $6 billion from $11 billion in 2023 to $5 billion or less in 2027. On a cash cost basis, which excludes stock-based compensation, depreciation and amortization, -- we are decreasing annual operating expenses from $8.9 billion in 2023 to our midpoint target of $4.2 billion in 2027, which is a reduction of over 50%. Our revised 2025 GAAP operating expense range is now $5.9 billion to $6.1 billion, a $400 million reduction at the midpoint from our previous guidance of $6.4 billion.
This updated guidance puts us on track to achieve the first $5 billion of our overall $6 billion reduction in annual GAAP expenses in 2 years. Our updated 2025 guidance includes $0.9 billion of noncash expenses from stock-based compensation, depreciation and amortization. Excluding those noncash items, we now project a 2025 cash cost of approximately $5.1 billion. At the midpoint of the range, a $400 million reduction from our previous cash cost estimate of $5.5 billion. The strong progress in cost reductions to date has been a company-wide effort. While we continue to drive additional cost reductions in all areas, the largest source of future reductions will come from R&D, which represents over 60% of our cost base.
On the next slide, I want to share our strategy to achieve our 2027 operating expense targets in more detail. On Slide 10, you can see our GAAP and cash cost targets for 2025 versus 2027. At the midpoint of our ranges, we are targeting a $1.1 billion GAAP cost reduction from $6 billion in 25 million to $4.9 billion in 2017 and a $900 million cash cost reduction from $5.1 billion in $25 billion to $4.2 billion in 2017. There are 4 primary drivers to achieve this goal, which are all relatively evenly split in impact.
First, a reduction in R&D expenses from the completion of our large Phase III trials. We are already seeing the impact of the completion of most of our respiratory trials in 2025, and we'll start to see future cost savings by 2027 from the completion of our Phase III trials for CMB and norovirus. This includes both direct trial costs as well as reductions in clinical manufacturing and other related overheads. These cost reductions will be partially offset by select investments in the pipeline such as our oncology portfolio. Second, we will continue to drive manufacturing efficiencies, which will impact both cost of sales and R&D.
We have already made strong progress over the past few years to optimize our manufacturing footprint from endemic level demand of our COVID vaccine. We expect to drive additional savings through process improvements as well as reductions in future inventory write-downs. For example, in 2024, we had $0.5 billion of inventory write-downs, which we are actively driving to reduce in 2025 and beyond. Third, we continue to drive procurement savings. Some of the savings from the renegotiated contracts already taken place will not be fully realized until 2026. Additionally, we have a strong pipeline of new savings initiatives.
Fourth, we announced a workforce restructuring yesterday that impacts approximately 10% of our employees and will lower our employee base to under 5,000 by the end of the year versus 5,800 at the beginning of the year. account reductions are always difficult decisions as they impact valued colleagues have contributed meaningfully to our mission. However, these actions are necessary to reshape our capabilities and align to our long-term operating cost structure.
In summary, in just 2 years, the team has made tremendous progress towards our 4-year roughly $5 billion cash cost reduction plan. By the end of 2025, we have taken nearly $4 billion of cost out of the business and have an achievable plan to remove another $1 billion over the next 2 years. We remain committed to breaking even on a cash cost basis in 2028 and and will adjust spending as necessary. With that, I will now turn the call over to Stephen.
Thank you, Jamie, and good morning or good afternoon, everyone. Today, I'll review progress across our pipeline. Slide 12 is a review of our prioritized pipeline. As Stephan stated earlier, we have announced significant updates for many of these programs, including the recent approval for mNEXSPIKE, an expanded label for resi and approval of our pediatric Spikevax COVID vaccine, which was previously available in the United States under an emergency use authorization. In the quarter, we also reported strong vaccine efficacy results from our Phase III seasonal flu trial, and we continue to make progress in the rest of the prioritized portfolio, where we are targeting a total of additional potential filings through 2028.
Moving to Slide 13, which outlines the latest developments of our late-stage respiratory portfolio. I'll start with our COVID vaccine, Spikevax and the mNEXSPIKE. As mentioned earlier, we are very pleased with the FDA's approval of the mNEXSPIKE our next-generation COVID vaccine, which has shown strong relative vaccine efficacy compared to mNEXSPIKE in its Phase III trial. -- including in the 65 and older age subgroup and in those with risk factors for severe COVID-19. mNEXSPIKE was approved in the U.S. for individuals 65 and older and for people, 12 to 64 with at least 1 risk factor. An extensive analysis of the Phase III clinical data for mNEXSPIKE was published last month in Balance and the link to the publication can be found on this slide.
We submitted the annual updates for our COVID-19 vaccines for the currently recommended Lp.8.1 strain in the quarter and expect mNEXSPIKE and Spikevax will be available this fall in the United States. Speaking of Spikevax, the vaccine was recently approved by the FDA for high-risk children ages 6 months to 11 years. Spikevax had previously been available to this age group in the U.S. only under an emergency use authorization. Earlier this week, Spikevax also received EMA approval for the current season update lp.8.1.1, strain update for the coming season. For RSV, RM RESI vaccine was approved by the FDA on June 12 for individuals ages 18 to 59 with at least 1 risk factor.
The CDC subsequently adopted the ACIP recommendation for the 50- to 59-year old age cohort in this group, which means that recommendations for our vaccine are now consistent with competitors. For our seasonal flu vaccine, we announced positive results from our Phase III efficacy study. We are very pleased with the results, which I'll talk through on the next slide. We expect these flu results will also support our discussions with regulators about our flu plus COVID combination vaccine, and we have begun consultations with regulators on the submission requirements for both vaccines.
On Slide 14, I will discuss the very encouraging P304 flu vaccine efficacy data released during the quarter. In this 40,000-person study conducted across 11 countries, our seasonal flu vaccine, mRNA-1010, demonstrated relative vaccine efficacy that was 26.6% higher than the licensed standard dose comparator in adults aged 50 and above. Safety and tolerability of mRNA-1010 were consistent with previously reported Phase III results, and the majority of solicited adverse reactions were mild. Importantly, strong relative vaccine efficacy was observed for all 3 influenza strains contained in the vaccine, including each 1 in 1, H3N2 and the B Victoria's tree. Likewise, the relative vaccine efficacy was consistently strong across age groups, risk factors and previous vaccination status. In the important 65 and older demographic relative vaccine efficacy was a strong 27.4%.
We look forward to presenting these data at an upcoming medical conference, and we are preparing to file for FDA approval for this vaccine. Now turning to our nonrespiratory vaccine and rare disease portfolios. In our Phase III CMV efficacy study for mRNA-1647, we have now accrued sufficient primary endpoint cases for the final analysis. The analysis has not yet been conducted and the company remains fully blinded at this time. We've submitted an amendment to the analysis plan to add important powered secondary endpoints that we hope will increase the scientific value of the results. Once the updated analysis plan is formalized, we will proceed with the analysis of primary and secondary endpoints, which we expect to complete in the fall.
Our Phase III norovirus study is now accruing cases in its first season, -- as with other studies, the interim analysis of efficacy is dependent on case accrual. And depending upon the rate case accrual, the study has been designed so that it may proceed to a second season of enrollment if necessary. In rare diseases, our propionic acidemia or PA program is currently in a registrational study, and we believe we are on track for a potential 2027 approval. For methylmalonic acidemia, or MMA, we plan to initiate the registrational trial this year.
We continue to advance our oncology portfolio, with significant progress across our individualized neoantigen therapy, known as Intismeran, mRNA-4359 previously called checkpoint and our early-stage oncology pipeline. In collaboration with Merck, we have several late-stage studies underway for Intismeran. As a reminder, the Phase III trial in adjuvant melanoma is fully enrolled and accruing cases towards its interim analysis. Our Phase II adjuvant renal cell carcinoma trial is fully enrolled as well.
And as we have disclosed previously, we have 2 Phase III studies in non-small cell lung cancer 1 Phase II study in high-risk muscle-invasive bladder cancer and 1 Phase II study in high-risk non-muscle invasive bladder cancer. We have also expanded our Intismeran program into a Phase II study in first-line metastatic melanoma. This could be the first of many studies using Intismeran and KEYTRUDA together in metastatic indications. Following on from Intismeran, mRNA-4359 is now in a Phase II study in first-line metastatic melanoma and first-line metastatic non-small cell lung cancer. -- and we are currently enrolling patients in the lung cancer portion of that study.
We are pleased that the data from the Phase Ib study of mRNA-4359 plus KEYTRUDA in checkpoint inhibitor refractory PD-L1 positive patients was accepted as a mini oral presentation at ESMO. We look forward to presenting these findings at the meeting in October. In early-stage oncology, we are also dosing patients in our Phase I tumor-targeted antigen therapy, mRNA-4106. -- and -- and the INDs for our cell therapy enhancing engine therapy, mRNA-4203 and our T cell engager, mRNA-2808 are also now both open. We are pleased by our growing oncology pipeline and the continued strong momentum of the large entysmarin clinical trial program in partnership with Merck. With that, I'll hand over to Stephane.
Thank you, Stephen and Jamie. As you know, we have 3 priorities: Part 1 drive sales of approved products, Priority 2, focus on a lessee pipeline where we can drive product growth for approvals and priority free delivering on our cost efficiency across the company. Our first priorities will drive use of Spikevax and resi vaccines. We entered the third quarter of 2025 with 3 approved products in the U.S., and we are seeing a growing number of approvals in countries worldwide. For Paris, we are focused on delivering up to 10 products approval, which we believe will drive sales growth for the company. Together, these 10 anticipated products target an addressable market that is over $30 billion. .
In Q2, we secured U.S. approvals for and for Highways people, and which are exciting data in flu, enabling frugandfucoit combo. On the cost side of the house, -- we've demonstrated our commitment to cost discipline to the reduction achieved in last year in 2024 and also in 2025 to date. We remain confident in our ability to further streamline our operational structure for the remaining of '25 to 2027. CME just took you through our plans to cut an additional $400 million of our 2025 cost structure, and we are not done.
We have many new projects in the works to reduce cost further. These cost reduction activities we have in place gives us even greater confidence in our plan to reduce our cash cost to $4.2 billion in 2027. These actions are very important to help us achieve our cash breakeven targets in 2028. As we make these cost improvements, we are seeing continued use of AI across Moderna. We rolled out GPT Enterprise in 2024 and established widespread GPT literacy across the entire organization. Today, 100% of our knowledge workers are active daily users of Chat GPT.
As you can see on Slide 22, GPT users have grown very fast at the company. And in 2025, we enhanced II tools to allow for deep research capabilities allowing for the creation of comprehensive report without compromised quality of output. An example of a deep research application is the creation of target product profiles. This AI-based activity greatly reduces the amount of time it takes on product planners to create marketing strategies. We're excited about how AI has already improved our business.
And given the doubling of AI capabilities every 6 to 7 months, we are working hard to continue to reinvent our company across issues process department and team. We're excited about the coming months and quarters as we have a lot of important catalysts. First, of course, the potential approvals of seasonal trough and the Fuska programs based on the data Stephen shared with you. We're also eager to get the CMV Phase III efficacy data later this year. Norovirus Phase III readout is, of course, subject to gas accruals.
In oncology, we look forward to the readout of our ongoing interim Phase II 5-year durability data in adjuvant melanoma. And of course, -- we look forward to a Phase III adjuvant melanoma trial readout for . As Stephen said in oncology, we are looking forward to sharing the checkpoint Phase Ib data at desmin Berlin in October. And as a today, we look forward to sharing the Phase II data of this program.
Pierre is already in restriction study and MMA will be very soon. I'm pleased with the progress we have made on all 3 of our priorities over the course of the first 6 months of the year. We now have 3 products approved by the U.S. FDA. We are highly encouraged about the progress in the pipeline and very pleased by . In our financial discipline, we have accelerated our plan for cost efficiency and expect to deliver an additional $400 million of cost savings this year. I want to thank the team for all the great work that was done this quarter. We are very focused on executing those priorities going forward. This work allows to be focused on our mission. To deliver the greatest possible impact to people for mRNA medicine. With this, operator, we'll be happy to take questions.
[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Salveen Richter with Goldman Sachs. .
2. Question Answer
I was wondering if you could put the changes to CMV in context for us and just help us understand the rationale behind the addition of the secondary end points -- and then secondly, as we look to the individualized neoentogen therapy, and I know we're going to data at ESMO. Could you help us understand the cadence of data reads over maybe the next 12 months or so as we look to some of the other programs to mature .
Thank you, Savi. So first on CMV secondary endpoints. Obviously, we're pleased to now have sufficient primary endpoint cases, which, as you know, were based on primary prevention of infection in immunogenicity implants, so antibodies against antigens not the vaccine. But there's a lot of other data that will help inform the potential value of a CMV vaccine, including looking at things like the presence of virus in bottling fluids and/or other markers or measures of infection that could be quite relevant for the use of the CMV vaccine across a wider range of populations, including even in the congenital CMV space. .
Given that this is now the final analysis and as we've accrued a large number of cases and a lot of data, including against some of those secondary potential end points -- we want to make sure that we reflected those in the final analysis plan as we hope that we will see a positive primary endpoint and also get the benefit of some of those secondary powered endpoints in the totality of data that would come out of the study. I'll just remind you again that the best approach for doing this is while we are completely blinded. So the company does not know the results on the primary or any of the secondary.
We are just making sure to protect the integrity of the study that we update the scale analysis plan and receive approvals for it prior to initiating that analysis with an unblinded team at which point we would then become unblinded the results after the DSMB. And so this is just making sure we're protecting the integrity of the study. And we think it's a prudent decision to take a little bit of time here to update all those documents prior to conducting the analysis. Really look forward to that result in the fall. As it relates to the cadence of results on entity, we're fully enrolled in the Phase III, as we noted, for the confirmatory study in melanoma we are accruing events.
We continue to hope that we will be able to have a successful interim analysis for efficacy on that study on the time lines we previously mentioned. We have a number of other studies that are randomized. Actually all of the Phase III and Phase II studies are randomized controlled studies. And several of those could read out similarly in the near term, including the studies in bladder cancer, particularly those that are largely enrolled as well as renal cell carcinoma. So those are event driven.
And so as is always the case for events studies, it's hard for us to predict exactly when we'll have sufficient data to conduct those interim analyses. But I do believe that in the coming year or 2, there will be a consistent cadence of results from these randomized studies that will come out. hopefully first with a successful Phase III adjuvant melanoma study, but really soon thereafter with some of these Phase IIs and then moving into the lung cancer space.
Our next question comes from Elaine Merle with UBS.
Can you discuss how we should think about pricing for the COVID vaccine in the U.S. this year? And what your expectations are for net price? Or I guess, pricing this year would compare versus last year? And any takeaways from your contracting discussions so far. Sure. .
Thanks, Ellie. Yes. So what I'd say is in the U.S., we've given a range of $1 billion to $1.5 billion. And as I mentioned in my prepared remarks, put in variability for competitive pressures, which gets into contracting and pricing, to your point, to the heart of your question as well as vaccination rates. First on vaccination rates, if you look at the first half, as I mentioned, when we look at the spring booster, it was down roughly 10% or 11%. So that makes us feel good. It's a smaller sample size. But as we go into the second half, it's the only barometer we have heading into the second half. .
As it pertains to pricing and contracting. Contracting is basically complete now. So we will look to the second half and pricing is also completed there. We're also looking at Nextbike in there as well. I would say just right now, all those factors are within the range, and we have confidence within that range. So I don't really want to be specific on pricing or our share at this point, but it's factored into our range, and we feel confident in it. .
One more before our next question. Our next question comes from Michael Yee with Jefferies. .
Appreciate the opportunity for 2 questions. One is on CMV. I just wanted to follow up for Stephen. And maybe just talk to expectations about what you guys think is a positive readout, both on VE, but also what is a good readout on the secondary endpoint that would help payers or patients or clinicians think about the value of CMV given this novel type of vaccine for patients?
And then second, obviously, there has been various changes within FDA and and within the Asia, I just wanted to understand if you think that the dialogue remains very positive? And how are you expecting going forward?
Great. Thank you, Michael, for both. So first, on the CMV results, we powered the study, and as we've said, we believe the product will have an impact -- if the vaccine efficacy in the primary endpoint is better than 49.1%. That was a lower bound acceptability threshold for the for the primary analysis against preventive infection. That's because you might say, well, 49% or 50% is that a substantial benefit. If you think of all of the burden of disease associated with CMV over a lifetime, a 50% reduction in that would be a pretty profound benefit, we believe, on public health and for individuals.
There is complexity in terms of the individual indications because prevention of infection is one thing, but there's going to be a need to demonstrate value. Some of that will be demonstrated post approval with some of the real-world evidence generation studies. That always happen around vaccines. But we wanted to maximize the value of secondary endpoints in this study because we have such a rich study of information. And those include looking at things that you might think of as the persistence of virus in the blood or in the urine, the shedding and whether or not you were able to control that latent infection.
I'll remind you that in their EBV vaccine Phase I study, we shared previously a year ago. We were able to show quite strong impacts on the rates of virus, the presence of virus upon over time in patients that were EBV-positive who received our EBV vaccine different program. but shows the level of control that we were excited to see in that program. If we saw something similar here in CMV, we think that would speak to the potential benefit about the risk of congenital transmission from, let's say, a pregnant mother who's becoming infected to honor child as well as other potential benefits related to the chronic issues, health issues that can come from CMV.
Obviously, for those, we don't have a prespecified hypothesis in the primary endpoint but we would love to see efficacy as good or better than what we're seeing in the primary of 49%. So 49% feels good for us. that's where we designed the study, and we are looking forward to it. Obviously, we hope to do better than that. But we will ultimately look to the totality of the data to understand the value of the product and given the burden of in health systems and for individuals. We're quite hopeful that we'll be able to demonstrate that value quite quickly, including out of this Phase III study with the new secondary endpoints.
As it relates to the SEB changes and some of the ACIP changes, I'll just say that we continue to work closely with our review teams across all of our products. We are very grateful for the 3 approvals that happened in the last quarter. I will note that they happened on time, and that was through the obviously, the incredibly diligent work of the folks at FDA to conduct those reviews in a rigorous way, and we continue to feel that those productive dialogues are going on now even on our existing files for the seasonal update.
We will always make sure that we provide prompt and fully transparent answers to the agency and work closely with them so that they can conduct that work and we're credit grateful for that. as well as CDC and ACIP, where we get questions that they need information on so that they can guide public health, we'll make sure that we provide that information, and we look forward to working with both CDC, ACIP and FDA and Zero to continue to advance our pipeline and our mission. One for our next question.
Our next question comes from Tyler Van Buren with TD Cowen. .
This is Greg on for Tyler. Do you have any early indications of what demand for COVID vaccines might look like this upcoming fall and winter season based on interactions with customers. Or will we need to wait to see early uptake at the end of this month or early next month. .
Yes. Look, I think first, let's separate outside the U.S. versus inside the U.S. part of that question, I think that that's probably more focused on the US. But outside the U.S. many of our government customers are purchasing through advanced purchase agreements. And so those indications are pretty firm. You can see that in our even how we're guiding forward. And so some of those are under advanced purchase agreements. Others are under tenders that have been completed and published in those countries, and that feels quite stable.
In the U.S., with customers, what I'd say is we saw a quite solid spring booster campaign. If you look from March 1 forward, the actual volumes in the Spring booster campaign in the U.S. were only slightly down from last year. And if you actually look at the 65-plus population, which is the core population, we think, going forward, given the new labels and framework for recommendation, it was actually down only 1% or 2% from March 1 to the end of the quarter, June 30, which I think speaks to the realization that those at high risk of severe COVID-19 continue to be compliant with public health recommendations and want to protect themselves even in the spring campaign.
That has been the same experience, therefore, of our customers in the retail channel and elsewhere where they have seen that evidence in the last 4 months. And as we look to the fall we obviously have some uncertainty, both about what the ultimate ACIP recommendation will be as well as some of the other market uncertainties that exist. But we all want to be prepared to deliver a season that could be in line with prior seasons if the trends continue from the spring till now.
So we're going to remain cautiously optimistic. Certainly, our customers are preparing to make sure they have vaccines available if their customers and patients show up and the early signs are encouraging, but we need to be careful going into the fall. We think we really won't know until the end of the third quarter until the end of September. As is always the case, for our seasonal business, which is we'll really get a clear picture in the first 6 weeks of the season as we launch.
Our next question comes from Geoffrey Meacham with Citigroup.
This is Charlie on for Geoffrey. Two real quick questions. You mentioned additional cost-cutting area that you could target. You noted that R&D is a primary driver of costs right now. How might you balance the need to bring later-stage infectious products market and also the need to shift away from seasonality factors that current products have? And then second, on CMV, these secondary end points, the decision to add them, did they come on the back of interactions or discussions from FDA? Some color on that would be really helpful.
Sure. Yes. Thanks, Charlie. So I think the first question was on how are we balancing our late-stage pipeline. I mean we still think we are investing quite a bit in our late-stage pipeline. So $3.6 billion to $3.8 billion is still significant, particularly, we are very conscious of where we are from a revenue standpoint. And we've made this decision and really stood by it for the last 2 years. We laid this out in 2023 that we were going to invest in our late-stage pipeline we continue to do that.
We are actively adjusting as we go, and we will continue to adjust as we go. And that's why we're taking our cash costs from $9 billion down to $4 billion. But at the end of the day, you also mentioned seasonality. We think we are building a diversified portfolio that is not just seasonal. We do want to complete the respiratory portfolio that will be stronger when we have all the products together and give us more ability to compete. But then when you look at CMB, our oncology pipeline and our rare disease pipeline, those aren't as seasonal. And so we believe that we are balancing both the need to complete the respiratory portfolio, invest in our late-stage pipeline. -- and invest in diversification in the company. And we've been doing that for the last 2 years, and we'll continue to do it, but we have had to adjust it down. So we did have greater ambitions, but we will continue to adjust and have adjusted, and I think that's what we're seeing.
And maybe just to add to Jamie's point, we've also said that we will not invest in Phase III studies for new latent vaccine. So as you know, EBV, HSV and vaccines but we also say that we might be looking for partners, other project financing or pharma partners. And the rare disease of more in terms of do auto associated we're going to focus on P for now. We'll advance more programs later, but now we need to be financially disciplined. And in oncology, as you know, for Intesa, Merck is paying 50% of the cost, which is why, as Jamie explained, we have discussed this mechanical effect that is based on the strategy we decided to pursue to make sure that we drive back the company to profitability in 2018.
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And the question -- and on the CMV question, so we -- so just a little, again, sort of overall framing on this, we remain blinded to the primary results and the secondary results that are in the study. The interim analysis that we announced much earlier in this year was only on that primary endpoint, that's the design of those studies. But as we did not meet the criteria for early success in that arm analysis, we then proceed to the final and the final has much more information in it.
Obviously, we leave the primary endpoint unchanged, and we'll test against that. But if that is successful, there is an opportunity to pass down the alpha to powered secondary endpoints as well as there's a final opportunity for us to say, are we getting all the information we want from the blinded analysis prior to that unbinding event? And internally, Moderna -- we identified that there is -- we've actually been very successful in collecting data in the course of the study across a range of different potential endpoints. And we wanted to elevate some of those into that secondary endpoint analysis.
In order to do that, while blinded, we have to then update the statistical analysis plan. We did consult with regulators as we are doing that. And we want to make sure that is done in the utmost to a gold standard, high-integrity way prior to conducting the analysis that we can get the full benefit of that additional information that is in the study. So again, we remain blinded. This is just a diligence matter of making sure we get this updated in the right way, and then we'll look forward to proceeding with that analysis. And we have done that in consultation, obviously with regulators, but we initiated that ourselves. Last point, I just can underscore, we will still expect this in 2025. At this point, we have the data in hand, it is literally just making sure we dough our eyes and cross our Ts before conducting that analysis visa.
One more before our next question. Our next question comes from Courtney Breen with Bernstein. .
Question. A couple of pieces that I wanted to just touch on. First, with the INT, it looks like you've added the first-line melanoma in there. as you think about kind of patients being treated over the course of their disease, you're already kind of hitting them in the early stages of the adjuvant space and now popping up with a new first-line trial for the metastatic space.
Could you imagine a world where patients might get kind of an INT twice in the course of their disease state if they were to progress. Or will this be a more narrow patient population in the first line, those that perhaps haven't had it in an earlier stage. The second question that I did want to ask was just in terms of the kind of employee head count cost cutting that you have just announced.
Can you just add some more context and apologies if I've missed this on kind of where you are focused with kind of removing some of that head count are there any places that you're adding to kind of enhance efficiencies. And so just talking about kind of what the ins and outs might look like to get to that new employee head count
Thank you. I'll take the I&T question first. So we -- as you mentioned, we are looking at first-line metastatic melanoma. We look forward to a day when melanoma patients broadly are getting INDs early in the adjuvant setting. But right now, the reality is as we're not yet approved and being used in that space, there's still a substantial need in frontline metastatic. Your question was sort of could we expect a world maybe in that distant future where we are being used in both places. And I think the answer is yes.
I'll remind you, it's an individualized treatment. An individualized treatment we make on a biopsy of your tumor at the time of when it happens. So it's conceivable that you could get a durable benefit in the adjuvant setting and maybe very much more distantly have a metastatic event. And the neoantigens in your tumor might have changed. So the actual INT you would get in that frontline setting would actually be updated the evolution of your own personal cancer.
And that would be a world where you can obviously see the potential for treating early and treating rate. That's speculative in the sense that it's far out there, and we'll have to prove those things. But certainly, we could see a world where people are receiving different versions of their individualized means in therapy throughout the treatment of their...
And I'll take the second question on employees copay. If you look at it, basically, there's a few buckets clearly no manufacturing driven by productivity, whether it's technology productivity or processes or other things we are doing. -- in R&D, as we talked about a lot and is part of our strategy. We are not investing in new Phase III study in respiratory. So as growth phase out -- of course, there are some capacity that we need to kind of resize as you can imagine, and we're not taking new ones.
We're not starting no later on Phase III. And then G&A is a lot of productivity across the board. So we'll, of course, continue to hire I think if you check a check having a week ago, there still like 150 position on Moderna website right now. We are hiring as we need to grow the business, to prepare the launches. So of course, this is very important.
Thank you. One for our next question. Our next question comes from Cory Kasimov with Evercore ISI. .
This is Adi on for Cory. I wanted to ask a little more on the decision to start the first-line metastatic melanoma trial for India what does this suggest about what you're learning about the product, where it might be best suited to work and your evolving confidence in the program? .
Thank you for the question. Look, we continue to follow the randomized Phase IIb results from our adjuvant lonoma study. And I think as we have seen in the repeated updates, and we hope to provide a future updates, on that, as I mentioned previously, we continue to have enthusiasm from that study, and that really lays the foundation for why we are optimistic about the overall program. .
Our -- if you look across where we have made with our partner, Merck, the most sizable investments, we have obviously been looking most substantially in the adjuvant settings. And that makes sense to us where the burden of the tumor is the lowest and where your immune system has the greatest chance of achieving a really significant response. And so I don't want to lose sight of the fact that we still believe adjuvant settings are important. I'll also note that we've gone for some monotherapy smaller studies that we're starting to look at, which have us looking even earlier than adjuvant in some ways. And so we're quite enthusiastic about the program potential from adjuvant and earlier.
That said, we also want to assess diligently whether or not there's an opportunity for us to do late stage in particularly in the metastatic indication. And that's where metastatic melanoma made the most sense. It was also enabled by some progress we've really made on the manufacturing side. Now I will just make a last comment on the metastatic indication is that those are patients that if they're unfortunately at that stage, they tend to progress quite quickly. And we need to be sure that we can deliver highly efficiently, highly reliably a product for them inside of 6 weeks or hopefully even better from a quick turnaround perspective so that they can start being treated by the drug post enrollment in the study.
And so it's quite pragmatic to say, let's build up the capability in the adjuvant and early space, but then now go in a targeted way and look in later stage. And what we've really seen in the intesrin clinical portfolio, over now, many studies and over 1,000 patients treated is this opportunity for us to look in the late stage with a rapid turnaround and highly efficient manufacturing system. But I don't want to lose sight of the fact that -- we still really believe in the adjuvant space, that is the major place that we're getting, but we do believe that earlier than adjuvant and perhaps in the front line are worth looking at as well and we're be doing that in the studies that we just announced.
Got it. And then just a follow-up. Can you discuss any regulatory interactions you have had on the path ahead for Check Point AMT. I see on Slide 12, that is now expected to be 5% for approval by 2028? .
Thank you for that question. So 4359, we have been engaging with regulators. Those are early stage. I won't get into the the specifics of them, I'll remind you, we're just now moving into Phase II. And so these are really Phase I stage conversations, which would make it premature to go too much into specifics. That said, -- we are investing behind the program.
And as we announced at the last quarter, we're investing as though this could become 1 of our submissions over the next 3 years. as you identified sort of by 2028. That really is a statement about our prioritization of the program and our conviction, given the very early stage data and not necessarily a statement about anything we've done either out of Phase II and subsequent discussions with regulators about approval time line. So it's our prioritization of the program that brings that forward. But we believe it is possible. .
On 1 before next question. Our next question comes from Luca Issi with RBC.
Well, great. Maybe one, Stephan, bigger picture, can you maybe just talk about business development here. We've obviously seen a lot of assets being in license from China, including obviously, one of your competitors that actually licensed the assets and even selected versus mean to profits. Given your long-term ambition to become a key player in oncology, are you actively spending time in China and if so, are you just looking at strengthening your mRNA capabilities? Or are you open to other modalities?
And then maybe second, Stephen, can you just talk about the COVID plus flu how should we think about the sequence of the filing here with the FDA? Is it fair for us to think that you first need to get approved for flu monotherapy and then you can file the combo or can you possibly do both concurrently. I guess any color there, much appreciated so we can think about time lines.
So on the first question, as we've said before, -- we have such a productive platform in mRNA that we have an abundance of assets. Actually, what we are doing, as you heard on our cost structure, we are deciding not to take forward to Phase III asset that we believe deeply into PKB, for example. -- because we ought to be financially disciplined. But we've said we believe this vaccine is really important for patients. As you know, we have 2 prime EBV. There is a prophylactic program to prevent mononucleosis and potentially long-term secular of MS and there's a potential therapeutic program for people that already seek.
And we believe those programs have to move forward, which is why, as we've said on previous calls, we are actively talking to potential pharmaceutical partner and potential for experiencing partners for several assets that we cannot prosecute forward alone because they are great assets, but we need to be financially disciplined at the same time. We've always thought that partnering is a great way to access assets that are non MR technology. I mean, a good example, of course, is our important strategic partnership with Merck with Cura we could have decided to develop our own PD-1, everybody don't think this was the right thing to do.
But partly with Merck in terming an approved product and the right capabilities was. So we're always going to look at the biology. That's what has always driven us to try to find the best way to help patients and to create the best asset. And if you need a partnership, we will do so.
And thanks for the question on the Coviu combo. So look, I'll first say, Concurrent is certainly possible. You're asking whether it's theoretically possible. I think we think it is. But as a practical matter, there will probably be some sequencing as a practical matter in the case of the U.S. FDA, it's likely that the flu vaccine will be sequenced first for all of the reasons that are obvious. It's that a chance to review that efficacy data from that flu vaccine feels very important for gating the flu COVID combination. Now the 1 caveat I'd put on that is there are markets where we continue to proceed with our flu COVID vaccine application, including in Europe, where we have -- we believe we're going to be able to amend that file to include the flu efficacy data.
And so the answer is ultimately dependent on the different regulators in different markets. It is possible that we could proceed in parallel but for pragmatic reasons, we may proceed in sequence in to. That doesn't mean that we're delaying for 1 to be approved before we submit, but we are allowing substantially through to proceed before before proceeding with the flu covid, again, market to market, different answers. Thank you so much.
One on for our next question. next question comes from Gena Wang with Barclays.
I have 2, maybe just follow flu cover comments here or discussion here. So any latest thoughts regarding flu combo submission requirement. This is specifically regarding the -- and then second, regarding the CMV, how do you decide the statistical hierarchy for the secondary endpoint? And also given the study basically already completed, is it fair to say in 2 months, we will see the data?
There are very specific questions. Thank you, Gena, for all of them. So on the flu covid, we're actually beginning those consultations with the FDA. And so we'll wait for a week for us to have guidance from them on what their requirements are. But the previous review, it was clear that we needed to submit the flueficacy results and confirm the core order protection from that study that we now have. And so we will go back and confirm that, that is necessary as well as understand any other information the FDA would want to see in the application. One we've had that consultation, we'll be able to provide more clarity. I don't have that now. As far as CMV in terms of the hierarchy. We have not yet disclosed what the powered secondary endpoint will be or some of the other things that we are looking at.
And we will, once we are obviously unblinding the study, -- but the -- what we're looking to do is a hierarchical testing, as you can imagine, so that we're passing the alpha down to that secondary. And then we're also making sure that we characterize all the additional secondary endpoints that we think will be useful in terms of characterizing the performance of the vaccine on a number of different immunologic and virologic measures. Last question, when will we see the data. We have completed the study. We are going to be diligent and careful in dotting our eyes and crossing the Ts. We have not completed the analysis. And so will we have most of the data we -- I would say that we are completely blinded to those results.
And so it will take some time to first make sure that we have all the appropriate approvals on the update to the statistical analysis plan everywhere one. And then we will initiate the analysis, and there will be some period of time for an unblinded statistical team to conduct all the correct analysis and review that with SAB and then will be informed. We do expect that to happen this fall. I will not say whether or not we expect it to happen within the next 2 months because honestly, I don't exactly know today how much time it takes to go through those approvals and complete those announces, but we're quite confident that it will happen probably.
Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes the Q&A portion of today's conference. I'd like to turn the call back over to Stephane for any closing remarks.
Well, thank you, everybody, for joining us today. We really appreciate it. We look forward to speaking to you in the next days or weeks. Have a nice day and a good weekend. Thanks.
Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's presentation. You may now disconnect, and have a wonderful day.
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Moderna — Q2 2025 Earnings Call
Moderna — Q2 2025 Earnings Call
📊 Quartal auf einen Blick
- Umsatz gesamt: $142 Mio. (Netto-Produktumsatz $114 Mio.; Produktumsatz -38% YoY)
- Nettoverlust: -$825 Mio. (Verbesserung vs. -$1,3 Mrd. in Q2‑2024; Verlust je Aktie -$2.13)
- Cash: $7,5 Mrd. Ende Q2; Ziel ~ $6 Mrd. Ende 2025)
- Kostenreduktion: Operative Cash‑Kosten um $581 Mio. gesenkt (≈40% YoY); kombiniert 35% Reduktion von Cost of Sales, R&D und SG&A vs. Q2‑2024)
- Margenhinweis: Cost of Sales 105% der Netto‑Produktumsätze (aufgrund niedriger Volumina)
🧾 Was das Management sagt
- Kommerzielle Fokussierung: Drei US‑Zulassungen (m‑NeXpike, mRESVIA 18–59 mit Risiko, Spikevax pädiatrisch) als Hebel zur Wiederbelebung des Umsatzwachstums.
- Pipeline‑Fortschritt: Positive Phase‑III‑Ergebnisse für saisonale Grippe (mRNA‑1010) fördern Kombi‑Flu/COVID‑Programm; CMV‑Primäranalyse geplant für Herbst.
- Finanzdisziplin: Zusätzliche Einsparungen von $400 Mio. in 2025, ~10% Stellenabbau; Ziel: Cash‑Kosten $4,2 Mrd. in 2027, Cash‑Break‑Even 2028.
🔭 Ausblick & Guidance
- Umsatz 2025: $1,5–2,2 Mrd. (Hoch korrigiert um -$300 Mio. wegen UK‑Lieferterminverschiebung in Q1‑2026; langfristiger Vertrag unberührt)
- Geografisch: US $1,0–1,5 Mrd.; International $0,4–0,6 Mrd.; Sonstiges ≈ $0,1 Mrd.
- Kosten & CapEx: R&D $3,6–3,8 Mrd. (gesenkt); GAAP Opex $5,9–6,1 Mrd.; Cash‑Kosten ≈ $5,1 Mrd.; CapEx $300 Mio.; Zielendbestand ~ $6 Mrd.
- Risiken: Impfquoten, Wettbewerbsdruck, Timing von Zulassungen und Fabrik‑Go‑Lives beeinflussen Umsatz/Margen.
❓ Fragen der Analysten
- CMV‑Design: Management erläuterte Ergänzung powered sekundärer Endpunkte zur Steigerung des wissenschaftlichen Nutzens; primäre Analyse bleibt blinded, finale Auswertung im Herbst erwartet.
- Nachfrage & Preisbildung COVID: Frühindikatoren für US‑Frühjahrskampagne positiv; Preise/Marktanteile wurden nicht konkretisiert (Management wich detaillierten Preisangaben aus).
- Onkologie & Produktion: Fragen zu Taktung von Daten (Intismeran, Phase‑III‑Events) und zur Produktionsschnelligkeit; Management betonte Fortschritte in Fertigungs‑Turnaround, aber zeitliche Unsicherheit bleibt.
⚡ Bottom Line
- Schlussfolgerung: Kombination aus drei US‑Zulassungen und positiven Grippe‑Daten stärkt Wachstumsstory, während aggressive Kostensenkungen die finanzielle Runway und das Ziel Cash‑Break‑Even 2028 deutlich verbessern. Kurzfristig bleibt Umsatz volatil (Saisonabhängigkeit, UK‑Timing, Wettbewerbsdruck); die nächsten Binary‑Katalysatoren sind CMV‑Readout, Grippe‑Zulassungen/Kombi‑File und Onkologie‑Daten—Execution und Nachfragetrends entscheiden über Bewertung und Margen‑Erholung.
Moderna — Special Call - Moderna, Inc.
1. Question Answer
My name is Gena Wang. I'm SMID Cap biotech analyst at the Barclays. Thank you for joining our call today. We are very pleased to continue our 8th annual speaking science conference call series. Our core series are intended to focus on key scientific concepts, progress of a preclinical and clinical programs and of course, commercial launches and the company strategy.
Please email me at a [email protected] for any questions you have during the call.
Today on the call with me is Rose Loughlin, EVP of Research. We certainly have Lavina Talukdar, which everyone knows as SVP, IR from Moderna. Thank you very much for joining our call today.
So I know today, it will be slightly different because Rose will have comprehensive slide deck regarding the oncology pipeline. I think this is also the key focus actually is the most inbound questions beyond the current macro environment, I think that's the key focus from investors regarding going forward, oncology will be very important for Moderna.
So I think there will be a great opportunity let us hear the landscape and the thought process with the current pipeline and the future development path for the key assets.
With that, I hand over to Rose.
Fantastic. Thank you so much, Gena. Let me just pull up the slides so we can share these with folks. So I really appreciate the opportunity to share our science and specifically how we're thinking about the oncology space. So when we think about the portfolio that we're developing oncology, we are thinking about supporting patients across that journey from early stages all the way to the later end. And so our lead program there is Intismeran autogene, which I'll share more about, also known as INT, our individualized neoantigen therapy. In addition, building off of the data that we've developed with INT, we've been moving forward a pipeline of cancer antigen therapies that are designed to treat multiple patients. And we also have diverse therapeutic applications, which happen to use different parts of our platform technology as a part of the oncology portfolio.
So these include T cell engagers and in vivo cell therapy approaches. So we'll talk through each of these today.
So we'll start off in the INT space, where as you can see, we're initially developing in an adjuvant setting and starting to explore different opportunities both in some of those frontline metastatic patients as well as in earlier-stage settings. So for those who aren't familiar with INT, it is truly individualized. So we take samples from every patient comparing their tumor to healthy cells from their body to identify specific mutations or neoantigens that are present in their tumor. We then use our algorithms to design this therapy specifically for that patient. We manufacture it for that patient administer it.
Now, as you may be aware, in our Phase II study in adjuvant melanoma, we were very excited to be able to demonstrate a 49% reduction in the risk of recurrence or death. Building on these data, we have continued to move INT into multiple settings. So the most advanced there is adjuvant melanoma. We have fully enrolled our pivotal study there. And we are cautiously optimistic that we will be able to share data in 2026 from that study. You can also see here, we've started to expand into different settings, so looking at different types of cancers and also considering different combinations beyond just INT with pembrolizumab. So for example, considering INT as a monotherapy.
Now what's really exciting because we spent a lot of time sharing with the public and the data around INT is that from INT, we are building an additional pipeline of cancer antigen therapies. Now these are not individualized these we refer to as off the shelf, so we manufacture them once, and then they can be used in a variety of different patients. Now like many cancer therapies, we're starting development in some of these later line patients, but we do see the opportunity and the profile with these cancer antigen therapies to move up into adjuvant settings.
So we refer to these as off-the-shelf and they encode for antigens that are shared across many different cancer patients. So we have 2 approaches here, and I'll actually start by describing the bottom first, which is designing these therapies to target antigens present on tumor specifically. So some of these may be very tumor-specific antigens, meaning only tumor cells are expressing and presenting these proteins and some may be tumor-associated antigens, meaning that they are expressed more highly on your tumor cells than on any other cells in the body.
And so our lead program in this space is mRNA-4106, which is currently dosing in a Phase I. Our other approach, which is more advanced, is mRNA-4359. And this targets not just cancer cells but it also trains your immune system to recognize some of your immunosuppressive cells that are actually making it harder for your body to recognize and kill those cancer cells. So to go into a little bit more detail on 4359. This therapy actually encodes proportions of the PD-L1 and IDO proteins. So it actually, again, trains your immune system to recognize cells that are overexpressing those.
Now this definitely occurs within cancer cells. It also occurs in different cells of your immune system, so you can think T regulatory cells or if you're thinking myeloid cells, you could be thinking MDSCs, the type of cells that again make it harder for your immune system to recognize and kill cancer cells. Now because this is such a central mechanism, we believe that this vaccine will be applicable to many different types of cancers. So we have previously shared data from our dose escalation. And I believe that was ESMO last year, where we saw 8 of 16 of our response-evaluable patients demonstrating stable disease.
And we then moved into a dose confirmation where we were combining with pembrolizumab and focused on checkpoint inhibitor refractory patients. So patients who have already been on a checkpoint inhibitor and stopped responding. So you can imagine there's quite a bit of pretreatment in this setting. And we were looking at melanoma and NSCLC patients. Now we haven't shared these data yet. We are excited to share them later this year, but they have encouraged us to go ahead and expand into Phase II in 2 different settings.
First-line NSCLC with high PD-L1 and first-line melanoma. So again, we are excited. We haven't yet shared the data from the dose confirmation. It did give us the confidence to go ahead and expand. We also really liked the profile that we saw on the safety and tolerability side, where we were seeing mostly low-grade adverse events and no dose-limiting toxicities.
So mRNA-4359 in our recent quarterly call was shared as a part of our prioritized pipeline. So this is the part of the pipeline where we see this potentially being available to patients within the timeline of 2028, again, always subject to data and discussions with regulatory authorities.
Sort of moving beyond those cancer antigen therapies, we're taking a very complementary but different approach to some of these later line cancers through our T-cell engagers. This also happens to use a different form of our own platform technology. So you may be familiar with T-cell engagers rather than training your immune system, we like to say that they guide your immune system.
So they bind to a T-cell binding to CD3 and then they bind to an antigen or protein on a cancer cell, holding those in proximity, really helping your T-cell recognize and go ahead and kill that cancer cell. Now what's really interesting about the approach that we're able to take is that our platform allows us to multiplex T-cell engagers. Now I say multiplex and not combined because what we're able to do is in a single medicine we can encode for multiple T-cell engagers that yes, find CD3, but also bind different proteins on a cancer cell.
Now you can imagine there's a lot of heterogeneity in cancer. So this is a significant advantage if you can target multiple proteins on the cancer cell. And we also know that cancer cells can escape certain treatments by just stopping some of the expression of these proteins. So by being able to target multiple, you can sort of get ahead of that escape mechanism. Using our platform, we can also encode for additional proteins that can really enhance the T-cell response and its specificity. So for example, providing co-stimulatory signals. So as you're holding those cells together, that T-cell is even more encouraged to go ahead and recognize and kill that cancer cell.
Now when we think about the proteins that are on the surface of a cancer cell, there is a pretty much a defined pool of those that are specific to tumors. And so we take a complementary approach in this part of our portfolio so that we can expand that target landscape, and that is to pursue intracellular antigens. Now of course, these proteins, as we encode them, they can't get inside the cancer cells. So what we do is we actually wait for the cancer cells to digest those proteins and go ahead and present them on their surface so that we can then design a T-cell engager to identify that, really expanding that landscape of antigens that we can pursue.
And similarly, in this part of the portfolio, we have the ability to multiplex so we could go after multiple intracellular proteins. So in addition to the T-cell engagers in our pipeline, we are pursuing in vivo cell therapies, again, with the idea that we can develop 1 treatment that would be relevant for many patients. And we're taking 2 distinct approaches in this space. Now the first actually builds on ex vivo cell therapy. So you may be very familiar with ex vivo cell therapy in the form of CAR-T or TCR-T cells. Now these are engineered cells. They're actually taken out of a patient's body, engineered to recognize an antigen from your cancer.
The patients often go through conditioning treatment so that they make a home for those immune cells to really last when they're infused back into the patient. Now this has been truly transformational in the hematological spaces. In solid tumors, what we've seen is there still room to improve that efficacy. And what the field has been demonstrating is that if you have increased proliferation or persistence of those engineered T-cells. So once they get in the body, if they continue to multiply and continue to exist and circulate, then you're seeing better clinical outcomes. So what we have actually designed is a therapy to enhance ex vivo cell therapy.
So the patient still goes through the process of having their cells taken out engineered and infused back in. After those cells have been infused back into the patient. We come in with our therapy, which was specifically designed to present the same epitope that those infused engineered cells recognize, so we can effectively boost those engineered cells after they are in a patient's body. Again, helping those cells proliferate and also persist and be healthier for longer in the body. Now our lead program there has an open IND. It is in partnership with Immatics and their ex vivo TCRT, IMA-203 and ours is mRNA-4203, which is combined again, with Immatic cell therapy.
Now we have a distinct approach, which leverages a different portion of our platform technology and looks to do that cell engineering in the body. So with mRNA LNPs, we can directly transfect immune cells, whether those are myeloid cells or T-cells and actually encode for those receptors the chimeric antigen receptors in those cells in your body, creating either CAR-M for monocyte or CAR-T for T-cell therapies, where again, that engineering is happening inside the patient's body.
So as you can see, we are thinking about our oncology portfolio quite broadly across the multiple stages of disease across the different types of therapeutic applications that you can do and through different parts of our platform technology and applying this for different approaches to oncology.
So with that, Gena, I'm happy to hand it back to you.
Okay. Great. I think if we can keep the slides also on since we will ask a few questions, maybe if we can go back to the Slide 4. I know this is the most important early data update and generating a lot of excitement among physicians in the companies as well as investors.
So I think now, like we continue to see like a kind of lost track like 3, 4 years update now from Phase II. Is that right? Or did I miss by 1 year or 5 years close...
We presented the 3-year data thus far and the final analysis is at 5 years.
5 years, yes. So -- right. So Phase II, like 3-year update, I continue to see the benefit and maintain. And so that was very impressive. So I do have some investor pushback, I wanted to double check regarding the control arm on that Phase II how patients are allocated. So there was some question on if is that true the patient who fail the drug manufacturing, they will be put under control. Just want to get a clarity regarding how you allocate a patient.
So I'm not sure in that specific instance based on whether they fail to manufacture. Lavina, you're shaking your head.
Unmute your line, Lavina.
She can't unmute. Lavina, you're also welcome to join me in here if we want to share the screen.
So Gena, maybe while Lavina is coming over, and we've received questions like this in the past for imbalances. And really, what we have looked at as we look across the different translational factors you could consider like tumor mutational burden, ctDNA positivity or negativity, HLA heterozygosity, what we see is that the combination of Intismeran and pembro consistently outperforms pembro alone. And where we did see any imbalances in those in the Phase II, they actually were not in our favor in INT essentially giving us the more challenging -- more of the more challenging patients.
And then the last piece that we have shared publicly as well is just looking at our pembro control arm and confirming that its performance is in line with what's been seen in previous keynotes in that setting as well as [ checkMates ].
Okay. Okay. Good. So the -- regarding the Phase III data -- by the way, I think at some point, everyone was excited about potential accelerated approval path. So is that completely off the table now? Or you think there still could be a chance there?
So I'm not sure what we have shared exactly on that one, but Lavina is stepping in, in just a second. We are looking to file off of the Phase III data that we're anticipating in 2026. Welcome Lavina, Gena I have just asked if accelerated approval from the Phase II is completely off the table. And then I share that we're planning to file off of the Phase III.
Yes, we are planning to file off of the Phase III. The proximity of that data potentially meeting out in 2026, I think gives us a better opportunity to use the Phase III data for approval.
Okay. And the Phase III, I assume it's also event driven. So I think 1 maybe any pushback on the Phase II other than by itself is like outstanding data. So any we want to nip picking that was some of the question is the placebo or the control arm that did not perform was worse than historical numbers. So any thoughts there regarding the control arm, how we should -- when we look at the Phase II and then now fast forward, everyone will be focusing on Phase III. Is there any big disconnect there regarding the control arm from Phase II to Phase III?
Sure. And we, of course, have not looked at -- we are still blinded to the Phase III, have not looked at the control arm there, but just to reiterate from the Phase II, we view the pembro control arms performance, particularly when you correct for exact stages and try to look at trial comparisons as in line with what it's been seen in Merck's keynote study.
Okay. And then what is the Phase III trial powering assumptions should we use Phase II as a good benchmark? And any additional color you can share regarding the Phase III?
So we haven't shared the powering assumptions for the Phase III study. However, we are very encouraged by what we saw in the Phase II study particularly given the magnitude of response that we've seen where we've seen a 49% decrease in the risk of recurrence for a sizable but yet still 150 patient study. We think that's a really remarkable outcome. And so we're looking forward to seeing what the Phase III data shows.
Yes, absolutely. And we have publicly shared enrollment numbers as of clinicaltrials.gov, which are 1,100 subjects across that study, so well powered.
Okay. And that's the event-driven trial, correct?
Yes.
Have you guys shared how many events total you will be looking for?
We have not.
Okay. Okay. And then -- and you did say 2026 data, so which means actually very, very so you complete enrollment end of last year, right, the 4Q last year 2024. So...
September of 2024 was the target enrollment completion.
Okay. Okay. Good. Good. Okay. So that's very good. Now moving forward, I know your partner also Merck seems very excited and move forward with maybe a little bit more color on the so many additional indications they move forward. So maybe what is the rationale behind that? And in the past, we discussed about anything PD-1 or PD-L1 will be active that should be applicable to the same approach here. So maybe if you can give a little bit more color regarding the non-small cell lung cancer, additional indication there and then giving like very quickly Merck basically started Phase III study. So what will be the assumption there?
Like what data will make them confident this is the right Phase III design? Because 1 part is that great drug -- but if a poor study design, that could be failed and another -- so if you have -- so like what make them confident this is the right Phase III study design and given the relatively limited data of the early studies.
Sure, absolutely. So I think as we look at the mechanism of action for Intismeran as well as the translational data that we have pulled out it gives quite a bit of confidence in expanding those different indications. And as you can see, you started in indications that share many features with melanoma, like high tumor mutational burden, quite checkpoint responsive and as we're testing in those starting to move into earlier studies in settings that are a little bit more distinct for melanoma.
So exploring that space much as merged in the past with KEYTRUDA and other therapies where you start pushing into different spaces with different diversity. Similarly, testing different combinations. So certainly, many in combination with pembro. We mentioned monotherapy as well as a combination with BCG within this. So thinking through how you step by step start to explore INT's efficacy and continue to collect that translational data to guide the different settings.
And I'll just add, Gena, that in the tumors that we're in currently. So melanoma, obviously, was the first 1 to go into Phase III because the Phase II data was in adjuvant melanoma. And we subsequently with our partner, Merck, went into non-small cell lung cancer. So as Rose was highlighting, these are IO sensitive tumors where KEYTRUDA has shown efficacy. And so that's 1 part of the rationale for moving into some of these very histologically close tumor types, if you will. But then in the Phase I study, which was a basket study, we also use some of the data from that Phase I study to guide the different types of cancer tumor types to go into.
And so non-small cell lung cancer in our Phase I study did have a good 2 handfuls of individuals who have non-small cell lung cancer in that Phase I study. And we did see, although the numbers are small, but very encouraging data, which was another aspect of why both we and Merck, I think, felt comfortable moving into the Phase III for non-small cell lung cancer.
And I think Lavina, to your point, as you look at the Phase I, we have running now in PDAC and gastric, you can see us in a sort of phase appropriate way exploring those different tumor settings.
Okay. Is there any certain threshold you will be looking for like from the Phase I? I know each cancer is different because I also saw you move to the adjuvant high-risk muscle invasive bladder cancer and a few other renal cell carcinoma as well. So what are the, say, threshold you'll be looking for that you think, okay, we feel very comfortable. I mean for the other 2, you went to the Phase II. For the last non-small cell lung cancer, you did it go directly to Phase III.
So maybe any additional color, I mean, the top, say, 3 cancer indications, a little bit more color regarding what is the threshold? What is the benchmark you're looking for that will give you the confidence to move forward.
So I'll start. We haven't really shared a threshold that we're looking for. It's really, as Rose was pointing out, this MOA, method of action, right? And so what we're seeing is that there is synergy with INT plus KEYTRUDA, and we're exploring that synergy in other indications where KEYTRUDA has worked. But a very important point that you bring up, which is in adjuvant bladder cancer, in adjuvant kidney cancer, we are in Phase II studies and those Phase II studies are going to be looking for a better signal.
Obviously, they are powered well as well. So we'll have the opportunity to look at that data before having to move into a full Phase III which I think gives you a sense of the strategy behind what the question you're asking is correct.
Correct. And they are randomized. So we'll have a good sense of our performance relative to standard of care and then decide at the time based on the data.
Okay. That's very helpful. And maybe beyond the Phase III melanoma, if you can give a little bit rough outline of -- I know you cannot -- it's all event-driven, you would not know a precise time, but roughly see in the next -- like when should we see rough idea, which year we should see which of the data from the remaining studies here -- listed here?
Totally appreciate the timing.
Yes. Because it's been driven, as you just pointed out, Gena, it's very hard to give precise timelines for when those trials will read out, the ones that are on this slide. beyond adjuvant melanoma. But I think what you'll see from us is -- or hear from us is just status updates on when they are fully enrolled. So for instance, we've already shared that the renal cell carcinoma study is already fully enrolled as of our last quarterly call.
And so once you're fully enrolled that's when I actually think about the clock starting to like collect those events. And so it will give you a sense of like maybe what the next indication may be that reads out. And so I think from us, just listen for like the updates for when we are fully enrolled in these studies coming forward.
Okay. Very helpful. So I think you have a second basket of the approach that's the cancer antigen therapy, right? If we move forward to Slide 7.
Okay, here. So here, maybe regarding the checkpoint inhibitors. And I think we have so many different targets in the past, everyone tried and I still remember like the 2 parts of the checkpoint inhibitor and the 2 balance there. So many people try different targets. So we'll make you actually decided to pick PD-L1 and IDO these 2 combinations...
Absolutely. Sorry, you have.
Yes. No, no, I think that's my initial question. I will have a follow-up question.
Okay. Great. So PD-L1 and IDO, as you pointed out, have been targets of interest for quite a long time. Now the approaches to targeting them have been pretty different. So if you think about checkpoint inhibitors, so inhibiting either by binding the PD-1 or PD-L1, you're really inhibiting that interaction and signaling between those 2 cells, which does help your immune system recognize a cancer cell. However, it doesn't actually lead to any toxicity of that cancer cell, right? You can think of it as sort of taking the brakes off of the immune system.
Now in a different approach, IDO is an intracellular protein, there is a significant push to develop small molecules to inhibit that protein. Now again, the small molecules may have inhibited its activity, but they weren't themselves cytotoxic. So they did not, for example, kill either cancer cells or immune cells that might have been overexpressing it. So when you think about how you might want to pursue those targets, we've actually taken a different approach where we are actually training our immune system to kill the cells that are overexpressing those. And then leveraging the fact that those tend to be both highly expressed in different cancer cells as well as some of those immune suppressive cells.
So our translational data is where this gets quite exciting. We shared this publicly that you do see a decrease in circulating T regulatory cells and those suppressor myeloid cells so that we can see the effect of eliminating those cells from that immune milieu and really taking their suppressive signals out of their entirely. So it's a different approach to 2 targets that are truly central mechanisms but is actually pursuing them in a completely different way than some of the -- both successful PD-L1 inhibitors are very successful checkpoint inhibitors and less successful small molecule IDO approaches.
And maybe you want to talk a little bit, Rose, on that point of the safety profile as well. So thus far from this combination.
Absolutely. We have seen the safety profile that we have seen with a similar tie in tea where it's quite well tolerated, and we're not seeing dose-limiting toxicities, and we're seeing pretty low-grade adverse events. So you have the ability to sort of select out these cells without a broader systemic safety impact, which has been encouraging.
So you have a 3-arm study right now, right, Arm 1A and Arm 1B. So maybe monotherapy or combo like in the end, will your approach will be -- eventually will become a combo therapy? And then so what is the threshold or like you put out overall response, disease control rate in duration of response, PFS. So what are the -- of course, each cancer type is different? You did put in melanoma in the non-small cell lung cancer. And I think everyone understands very well the benchmark there. And then what will be yours when you're looking for that will move to the next step?
Sure. And maybe I can take the combination part first and then talk about the response rate. So we are, again, moving with standard of care. So we are looking at combining with what that will be in the different settings. So combination with checkpoint inhibitors, of course, in many settings is common, which is why we were encouraged to see that activity in arm 1B in combination.
Now we also believe that this mechanism of action could be relevant even without combination with checkpoint inhibitors. And so as we think through the broader development of 4359 and the different settings we want to take it into, we will take that into account. And again, for the moment being focused on combination therapy. Now the arms that we're describing in the Phase II are those types of expansion arms. And so you are typically looking for your overall response rate there to signal that you're seeing something distinct activity specific to the combination.
And so from an investor perspective, Gena, in the frontline non-small cell lung cancer and frontline melanoma setting, obviously, as Rose just said, overall response rate is an important indicator of activity, but also ultimately, PFS would be something that we're looking at as well. Yes.
And then we -- so like this is the add-on therapy, the combination, right? So how much more you think like, say, overall response rate that you would need to have in order to feel confident moving forward regarding the delta there?
Sure. And again, it's very setting specific as to what that actual delta needs to be. I do think that's where we look at the fact that these are not individualized. So these are manufactured and then pulled off the shelf and that the safety profile in combination as well is quite tolerable to help us figure out in each specific setting where we would draw that threshold to proceed.
Okay. Okay. I think our doctor feedback, of course, depends on the different cancer types, right? Sometimes it will be easily like 10%, 20% overall response rate differences there. And the PFS will be slightly different. It depends on the cancer type. It could be even 1 month or 2 months in some cancers will be sufficient others may be a little bit more.
Yes. And then just coupled with that, I mean the key point with all of our cancer therapies, thus far because as you know, Gena, physicians will look for a risk benefit, right? And so the risk we see here, knock on wood, so far in INT, in 4359 and hopefully in some of the newer technologies that we're working on, yes, 4106 will continue, we hope to see really this toxicity profile that is very much palatable, particularly in that cancer setting -- in that IO-IO cancer setting. And so we're excited to continue to hopefully see that profile because that's really the next frontier, we think, that we want to change in cancer therapeutics, making it really safer.
Good. I think the last part quickly on the oncology part is, I think Slide 9. Yes, Slide 9, if we can look at the T-cell engagers, the 2 different approaches. Maybe anything you can share regarding the targets there? And then the next step, and you do have a surface antigen and intracellular part, any thoughts you can share and then timeline for development there?
So I don't know that we've shared specifics on the targets for these, but are looking to move a first program in the surface antigen, T-cell engagers that is multiplexed and working with our partner, Immatics, on our lead for the intracellular antigen T-cell engagers. So in late preclinical development, we'll be excited to share more once we're in the clinic.
Okay. So the multiplex, are we talking about like a say, CD3 plus 2 more minimum, 2 more antigen...
So right now, clinically, folks are taking 2 T-cell engagers that are not multiplexed, and combining those. And so we're looking to outperform that potential in a single medicine through multiplexing. So again, these are extremely potent molecules. And so the ability to combine multiple and reach multiple targets is really leveraging the strength of our platform relative to what we're seeing in the clinic with recombinant proteins where really 2 appears to have been the MAX for a clinical combination. There was very recent data that was exciting where they did some extensive protein engineering to actually have 1 T-cell engager target multiple antigens itself.
Again, that's only been able to show 2 thus far, so binding CD3 and then 2 different antigens in 1 molecule. Our approach allows us to do that with separate molecules. So we're truly not limited by the protein engineering aspect of it.
I see. And then you can maybe adjust the ratio in that way because it was separate, right?
That's correct. We can adjust the ratio as well.
Right. Okay. Great. Well, looking forward to the update, when would be the next major -- I'm kind of thinking ESMO will be next natural big conferences, oncology conference. Should we see something in there?
We're hopeful, obviously, as you know, the abstracts and things like that for ESMO are not out yet, but we are hopeful that we will update you on 4359, which would be the next data point coming out from this portfolio sometime later this year and if not this year, early next.
Maybe I think Lavina, since you were here throw a question for you, but any thoughts on recent BioNTech partnership on their oncology programs?
Sure. So we saw that, and we're very aware of the BioNTech programs that are out there. Their VEGF PD-L1. And one of the things, as I'm talking to clinical folks here and researchers here like Rose, who will have a lot of insight in this as well is, again, the ability for us to combine potentially if we do see successes with the VEGF PD-1 in that arena. But Rose, if you want to say any more on that.
And I think we're also quite aware of the recent acquisition of CureVac by BioNTech. And again, we really look to BioNTech as driving that oncology portfolio forward. So we keep an eye on it and monitor competition and standard of care and with that portfolio.
Okay. Great. So I think we can maybe switch gear talking about non-oncology part. So I think we can stop this sharing. And now Lavina, I will ask you some tough questions. I know the -- I mean, to be honest, in a way is very sad how the whole macro environment turning to. I do remember clearly in 2019, 2020, basically, how we see Moderna and together with other big pharmas and companies develop so quickly that the drug basically save the world.
And now the political environment changed significantly. So make it very challenged in a way. So I wanted to maybe -- Lavina, I wanted to ask you regarding the policy impact. We -- it's truly, I understand. Nobody really knows what will happen next time, right? You see the policy change left and right. But we know one direction is they are all very critical and criticism of the COVID vaccine development become very political in a way, I think we should take one step back looking at the science, but it seems everyone just forget about that. So given this challenging and so maybe -- and I know FK Jr. certain commentary on the guidance, and we are waiting for the ACIP meeting, I think it was later this month. So maybe any -- just from the high level, I know there are so many individual questions we wanted to ask, but just maybe starting from the high level.
How do you -- how Moderna handle the situation, how would you be navigating and you do have approved drugs in vaccine, right, for 2025 winter season, we are hoping -- we were able to take a vaccine. So how -- and then you have others in the development, waiting for approval? And then also the combo, maybe high level, how do you -- what's the Moderna's take right now on this whole situation, what is the best strategy approach from Moderna facing such a challenging time.
So thank you for that question, Gena. You're right. I think that entering 2025, it did feel like there was going to be a good amount of change and uncertainty that was lying ahead of us. But as we're moving through the year, we're starting to peel away at a number of those uncertainties. As an example, early in the year, we had the VRBPAC meeting for the flu antigen selections was canceled. And yet the FDA told the flu manufacturers.
Now we weren't part of that, but told the flu manufacturers exactly what antigens to put into the upcoming flu season. We also saw that the ACIP meeting was canceled at first, and then it got back onto the calendar in April. And then ultimately, more important for Moderna is that we had 2 outstanding FDA approvals that were looming. And yet, we were successful with both our 1283 now known as mNEXSPIKE after the approval approved and on time as well as just recently our RSV broader indication into 18- to 49-year-olds high-risk individuals.
On top of that, we had the New England Journal Medicine paper that was authored by the FDA Commissioner as well as the Head of CBER put forth what they would like to see in COVID development, right? And I think that if you listen to their words, they want to make it much more predictable so that year in and year out, manufacturers know exactly what to submit to the FDA for those approvals. And so what did we see with the FDA vaccine framework that they put out, they want people who are high risk.
So those who are 65 and older as well as 12 to 64 year olds are encouraged to get the COVID vaccine because they are of high risk. And this makes up a population in the U.S. of anywhere between 100 million and 200 million people. So given that, that's an important segment to go after. I think that's why if you look at our label for 1283, which is mNEXSPIKE now, you'll see on the label, it is 4 people who are 65 and older and those 12- to 64-year-olds who have high-risk factors. And there are many, many risk factors that would fall into what is defined as a high-risk individual.
So I think what Moderna's role is, is to really work with the administration, work with the FDA Commissioner and the head of CBER to provide them as much information and evidence that they need so that they can make these decisions, which is what we're seeing, and we look forward to continue to work with them.
Okay. Okay. That sounds hopeful. So on the other hand, I think FK Jr. did like say require say, Moderna agreed on the placebo-controlled Phase IV study after -- for the mNEXSPIKE. So maybe walk us through like how feasible that could be done? And how would you do that while the vaccine rolling out hopefully later this year?
Right. So in the approval letter, there were both requirements as well as commitments. And one of the commitments is this placebo-controlled study in healthy individuals between the ages of 50 and 64 years old. So I just want to make a point on this that, that indication for the 50 to 64 year olds in healthy people is not currently on the label. So we're still assessing in what it would take for us to do that placebo-controlled study. And when we do, we'll update you guys on what the assessment is.
But remember that, that would be an expansion of the current label, which is, again, for those that are 65 and above and 12- to 64-year-olds who are at high risk, which represents, again, a very large opportunity in the U.S. I mean 100 million to 200 million people who fall into those labeled indication for mNEXSPIKE, which is much larger than the number of people who took the COVID vaccine in the market in the U.S. just last year -- in this last season.
Okay. Okay. So we will know the answer may be the final assessment, whether this will worth further, say, conducting another study. Okay. And then regarding the RSV, just got -- also got approval, and I do -- I'm very pleasant to see that both. Actually, I think one is actually Saturday. On Friday, we did not see it. We thought it would not get approval and then Saturday morning is, okay, good, they got approval.
So now the ACIP meeting later this month, any thoughts there? What could be -- when we look at it, they will cover pretty broad topics. So any -- because one part is the approval and then that completely in line with what initially study design and everything the purpose. So should we worry about ACIP recommendation now we have a new ACIP members there. Should we be worried about can be any drastic differences or certain restriction on even approval is one part of the recommendation will be different part. Should we be worried about that?
So it's always, of course, concerning to see a full scale change in processes that every manufacturer is very used to with the removal of these independent experts on the ACIP Committee. However, ultimately, we think we need to first see the full list of the people who are going to now be on this ACIP committee. I think there's still a number of seats to be filled but it remains really essential that the committee continues to make evidence-based decisions.
And again, what the manufacturers Moderna itself is going to provide as much data as they need to make that decision. That is evidence-based and we're hopeful that they're going to continue to view that data as potentially helping in Americans with those who expect to have the vaccine available to them and be immunized so that they can be protected.
Okay. Another very specific question regarding the combo, right? Previously, the flu and the COVID combo and because of the timing of flu data and then you basically withdraw now waiting for the flu data and after that, assuming knocking on the wood, if it's positive, you are moving forward with the combo. Now given current change, any thoughts on development path for the combo, flu and the COVID combo from here?
So as you rightly pointed out, Gena, we withdrew the combo application for the flu plus COVID vaccine. And it's important to note that the flu component is in the combo is the same one as the Phase III that's ongoing right now where we expect to see the data in the summer of this year against a standard flu vaccine. And the COVID component is actually mNEXSPIKE which was just approved.
And so your question on what's going on with the changing environment and what impact we might see on the combination filing as well as the flu filing later. It's really hard to answer right now but given the evidence we've just seen with the approval of mNEXSPIKE, which is a component of the combo as well as waiting for the Phase III efficacy data later this summer for the flu component, we are hopeful that once we have that data and knock on wood, hopefully, it's positive for the stand-alone flu vaccine. We will incorporate that data into the full filing and refile that package, the combo package with the FDA later this year.
Okay. Good. And then given current situation, do you think that you would need to revise the guidance again later this year, the revenue guidance? Or is there any scenario you may need to revise the guidance?
So you'll recall that we gave a very broad and wide guidance range at the earlier point of this year, $1.5 billion to $2.5 billion is the range that we gave on revenue. And that $1.5 billion on the low end does take into consideration a number of factors, and this was given at the beginning of the year. So we did have a ton of visibility at the time, but we thought it was appropriate to include a lot of these factors.
And I'll just walk you through those. One of the reasons that the $1.5 billion is where it is on the low end is because we anticipated that potentially, there would be another year of vaccination rates going down. And that could be for any reason, whether it's rhetoric in the political scene or just confusion with the population in terms of getting their vaccine. We also anticipated that we would see additional competition from the likes of Novavax now partnered with Sanofi in that COVID market as well as the potential for a delay in our ex U.S. revenue base from the 3 countries where we have multiple year contracts.
And some -- all of those 3 are expected to come online this year. So if there were some delays there, all of these things would have to go wrong for us to get to that $1.5 billion. And so while we're not updating guidance at all on this call, the range we think does take into consideration a number of these factors into that low end of the range.
Okay. So basically, you are very comfortable with the current guidance now. Okay. So then the other question is regarding the burn. That's always like brought up by my conversation with the investors. I think in the past, I think the last update, if I remember correctly, is in 2 years, you wanted to achieve profitable. So would that be -- and then that also in corporate, you already have the burn the cost cutting at R&D cost, the SG&A cost cutting.
So any maybe thoughts moving forward regarding if the scenario depends on what scenario do you have a capability to have a further cut in terms of burn?
Yes. Good question, Gena. So on your point of burn. Obviously, burn has 2 components, right? There's the revenue and sales coming in with cash coming in as well as what we're spending on a cash cost basis every year. So I'll start with at the end of the second quarter of this year, we ended -- sorry, the first quarter of this year, we ended the quarter with $8.4 billion of cash on hand. And we guided for year-end cash for this year in 2026, so December of 2025, sorry, to be $6 billion in cash on hand.
We've also said that the cash costs for this year would be $5.5 billion. In the first quarter, however, you're already seeing us kind of outperformed what we expected to do in the first quarter, we saw a 20% decline on both SG&A and R&D combined year-over-year in the first quarter. So we are finding lots of opportunities to really accelerate that cash out. And so we're hopeful that we'll continue to do that. So getting back to your question on burn. The piece that we know we can control is the cost out. And so it's all hands on deck in terms of finding every way to make sure that each and every business unit is running efficiently.
And so we're hopeful that we'll do that $5.5 billion this year. We gave guidance at $4.7 billion in cash costs for 2026. And then in 2027 at the midpoint of the range, $4.2 billion in cash costs.
Now we can talk about the revenue side of things, where we do expect to have additional product approvals off of this year's base case because this year's $1.5 billion to $2.5 billion only really is mainly COVID as well as a little bit of RSV depending on the low end or the high end of that range.
Next year, we should be in a good place to have additional revenue from mNEXSPIKE as well as international revenue as both mNEXSPIKE as well as RSV gets approved in countries around the world. And we're hopeful we'll see what timing looks like for some of the combinations and potentially even flu stand-alone, still yet to be seen because we need to file, see the data, all of that stuff. But those could also contribute starting in '26-'27. And so when you start layering on new product approvals coming on, by the time you're in 2028, you not only have the respiratory franchise, but as you know, we have norovirus reading out in '26 as a base case.
We'll have INT reading out, '26, we're hopeful as a base case. PA is another 1 by the time 2020 rolls around, and you add into the mixed CMV, then we should be in a position to really see the base revenue from this year, really start to grow as these new product approvals come through.
Okay. So the second part is like giving what would be -- like if you lay out what could be the revenue contribution, the key focus you did pause the rare disease development. Maybe thoughts on that, why pausing this? Is that because the market opportunity is not big enough? Maybe any thoughts there? Like strategic decision-wise, what could be the key focus for Moderna from here moving forward? And what will be the best way to spend the dollar...
I'm so glad you brought that question up, Gena, because we've been getting this question a couple of times, and I just want to correct it for the record. We are actually not pausing anything in rare disease. I think the transcript for the last competitor investor event that we did, when you read the transcript, you don't hear the pause that was taken when Stéphane was talking about pausing the late -- the Phase I/II studies that we have in the latent portfolio.
Before we move into Phase III, those are kind of on pause because we're looking for partnerships there. It has nothing to do with our rare disease portfolio. That pause word is not actually for rare diseases. In rare diseases, we are moving forward PAs in its registrational study and MMA will be starting its registrational study later this year. So thank you for clarifying -- letting me clarify that.
Okay. I think that's actually important because rare disease. It's a very straightforward development path. You understand underlying disease and science very well, right? And then the development path will be very quickly like Phase I in a pivotal study. And the FDA seems very open-minded with the regulatory path there. Okay. Very glad to hear that.
So the latent virus maybe since you already brought up, you did take a few latent virus the put aside, maybe share the rationale behind it?
Sure. So yes, as you know, we are very, very encouraged by, again, the platform and how it's doing in that latent virus portfolio. So we've shared data on EBV Phase I/II. We've shared data on VZV. We have HSV vaccine that's in Phase I/II. And so we're really encouraged with the consistent immunogenicity profile that we're seeing and the safety profile. So it breaks our heart to have to not move directly into Phase III.
However, because we want to get this out into the hands of physicians and patients, given what we've seen so far, in the Phase I/II and given the experience we have with the portfolio, we are actively seeking partnerships and you've seen us do this in the past with Blackstone as an example, and the flu stand-alone vaccine study that we took into Phase III. So there's partnerships there in the financial realm, but also with strategics as well. So we're hopeful that we'll find a partner that will be willing to take these into a Phase III study so that we can get these into the market really as soon as possible.
Okay. Great. And we are on time, maybe any last words you think investor major disconnect that you wanted to highlight or emphasizing?
Sure, I'll just start with -- first, thank you so much for giving Rose and us the opportunity to walk you through the oncology portfolio. There's a ton of excitement internally, but also as we're talking to KOLs about the potential of mRNA and how it can really augment that whole oncology field. That's one point. And then the other I'd say is something that you already bought up in your questions, which is controlling that cost on the cost side because there's 2 components to getting to breakeven and profitability.
One is on the cost side and obviously, the other is on the revenue side. And we're really focused on this prioritized portfolio of 10 programs that 2 of -- have already been approved, and there are many others that are in Phase III, and we're hopeful to see those approvals to help on the top line as well so that we can get to our goal of breakeven and profitability in 2028.
Okay. Great. Well, thank you so much, Rose and Lavina. Thank you, everyone, for dialing for today's call. This concludes today's call. Thank you.
Thank you, Gena.
Okay. Bye-bye.
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Moderna — Special Call - Moderna, Inc.
Moderna — Special Call - Moderna, Inc.
📣 Kernbotschaft
- Fokus: Moderna positioniert sich intensiv als Onkologie‑Player mit einem mehrgleisigen mRNA‑Portfolio: individualized neoantigen (Intismeran/INT), „off‑the‑shelf“ Cancer‑Antigen‑Vaccines, multiplexe T‑Cell‑Engager und in‑vivo Cell‑Therapies.
- Kurzfristig: Respiratory‑Rollout (mNEXSPIKE, RSV) stützt Umsätze; langfristig könnten Onkologie‑Zulassungen das Geschäftsmodell neu definieren.
🎯 Strategische Highlights
- INT/Pivotal: Intismeran ist in der adjuvanten Melanom‑Phase‑III vollständig enroliert (~1.100 Patienten) mit erwartetem Readout 2026; Filing geplant auf Basis Phase‑III.
- Pipelinepriorität: mRNA‑4359 (PD‑L1/IDO) erweitert in Phase‑II; mRNA‑4106 in Phase‑I; T‑Cell‑Engager multiplexen mehrere Ziele in einer einzelnen mRNA‑Medizin.
- Partnerschaften & Kapital: Strategische Partner (Merck, Immatics) plus strikte Kostendisziplin (Q1 Cash $8.4bn; Jahresziel Cash ≈ $6bn; Cash‑Kostenguidance 2025 $5.5bn → 2026 $4.7bn).
🔎 Neue Informationen
- Studienstatus: INT Phase‑III ist event‑getrieben und voll enrolliert; finale Phase‑II‑Daten (3‑Jahre) liegen vor, Phase‑III‑Readout 2026 erwartet.
- Priorisierung: mRNA‑4359 hat Dose‑Bestätigungsdaten (nicht veröffentlicht) zum Ausbau in Phase‑II ermutigt; Zielhorizont für Verfügbarkeit 2028 (daten‑/Regulator‑abhängig).
- Respiratorisch: mNEXSPIKE (mRNA‑1283) zugelassen; RSV‑Erweiterung genehmigt; Combo‑Antrag (Flu+COVID) zurückgezogen pending Flu‑Phase‑III‑Daten.
❓ Fragen der Analysten
- Phase‑II Kontrolle: Analysten hoben mögliche Control‑Arm‑Imbalancen hervor; Management betont Übereinstimmung der Pembrolizumab‑Kontrolle mit historischen Daten und verweist auf randomisierte Phase‑III.
- Accelerated Approval: Nachfrage, ob beschleunigte Zulassung aus Phase‑II noch möglich ist — Management plant Filing auf Phase‑III‑Daten, nicht auf beschleunigte Zulassung basierend auf Phase‑II.
- Regulatorik & Markt: ACIP/VRBPAC‑Unsicherheit und ein gefordertes Placebo‑kontrolliertes Post‑Approval‑Studielement für mNEXSPIKE (Bewertung noch laufend) wurden intensiv diskutiert.
⚡ Bottom Line
- Implikation: Call zeigt klare Repriorisierung: Near‑term Stütze durch respiratorische Zulassungen und Kostensenkungen; Onkologie‑Programme liefern die mittelfristigen Katalysatoren (INT Phase‑III Readout 2026, 4359‑Daten). Hauptrisiken bleiben regulatorische/marktpolitische Unsicherheit sowie klinische Datenrisiken in neuen Onkologie‑Indikationen.
Moderna — Goldman Sachs 46th Annual Global Healthcare Conference 2025
1. Question Answer
Great. Good morning, everyone. Thank you so much for joining us. Really pleased to have Stéphane Bancel, CEO of Moderna, with us.
Maybe to start here, Stéphane, in the context of the current environment, both from a COVID demand and regulatory standpoint and the overall health care policy that we're seeing flow through from HHS and FDA and then there's the drug pricing dynamics. But just walk us through today where Moderna's business stands from a revenue and expenses standpoint and also a pipeline strategy when you start to absorb kind of all these dynamics that are playing out.
Sure. Thank you for having us. You might be exhausted because I've seen a lot of e-mails coming from you this week and your team. So thank you for your work, and thank you for having us. So basically, let me start by Moderna and then I will talk about how the context around us in the U.S. impact us. So basically, as you know, because you followed the company pre-IPO, we have this mRNA platform that we built over many, many years doing the science because we always believe it will be 0 drug or a lot of drugs because mRNA is information. And we focused on infectious disease vaccine, oncology, rare genetic disease. And we think over time, we could also play in other fields, including autoimmune disease.
If you look at where we are today, our priority is pretty simple, 3 priorities: one, drive the top line back to growth with existing products; Priority #2 is launch new product. As you know, we have around 10 products that we can launch in the next couple of years, which is very exciting for patients and for shareholders. And third is to really drive the cost down to rightsize the company to where we are today compared to where we were during the pandemic. Because as you know, the company scaled tremendously because we worked really hard to get literally billions of dose to the market. And of course, the company was not ready for it. So we didn't do it efficiently because we got to do it with high quality, and we got to do it with speed. So cost was not the highest priority at the time.
And so if you look at where we are now, the next few years, our strategy is to finalize our portfolio of respiratory vaccines focused mostly on people at high risk, meaning the elderly, 65-plus and adult 18 to 64 at high risk. So as you know, we have now 3 products approved, which kind of prove the platform in the sense it is really working. 3 products approved, including the third one happening at the end of May, a few days ago. And so our strategy is to finalize this investment in R&D because all the Phase IIIs are behind us. As you know, we're going to get the flu data this summer for Phase III efficacy as we shared recently. And so those costs are going to basically phase out. And this is going to become a very profitable franchise because the manufacturing infrastructure is already here because of COVID.
And so if you think about what we're trying to do over the next few years is finalize the respiratory portfolio to have a broadest respiratory portfolio, COVID, RSV, flu and flu plus COVID combo, generating a lot of cash, investing that cash into our oncology platform. So of course, there's INT. But as you know, there's around 10 products that are just beyond INT, some are moving into Phase II like our immunotherapy product. We have quite a number of products that we shared at ASCO last year that are going to -- are in the clinic or going to move in the clinic very, very soon. And then, of course, there's a rare disease as well.
What we have decided to pause for now because we're focusing on cost is the latent viruses. As you know, we shared at Vaccine Day 18 months ago. I think great data for EBV in Phase I/II, for VZV in Phase I/II. We have an HSV product. But those products, as we said last year at R&D Day last September, we will not take to Phase III on our own now. We are actively looking at partnership, have a project financing like we did with Blackstone last year in flu or big pharma. As you know, we've done a lot of deal in our history with AstraZeneca. We've done several deals with Merck and our colleagues at Vertex. And so we are able and willing to do deals when it's the right thing for the company and the shareholders. So that's a bit where we are in terms of strategy.
In terms of the sales, I think it's important to look at U.S. sales where the context I'm going to come into in a minute, is important and also outside the U.S. sales. So if you look at the U.S., if you look at it, the recent guidelines that was published in the New England Journal of Medicine by the Commissioner and the new head of CBER, we actually see as constructive because as you know, there was a lot of worry into the media, a lot of headlines about COVID, how we're going to take the COVID vaccine out of the market. And if you look at the paper, I think it's quite interesting is that the population they want to focus on, which we think makes a lot of sense. We've always talked, as you know, you've seen our presentation for many years. We said the people at high risk are the one that needs to be protected. It's mostly the elderly 65 plus, 18 to 64 at high risk.
If you look at their paper, they mentioned in the U.S. a population of around 100 million people that will qualify for those respiratory vaccines that will extrapolate from the COVID because it's all the same as we know. What is interesting is if you look at last year, the number of COVID shot given in the U.S. was actually 40 million doses, 40. And so there's a potential world if you look at the next few years that we might have stabilized the COVID number of doses. And with the authorities wanting to really protect people at high risk, there's a potential upside. Again, it's too early to tell. But if you look at the paper they just published, and again, this is the FDA commissioner, there's a potential upside that if they want to recommend and have the medical community and the pharmacy channels really focus on that population, there could be some upside.
So RSV, as we know, had a great first year, but what's happening now because of ACIP recommendation last year, the market has slowed down tremendously in terms of size. We believe it's going to be a few years before we get clarity. I think the CDC is still looking at epidemiology and trying to figure out when should people get boosted, again, people at high risk. As you know, we should soon have a PDUFA date for the RSV high-risk 18 to 64. We already have a product approved 65 and above. And that will be, we think, important because, again, aligned with COVID, and again, similar things should happen to flu for respiratory vaccine, you want to really provide them and protect people at high risk. So that's kind of priority #1 in the U.S. So I know there's a lot of headlines, but this New England Journal FDA COVID policy paper and the approval of 1283 end of May on its PDUFA date.
I've read a lot of people in the media, a lot of analysts, a lot of investors that were worried, are we going to even get it? As you know, there's been a lot of delays across the industry on PDUFA in the last few months. And so we are very pleased, and I'm very thankful for our team and the team at FDA that I know the working team at FDA works really hard because we're in daily discussions with our team to get this to the finish line. And we are very pleased that there's going to be a new product with higher efficacy in a head-to-head efficacy study versus Spikevax available to the elderly. And we think it will help drive also the market and the penetration based on what the commissioner and the government administration is trying to push through.
The other piece is outside the U.S., we should not forget that our business is roughly 50-50. And what I think is not fully always appreciated by all investors about Moderna in our OUS strategy is 2 things in terms of growth looking forward. One is what the 3 countries where we have set up factories for long-term partnership, those are 7 years partnership from when the factory is up and running in Canada, U.K. and Australia. If you look at those -- this year, those factories are coming online, so you will not get a full year impact. In '26, we're going to get the full year impact of those factories, and they are not only for COVID, they are for respiratory vaccines. So as we have RSV approved in most of those countries and soon 1283 and then flu plus COVID, you can see a world where the sales are going to be substantial.
And to try to help you calibrate this just back of the envelope. Last year, if you look at our SEC filing, we had around $500 million of sales in the U.K. and that was just COVID. So I think you think of $500 million for the U.K. moving forward is not a crazy number. I think order of magnitude wise, it's reasonable, knowing there's going to be also flu, RSV and flu plus COVID. And if you look at the population to help you with the math, Canada and Australia are roughly the same population as the U.K. So you could see that ballpark getting when those factories are running full speed next year in '26, could have potentially $1 billion of sales there.
If you look at the guidance this year, $1.5 billion to $2.5 billion, you can see that those 3 countries are going to be significant in '26 in terms of growth and in terms of stability of cash flow and sales in the next 7 years. Then as you know, we have been excluded of Europe on COVID because of a contract that was done without a tender by the EU during COVID in 2021 and Pfizer. That contract expired in '26. We're starting to see a little bit of sales because some countries like Poland, it's public information, have sued the EU and they are out of the Pfizer contract.
And so last year, for example, we supplied Poland. There's a lot of countries in the Nordics and countries like Portugal that actually have been using that contract pretty quickly because they have high vaccination rate. And so we think in '25, we should have more opportunities in Europe and even more in '26. I mean, in '27 because it's end of '26 contract, we have the ability to really play. And by then, if you think about it, we also have RSV, flu, COVID plus flu. So the ability to grow and compete. So -- and then we have good position in Taiwan and South Korea.
So if you look at the world in terms of growth because we're obsessed about growing the top line again. I really believe that 2025 is going to be our lowest point in terms of sales. And then if we go into '26 with what I talked about in those 3 countries where we have factories and the availability of 1283 and potentially the Flu plus COVID combo and/or flu in the U.S. in '26. You could see '26 with growth and '27 with even faster growth. And then there's also the INT product, which is why I transitioned to the pipeline. We're finishing to get with flu mono and flu plus COVID, finishing the respiratory job to get the whole portfolio. Then we have INT. As you know, we've said that based on the shape of the enrollment curve of Phase III in melanoma for INT with our colleagues at Merck, we should see the data for Phase III in melanoma in '26. The factory, as we said, is ready. And so it will not be a critical path. So we should have a launch in '27.
And then there's norovirus. Norovirus like any of those virus where you have to guess the epidemiology when you run your Phase III study is set up as a 2-season study like the flu study. We don't know yet if we're going to hit in 1 season or if we're going to need 2 seasons. So it's a potential '26 or '27 launch. Again, we'll see when [indiscernible] CMV, which will get the Phase III data this year. So if you look at the whole portfolio and you just look at 1 or 2 years out, I don't think it's hard to see growth and then a lot of growth because, of course, we have no patent expiry on topic. So you're going to see a lot of growth.
If you look at the next 5 to 10 years, you're going to see a lot of growth starting in '26 and then accelerating diversification of sales away from COVID, which I think will give a lot of people a bit of encouragement because people have a lot of anxiety in terms of where does COVID stabilize before potentially COVID grows because we should not forget that we also have some tailwinds for us in terms of respiratory virus, which is the world is getting older. As we know, age is a risk factor for respiratory virus hospitalization and deaths. And as people -- because a lot of scientific skepticism and not have access sentiment, as you get less people vaccinated, virus is also going to spread faster. And so if you have this combination of virus spreading faster because even the community, young people not getting vaccinated, of course, increase the spread of the virus and more people that are of older age. And you see this over the next couple of years and you compound this, we think we're going to have some tailwind there. So I think policy is stabilizing.
I think we have seen the worst of headlines in terms of what concerns us and then reacceleration of the business. And then maybe to go to your last piece is cost, which, as I said, for us is really important. We have resized the company tremendously, and we're not done. So if you look at it, last year, we had $6.3 billion of cash cost. We've guided this year for $5.5 billion, next year, $4.7 billion and the year after $4.2 billion. If you look at it, in Q1, we are down 19% year-over-year cash cost and we are ahead of plan. And if you do some modeling, you could see that it's possible that we're going to do better than $5.5 billion. We're keeping $5.5 billion as a guidance for now.
We'll update it as appropriate as we move forward and as we know more. But we are very focused on cost, and it goes through a lot of things, streamlining the pipeline. So we stopped program. We paused like we talked about the latent, we paused programs. It goes about driving productivity, working very hard to reduce cost with suppliers. So we've hired an amazing head of procurement 18 months ago, and we have really worked very diligently with Jamey, our CFO, and with the team across the board. We've already saved hundreds of millions of dollars just on better negotiation at same volume. We've reduced the volume, as I talked about. So we're doing a lot of work also with technology and AI, spending a lot of time to drive productivity with AI.
And just one of the new feature that was just launched recently on GPT Enterprise is the ability to use unstructured data. So you can use now data in your e-mail, you can use data that are on OneDrive or data that are on SharePoint. And so the ability to just accelerate that. I think we have up to 2,000 GPTs across the company. So really, there's no silver bullet, but we're just looking at everything, and we are not done, and I'm going to work really hard to actually do better than those targets.
To follow up on some of the points that you just raised, are you still rightsized, I guess, or just confident here with the goal of returning to profitability by 2028?
Correct. Because our current plan, as I have told you, I'm going to work really hard to beat the plan is to deliver $4.2 billion of cash cost in 2027. So if you look at the trajectory of the cost, that could mean similar or even lower cost in '28. We'll see as we get closer, but now we are working on the $4.2 billion for 2027 and working hard to beat it. Then let's talk about the top line because, of course, the other side of the equation for profitability. If you look at the midpoint of our guidance this year, $2 billion, as we just spoke about, we're having in '26, the Canada, U.K., Australia coming fully online, that could be $1 billion of sales. If you look at the U.S. last year, we had $1.7 billion, but we had $200 million of returns. So that's $1.5 billion. If you assume no growth in the U.S., just on COVID because you know there was almost no RSV, but we're going to start to see RSV growth and then 1283 and then the new product.
So if you look at $1.5 billion in the U.S. and you look at already one outside the U.S. already at $2.5 billion, assuming no new products, no INT, no nothing. And then there's Europe, as we talked about, that's coming back online a little bit more in '25, a little bit more in '26 and a lot in '27. As you can assume there are some countries that are not so happy that have been locked into a single contract, especially, as you know, there's been a lot of real-world evidence post-COVID showing that Spikevax in the real world has high efficacy, less hospitalization than the Pfizer product. And so you can understand there's been a lot of hospitals, a lot of doctors, oncologists, very upset for a few years that they could not give what they thought was the highest efficacy vaccine to their patients. And so I believe that we should get our fair share in Europe from January 1, 2027.
So if you look at those time lines with the launch of those products, and then there's also noro and CMV. CMV, as we said, should be a slow launch because we have to build the market. And initially, the indication should be 16-plus for women before they get pregnant, but in the age of having a child. And so it's going to take a bit of time, but norovirus could be a pretty quick commercial ramp. As you know, norovirus is not a fun virus to get. You have, again, the population high risk we talked about, 18-plus high-risk elderly. But you have nursing home and you have a lot of older people in the community, somebody gets sick, the whole community gets sick. You have same thing in kindergarten. So you have also an interest for children, which will take us time to get there in terms of vaccine. But the educators, if you do focus group with educators, if you do a focus group with health care professionals, nurses, doctors have told us they will want a norovirus vaccine. And we will be the only one to have one.
So if you think about our commercial strategy in the U.S. in the retail segment, portfolio, as we have been saying, is key. Last year, we suffered being a monoproduct company because RSV came so late. So now we have RSV and we have mNEXSPIKE, that's relatively a new higher efficacy product for COVID. So as you think about flu and then flu plus COVID and then noro, we could be the company with the most interesting portfolio from a profitability standpoint to the retail channel. And as we know, Walgreens is going private, CVS is having financial challenges, and Rite Aid bankruptcy. So if you look at all of those, they need profitability. And as you know, vaccine is a highly profitable business. Sometimes they lose money because of PBMs on the drugs -- prescription drugs. But vaccine between the administration fee that they get from the payers and the discount that they get from the manufacturers is a very profitable business for retail pharmacies. And so we think that we're going to build in the next 2 years, most probably the most exciting portfolio for the retailers, which give us negotiation leverage with the retailers.
With regard to the 2025 revenue guidance that you just cited, what are the risks to achieving this guide?
Yes. So I would say the risks are, of course, in U.S. first. As I said, if you took last year, normalized for returns, $1.5 billion, how much is the market reduced? And will it be reduced going back to what we talked about, the new policy and new framework from the Commissioner and the Head of CBER. It's interesting to look at this spring. This spring, as you know, there's a recommendation for a booster for people at high risk. If you look at the data over the last 8, 10 weeks, it's actually on par or some weeks even better like last week, as an example, but you have several weeks, but it's better than last year. And it's important to understand for context, this happened with no CDC promotion. This is one of the things that the CDC canceled under the new administration. There was no advertising with nothing.
If you look at last year, there were radio ads run by the CDC. There were ads in clinics, in doctor's office and so on. This did not happen this year. They canceled all the budget for promotion. So despite that, you had people who understand they are at risk, who went to get their vaccine. And so that makes us, I would say, cautiously optimistic. Again, we want to be careful because the season is ahead of us, not behind us, that if the time is similar, we should have similar level of sales. There might be a bit of pressure on price. There might be a bit of pressure on market share. So we'll see again, but this is in the guidance. So again, because the $1.5 billion is the bottom of a global guidance with $1.5 billion in the U.S. being the number of last year, net of returns. We think that we have put those into the guidance.
Another risk is those 3 countries, they need the factories to be approved by the local authorities to start shipping. So everything is currently on track. The teams are working really hard, but because we depend on the regulators to review, inspect and approve those facility, every week delay is going to reduce the sales. So of course, we put some buffer into the guidance. So it's a broad range this year because there's just so many uncertainties on the downside. So that's another thing, but you can -- it will be a one-off. It will not have impact on '26, but you will have potentially an impact on where we are in terms of the guidance of $1.5 billion to $2.5 billion. I think those are the 2 biggest risks we see.
Just given the fact that you can take this technology and go extremely broad, how are you thinking about BD and partnerships on the forward? But also you yourselves, would you -- are you going to continue to just stick with mRNA as a modality? Or are you thinking about even going beyond that?
So it's a great question. So let's start about the latter one. So at this stage, we're sticking with mRNA just because if you look at our industry, the hardest thing to do in this industry is to come with drug, right? An innovative drug that adds value to the doctors and create, as a consequence, return for shareholders. We have an abundance of drugs. A lot of other companies look at our big pharma colleagues, they have figured out what do they do when all those drugs expire. Because we're a new company, new technology because we've been so aggressive in filing IP. We have -- we have 40 drugs in the clinic right now, 40. Our biggest challenge is to be disciplined about the cash and the investment, which is why we are putting on ICE right now the Phase III investment for the latent portfolio.
But as I mentioned, we are working actively with pharma company on the one hand and financial partner on the other hand because we want those products to get to Phase III. We want to sell those products. I don't need to build a factory for them. I can just not because those virus being latent, being DNA-based, they are very stable. They don't mutate easily. So I can make those off season. I literally -- we could literally launch EBV without adding $1 of CapEx. We could launch HSV without adding $1 of CapEx. We could launch VZV sampling without adding $1 of CapEx. I mean you get the story. And so we are very actively talking to partners, potential partners right now.
What we're always doing is we want to figure out who is the best partner in terms of capabilities and in terms of value. We have $8.5 billion of cash. So we will rather wait a few months to get the best partnership than being in a hurry and destroy value for shareholders by being in a hurry because, again, we have $8.5 billion. We have cash for many years to come, and we believe the cash balance will take us because of the math we run to profitability. But yes, we're actively active in BD, both with pharma, U.S. and outside the U.S. company as well as financial partners.
I want to delve into some of the changes that have played out on the regulatory side here. So one is we saw the news about ACIP, the CDC's ACIP here, and it would be great to get your thoughts there and how that impacts you. But also just given the regulatory framework and CDC guidelines with regard to the healthy children and pregnant women as well as the need to run a randomized placebo-controlled trial. Just put this in context for us on the impact, but also help us understand how it impacts your R&D spend on the forward when you have to run these placebo-controlled studies.
Sure. So let me start by the end because it's pretty easy. For 1283, one of the things we discussed with the agency is to run a placebo-controlled because the Phase III for everybody who might not be familiar like you are is we run it head-to-head to Spikevax, which was agreed with the FDA when we started that Phase III because as you know this is how things have been done previously. We will manage the portfolio to have no impact on cost. As you know, we have a big portfolio with a big R&D budget, so we'll manage it. And so to your other questions, I think for ACIP, first, it's too early to tell. As you know, the announcement came on Monday -- Wednesday morning. I think we'll have to see who is appointed to the committee.
The second piece we'll have to see is what is the process and what is the disclosure and transparency about decision-making. And the thing that for us is really fundamental is look our vaccines have shown great data on efficacy, great data on safety. So we go into this new context with confidence. We're going to, of course, figure out and observe like everybody else. But I think it's too early to have an opinion on what is going to look like precisely. As we talked about, look, we just got a product approved 10 days ago by the FDA. A lot of people believed over the last few months and sentiment that I perceived was getting worse that we will not get 1283 approved. And we got it approved, not only approved, but got approved on PDUFA date, which is a lot of other drugs in other disease area, which you will think from a headline standpoint are higher on the FDA priority list to get approved that have missed their PDUFA date.
So at the working team level, as Stephen Hoge mentioned on the Q1 earnings call, at the working team level, our teams are very active with FDA counterparts. They're both working really hard to be able to answer the question that the FDA teams have to answer them whether CMC or clinical data or safety or anything that they have constructively like it has been the case in the past to get done. So I would say we are working with the agency constructively, and we always will like we always have. We've done the same over the world, which is in this business, you have one regulator per country. And like the airplane makers, we have the FAA and banks have their own regulators and you work with your regulator and you work for things. There's a lot of dedicated people at FDA that are working using science as their North Star and using data to make decisions.
I want to pivot over to the portfolio that you have and the upcoming data sets. Maybe to start here, the INT program. Walk us through the time lines for this portfolio as to when we'll get some data sets to inform not just melanoma, but other indications as well.
That's a great question. So if you look at what we are trying to do with our partners at Merck with INT is, I would say, and that with a lot of humility, it's kind of a playbook of what they've done on KEYTRUDA, which is, as we know, immuno-oncology has revolutionized cancer care and help so many people over time. And we think it's the beginning of that new field of treating cancer. And so given the signal we have seen in melanoma in the Phase II, which, as you know, was randomized, where, as you know, the p-value and the hazard ratio was pretty exciting. So we -- and as you know, the KEYTRUDA-only arm was very similar to the KEYTRUDA Phase III study. So this was kind of real, we believe very much so. And so what we've done with our colleagues at Merck is to say, look, this is not an accident. This is real, and we need to chase that signal. And so we've started a lot of study in addition to melanoma, including a Phase III for lung.
We also study in kidney, in bladder cancer. As we said publicly, we are very interested. We will share the news when it's the right time to do so, but we are very interested to try INT as a monotherapy earlier in disease because as we all know, as you go earlier in disease, patients have a much stronger immune system. Disease is, of course, less spread. And as you recall, because I know you have followed the company for a long time. As you recall, in 2018, pre-COVID when nobody really paid attention to INT, at ASCO, we showed interesting data in lung, in melanoma and a few other tumor types as monotherapy because it was a basket study like you start oncology studies. And so we want to chase that signal. And so I think INT is going to really be -- go across tumor types, go earlier in time.
And so once we start to get next year, the big Phase III data on melanoma, I think after -- I would not be surprised every 6 months-ish, you start to see a rolling like literally flow, very constant of new data on different studies. We are extremely committed to this program. Our colleagues at Merck are also extremely committed to this program. So there's a lot more discussion that the team is having right now that's not public yet. I will announce new indications. So I think, again, saying that with humility, the KEYTRUDA playbook is a bit how people should think about how we and Merck are going to invest beyond INT. And that's for patients in Stage II, III -- as I said, we want to go to Stage I early where IO is not really used because there's too much toxicity. I think one of the things that sometimes people forget is the safety profile of INT is really spectacular.
For those who don't know the technology, it's exactly the same technology what we use for infectious disease vaccine. So that's a pretty spectacular product. Think about an INT monotherapy that people could use a stage I with the safety profile of infectious disease vaccine or literally you could get a shot as intramuscular on your way to work. There will be such a change for the care of those patients. And if you look at another product that we started to talk more about on the Q1 call, our checkpoint product that is a treatment that we own. This is not a partner product that we shared some early data, dose escalation data last year at ESMO that were quite exciting, of course, early. What we shared in the Q1 call is that we are quite intrigued by the signal we have seen so far because we've seen more than what, of course, we showed at ESMO last year, we'll show more this year.
And so we are basically accelerating the Phase II enrollment for that program. And that program is used in Stage IV patients and the data that we have seen that gives us hope is for patients that have failed over checkpoint. So again, it's very early, but just kind of give you a sense of the importance of the pipeline that we are not a COVID-19 company. We also have very exciting drugs in oncology. And we are really -- from a strategic standpoint, as I said in my intro, we're really deploying the cash that is being generated by the respiratory vaccine as we do those Phase Is only once and generating the cash flow into oncology and other disease like rare disease and potentially autoimmune soon.
And just to touch on CMV as well, your confidence here around this update that we're going to see.
So we remain optimistic about CMV. I always want to be careful. This is a product in Phase III for which I'm blinded to. So I don't know the outcome. I will just go back to a few things. We know through our work across -- if you go back through data through the COVID data in terms of T cell activation, CD4 and CD8. We know through the work we showed on VZV compared to Shingrix, again, on CD4/CD8 showing same or even better performance than Shingrix, which is known to be a very durable vaccine for a latent virus. If you look at our Phase II data, we've shown up to 3 years of duration of antibodies, which, of course, is not efficacy, but the antibodies are very, very stable at the same level as antibody of people that have been infected naturally that are CMV positive. So of course, given there's never been a successful CMV vaccine in the world, we don't know where the bar is, like if you recall during COVID in 2020, when all those clinical trial study was going, everybody was using antibody levels of people naturally infected as the benchmark of the target. So we'll see -- there's a massive medical need for CMV.
There's around 20,000 kids in the U.S. every year that have birth effect due to CMV disease. We believe there are some miscarriage that are due to CMV. And so everybody has tried to do a vaccine, everybody has failed. We think we have the right biology. The Phase II data is very encouraging. The other data point on the platform, INT, I don't talk about INT, but INT only works because of T cell, right? So fingers crossed, but we remain optimistic about CMV, and we really want this product to be -- to make it because people need it.
Great. Well, with that, Stéphane, thank you so much.
Thank you so much, Salveen.
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Moderna — Goldman Sachs 46th Annual Global Healthcare Conference 2025
Moderna — Goldman Sachs 46th Annual Global Healthcare Conference 2025
📣 Kernbotschaft
- Fokus: Moderna setzt drei Prioritäten: Top-Line-Wachstum mit bestehenden Produkten, Markteinführung von ~10 Folgeprodukten und konsequente Kostensenkung. Die mRNA (Messenger-RNA)-Plattform soll von COVID-Vakzinen hin zu einem breiten Respiratory-Portfolio und in die Onkologie diversifizieren.
🎯 Strategische Highlights
- Respiratory-Portfolio: Abschließen von COVID, RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus), Grippe und Kombi-Impfstoffen; Zielmarkt: vorrangig Risikogruppen (65+, 18–64 mit Risiko).
- Produkt-Timeline: 1283 zugelassen (PDUFA-Date erfüllt); große Phase‑III-Daten für INT (Immuntherapie) in Melanom erwartet 2026, mögliche Markteinführung 2027.
- Kostenziel: Cash-Kosten: $6,3 Mrd (letztes Jahr) → Guidance $5,5 Mrd (dieses Jahr) → $4,7 Mrd (nächstes Jahr) → $4,2 Mrd (2027); Prozess- und Lieferantenoptimierung läuft.
🔭 Neue Informationen
- Zeithorizont: Management nennt 2025 als mögliches Umsatz-Tief; strukturelles Wachstum ab 2026 durch Fabriken in UK, Kanada, Australien (voller Betrieb 2026) und weitere Produktlaunches.
- Regionale Chancen: Erwartung, schrittweise Rückkehr nach Europa ab 2025–2027 nach Auslaufen COVID‑Exklusivverträge; OUS und Einzelmärkte sollen stabilisieren.
❓ Fragen der Analysten
- Profitabilität: Rückkehr zur Profitabilität bis 2028 wurde bestätigt als Ziel; Kostenplan ($4,2 Mrd 2027) soll erreicht oder übertroffen werden.
- Regulatorik: ACIP/CDC‑Entscheidungen und PDUFA/Prüfprozesse bleiben Unsicherheitsfaktoren; placebo-kontrollierte Studien beeinflussen R&D-Aufwand.
- BD‑Strategie: Moderna bleibt bei mRNA, sucht Partner/Projektfinanzierung für latent‑Virusprogramme (EBV, VZV, HSV) statt Alleinfinanzierung.
⚡ Bottom Line
- Relevanz: Interview liefert klares Management‑Narrativ: Restrukturierung plus breit angelegte Produktpipeline sollen 2026 Wachstum bringen; kurzfristig bleibt Umsatzvolatilität (US‑Nachfrage, Fabrikfreigaben, Preis/Marktanteile) das Hauptrisiko für Aktionäre.
Moderna — Jefferies Global Healthcare Conference 2025
1. Question Answer
Hi, everyone. Thank you. Good morning, and thank you for joining us on our next discussion here at the Jefferies Healthcare Conference. I have the pleasure of having the President of Moderna. Stephen Hoge up here with us. Obviously, quite timely, a lot's going on in the world, both from a regulatory administrative standpoint. We had Marty Makary here yesterday. Obviously, a lot going on with your commercial business, the pipeline, all of that. So I look forward to getting into some of that.
Maybe it would just be a great place for Stephen to start about the outlook for 2025. At the beginning of this year, there was some guidance. I think a lot of people are trying to think about the outlook for 2025 and thinking about the changes that are going on with the administration, how that's going to change. So maybe just make some opening statements about how you feel about this year and the guidance. And obviously, what's weighing on people's minds, which is what's going on with the administration, and is that going to impact your business, starting with this year, like hitting numbers.
Yes, for sure. So first, Mike, thanks for having us. It's always a pleasure and a privilege. So yes, in terms of 2025, it's pretty important to separate where we are from maybe how we got there, okay? In some ways, I think where we are in our last quarterly call in just a few weeks ago, we reaffirmed our revenue range and our cost range for this year for what we're trying to achieve. We did indicate that there are -- we thought we were making progress with our next-generation COVID vaccine approval, mRNA-1283. We also...
And you got it?
And we got it. We also indicated that the FDA had let us know we would probably need to file efficacy on the flu for the flu-COVID combo. And I think the discussion at the time would be whether we withdraw or try to do a major amendment to that file. And I think that ended about where we expected, which is, as you know, we withdrew that BLA.
Pulled that BLA. Okay.
Waiting for the efficacy data now this summer, so very soon, and then we will resubmit hopefully later this year.
And in terms of overall sort of business and financial performance, I think the thing that we went into the year with the most anxiety about, probably most investors was just the uncertainty of what would the change in administration mean for our products, we're getting them approved, recommendations around COVID vaccines. And I feel like in the last month, a lot of that uncertainty has clarified.
And now we have a clear path forward for without strain selection, clear indication of what populations are going to be recommended for COVID vaccines this year and hopefully going forward. And a clear set of expectations around what data we're expected to generate if we want to expand that population. I know that you mentioned Commissioner Makary was here in the New England Journal article that he authored with the Head of CBER, Vinay Parsad. They indicated that there's 100 million to 200 million Americans that should be getting a COVID booster in that New England Journal piece. And we only had 40 million last year.
And so we see this as an opportunity for us to do a better job, making sure we communicate around the value of COVID vaccination because there's a large untapped market there.
So you put it all together, and I think what we feel like is a lot of the uncertainty that we had maybe in the first half of the year has started to crystallize and clarify. And honestly, from a company perspective, what we need is predictability. What we need is that clarity because whatever is necessary, we'll go off and then do.
You'll be able to adjust and plan based on that. So just starting for this year, the latest development was that they approved the new COVID vaccine for a specific label. I mean to maybe get some of the exact data, but 65 and over, and then people under 12 to 64, but with a comorbidity. And so that's the label. And then we understand that without following every detail, the ACIP and the CDC, they had some recommendations, but you can still sort of get it if you talk to your doctor. Can you just try to triangulate what happened in the last couple of weeks? And does that impact the guidance and the utilization of COVID vaccines for 2025?
Yes. So we didn't update our guidance a couple of weeks ago. I won't do that here, except to say that the news of the last few weeks is broadly consistent with what we expected to have happen. And so what we see is a narrowing of the recommended population for COVID vaccines. Whether that was done through the ACIP or through the FDA label, again, was a bit of a dealer's choice, I guess, for the administration, how they wanted to do that. But we...
So it's like a label, is a label. It's like cancer label or whatever, it's a label. But recommendation is a recommendation, and whether payers pay for or whatnot, all of that is, people are sophisticated enough, but label is a label and the recommendation is a recommendation.
Yes. That's correct.
And that most people who are getting the vaccine anyway, generally speaking, fit within...
Are in a label. If you look at the. The majority of doses given last year, even before any of this change, that was in the 65-plus population. That's clearly on label. And if you look at the balance of what's left, the majority of that overwhelming majority of the overall number of doses are to people 12-plus with some risk factor or 65.
Bear in mind that the risk factors that were listed in that framework and that the ACIP has presented on covers 74% of Americans. And that's why when you look at the total you're talking about...
Hoge, 74% is what, 65 and up?
74% of the population under 65, has a risk factor for severe COVID-19 because everything from obesity to physical activity, blood pressure issues, a whole range of...
So definitely the comorbidity is fairly broad.
Very broad. And so if you actually look at the indicated population, I'll come back to it, the indicated population even for our new product or the Novavax product or where these recommendations are headed, it is still 4 to 5x larger than the number of doses that happened last year. So we think this is an opportunity for us to focus on growing the market or at least stabilizing it through this cycle.
But what's great is a lot of the uncertainty that maybe existed before this news has now kind of falling away.
But they are making a clear statement about how they want to either through the label or their own commentary that they just don't want a super broad indication and tell everyone, young kids, and there's other stuff going on that they can and but you can get it if you want, if you talk to...
For sure. And if you look at the recent CDC publication on children, that said shared clinical decision-making, which really means talk to your physician, talk to your health care provider.
How about going forward, two things have come up. One is in order to get COVID vaccines approved, you have to have placebo -- vaccines approved, you have to have placebo-controlled studies. How does that impact the COVID vaccine.
And then other vaccines like the flu vaccine or other things, how did that commentary coming out, we got a lot of question about that, how that's going to change the ability for Moderna to get either the COVID vaccine, new ones or other non-COVID vaccines.
Yes. Well, I'd start by saying our COVID vaccine, the 1283, mNEXSPIKE was approved just a week ago. And so that's somewhat settled as a question.
We did, as a part of that, agreed to a post-marketing commitment to run a placebo-controlled study. Not in the indicated population, but in a population that would expand the label to healthy people under the age of 64 -- 50 to 64. And that's consistent with the...
50 to 64?
Correct. And that's consistent with frankly, with a framework that was published by the Commissioner, and with the Novavax label, and we understand now to be the rules of the game.
And from our perspective, we are not public health officials. We are a company. Our responsibility are to generate data to allow them to make the decisions they want. And at the end of the day, if the FDA feels they need data to know whether they can expand our labels into healthy people, then it's our obligation to go get that and that's what we'll do.
So that's the COVID situation. On -- let's take up some of the other upcoming like COVID-flu. Covid-flu is when you said you think you can get approved because the flu infection data is coming later this summer. Help set our expectations about that should be positive, and then you're going to file that. Now that would be a vaccine that's a combination, but you're kind of using flu data and COVID data, but the vaccine study was not the two together. I mean, I could come up with a many scenarios. So what are the?
Well, combination products generally get approved through a different mechanism. You want to show that you can put the two products together, and they don't interfere with each other. But if they're separately licensed products, not just with vaccines, but with medicines, generally, that path is a little bit different.
So we have an approved COVID component now because it's the same component in mNEXSPIKE. And the flu study that you just referenced, we've run a 40,000-person randomized controlled trial, Phase III study. And generally, the flu guidance hasn't changed to our knowledge. And so we'll expect if that data is positive that we'll be able to get the flu product approved. Once you have the flu product and the COVID product approved and you've run a Phase III showing you combine them. I think we have -- we believe we have a pretty straightforward...
So I mean, flu, If it's positive, you want to file that one as a monotherapy or it is filed? Or do you want to get it approved that one?
Correct. We would intend to do both mono...
I mean, the combo. Sure, clarify that.
Yes. We would still think there's going to be a market for mono COVID. We still think there's going to be a market for mono flu. We think the bigger market is going to be for the combo. And so we will intend to register all three products. If the flu is positive. We've already got COVID approved. If the flu is positive, we would then expect towards the end of this year or the second half of this year to file flu for approval and flu-COVID combo for approval. Because we want both options available. There may be some people who still want to do them separately for [indiscernible] reasons.
What you would expect that the label and all these types of things, you're probably going to be something similar to the COVID label. That a reasonable expectation.
Yes. For the COVID component, I think the FDA has been very clear about that...
Yes, the label -- the combination is probably going to reflect the COVID label.
Yes. Yes. I think the FDA has been very clear on that.
Okay. What else? So then with this administration and more clarity over the last few months, how does that change the development plans? Is Moderna? Yes, we go forward. We got it. We got it. So norovirus, CMV, others. And we just keep going because don't worry, nothing has changed. It's -- administration focused on it, but they're still going to be able to approve all these things. So...
Yes. Well, I think it's important to note that for all the rest of our products, including, by the way, our COVID product, we've run placebo-controlled efficacy right? So norovirus right now is 25,000, 30,000 people as a placebo-controlled efficacy study. There's over...
By the way, restarted, right? It's back up. It was paused and then it's back up...
Yes. So the FDA removed the clinical hold from a couple of months ago. And so that's been resolved. And it is enrolling in the Southern Hemisphere, Panama and Australia and a few other countries, because like flu, it bounces, Northern Southern Hemisphere, a different season okay. And so norovirus, we think we're right in line with expectations in that regard. And then I would say CMV, same thing. It is a placebo-controlled 7,000 person very large Phase III study should answer all the questions both about safety and efficacy.
And our follow-on vaccines after that, whether you want to talk about Epstein-Barr virus or lyme or any of them, we would expect to be placebo-controlled. And so from that perspective, because there's not an approved therapy you'd compare it to, it doesn't feel like this framework change in COVID impacts our path in the other programs.
Because you're going to be running placebo-controlled studies?
Correct. We already are.
With CMV, can I just ask, we care about things coming up and news flow and things that are going to say, "Hey, see, there's new products coming. We're going to get to P&L and revenue and cash flow," that's important. That for CMV that it had hit at least 1 or 2 of the first interim analysis and then now it's been many months. And so I can assure you, and you probably look at and read investor reports, I don't know if you do. Now Wall Street is like, where is the final analysis? And people hang on every word because it was like it's coming and -- but then it's just this year. So it doesn't make any sense to me because it's not really a seasonal infection.
So how could you have a bunch of interim analysis that didn't stop or didn't hit? You said that, that's public. Again, the final here we are INT June...
Yes. So to be clear, one sort of point. We only had one interim analysis that was conducted at the very end of last year. And the reason is you want to preserve as much alpha as much statistical power for the final announcement. And so there was only ever one. At that point, we didn't have all the number of cases. You're right, it's not seasonal, but you -- it's event-driven, you accrue cases.
And at that point, we didn't meet the threshold for declaring early success, early efficacy, but the study was powered, our label expectations really are based on that final analysis. And at this point, I can tell you, we are still blinded. We do not have -- there haven't been other data. We haven't slow walked anything. We are literally just waiting for cases to accrue, events to happen so that we can trigger the process of conducting that analysis, that final analysis...
You can see that, just to be clear, that a certain number of events happened, people have tracked that. That was by the end of 2024. Here we are in June. If you look at the accrual of the events, and I remember, it's like 58% and then final analysis is around 50% or so. That -- we've gone 6 months, and we haven't gotten to those number of events...
Yes. I mean it was in the previous 18 months, we got -- no, I appreciate it.
In the preceding 18 months or 2 years, we accrued about 2/3 of it. And we're -- we expect it this year. It's all I can say at this point.
All right. You must have been working very well. No one's [indiscernible]...
That would be -- it's possible. But the other thing...
That's a common thing. It just does not make any sense...
To point to on that, Mike, which is fair, is that there are a lot of other endpoints in that final analysis. So I don't want to lose this.
The first interim analysis only looked at immunogenicity as a surrogate per infection. But if you look to the final analysis, there are many things that matter in a latent virus vaccine, one of them, things like virologic shedding, the presence of -- in the urine or the blood of the virus because that's ultimately what will lead to transmission, in this case, from a mother to a baby.
And a whole other host of things that we'll want to look at and capture. So the final analysis is not just an unblinding or a repeat of that same interim. It actually is this much more robust set of information about whether the vaccine was effective.
It's possible the vaccine didn't prevent, let's say, you from generating a little antibodies, but it prevented you from becoming latently infected and shedding the virus. And those sorts of end points, we've got more data to collect more data to pull together. And once you unblind in the final analysis, you unblind for all of them. And so you can imagine there's a -- it's a much more labor-intensive and robust process to conduct that final analysis.
Okay. I mean, I'm got at interpreting words. But if you basically have an analysis, which just looking at seroconversion, that seems pretty straightforward. You're telling me there's in the final analysis, there's all sorts of other endpoints. That would require more, I don't know, blood work or urine work. That's what you're saying...
PCR, or urine...
But you would say if the events have been hit, wouldn't you? Events have been hit. Then I would just say, okay, it's been hit, and we still have many months of work to go look at all the urine analysis and all these other things.
Generally, we will complete the work before we trigger the DSMB process. right? And so we have an obligation. It's not a -- we have an update on our event count, but we want to make sure we deliver a robust final analysis, all of the end points, including the key other endpoints like shedding.
And as you just said, that's a lot more testing, a lot more work. You got to get it done right. And so we're completing that. We're going to get it in the hands of the DSMB. And once the DSMB has rendered their verdict, of course, we will share it.
One of the big things that continues to be a point for investors is that the company's revenues are guidance of $1.5 billion, give me the exact...
$1.5 million to $2.5 billion.
$1.5 billion to $2.5 billion. The OpEx guidance or the formal guidance, but you have cash burn guidance for this year.
Correct. Yes.
Guidance year-end of $6 billion. And...
Year-end cash of about $6 billion. And we expect cash use this year, cash investment in the business, that's OpEx plus cost of goods. So our cash use of about $5.5 billion. That's the guidance. So it's net use of about $3 billion.
Okay. And so it's basically $9 billion at the end of '24, going to around $6 billion further in '25, analysts have various estimates for '27. And people basically believe that the revenues could grow, but there's some guesses what that is. And then expenses are we can guess what that is. And when you do that math, that's still another negative X billions of dollars. So $6 billion is going down.
So the question is, Wall Street doesn't believe that the revenue streams are going to pick up significantly. And at the cost basis, so the cash burn is going down. How do you respond to that math? And do you believe that Wall Street doesn't understand that it's going to be okay because it's the cash burn is going down and people see this as a problem.
Yes. Well, look, I...
Respond to that.
Yes. No, it's a fair question. It's a very fair question. Look, our goal should be and I think our track record is that we want to make or beat our cost guidance. And then we hope, over the course of this year to show where we've stabilized COVID as a business, and we'll grow from there. But we want to make or beat our revenue guidance.
If you look at the cost numbers, we have decreased -- this year, we've guided to $5.5 billion. If you look at the first quarter, that is a year-over-year decrease, actual cost reductions of 20%. And that isn't -- that is the second or third year in a row that we've done that. So we've been eliminating 20% or 30% of cost per year.
In fact, if you look at where we were through the first quarter, we're actually ahead of what you'd predict for current year. So we are trending favorable to our $5.5 billion cost guidance.
We've indicated that the midpoint of our range is $4.7 billion for next year and $4.2 billion for the year after. And that means we're settling into about a $4 billion cash cost base inclusive of cost of goods in that.
And I hope what we've shown is our ability to regularly meet or exceed our cost targets, take that 20% cost out, if necessary, year-over-year is there. We have to pick a number to aim at in '28, and we do think $4 billion is the right number. But if you -- if the number has to be $3 billion, then it will be $3 billion.
How do you get there?
The same way...
This is very helpful. So yes, we agree. $4 billion is where you're kind of aiming at. But if the -- based on revenues, minus expenses and cash burn, if you need to get to $3 billion because revenues are only $1 billion or whatever it's going to be, do you think you can get there?
Again, we've reduced about $1 billion a year for the last couple of years. We're looking forward to reducing another $700 million, $800 million for next year. It is the same path, the same types of discipline that we've been executing.
For the most part, what you see happening is that, as you remember, a couple of years ago, we said -- about 1.5 years ago, we said we're not going to start any new Phase IIIs. And what you will see is a rundown of our R&D investment for these 10 products that we intend to launch and grow our revenue. And then we don't start new Phase IIIs that R&D line is just going to every year come down by a sizable chunk.
And that's essentially what's been happening. That is what's driving over the next 18 months, that's going from whatever is $5.5 billion and '25 to $4 billion, $4.2 billion in '27. And if we need to continue that trajectory, it just straight line. We will keep -- we will avoid...
The $3 billion that you could get to, that's COGS, SG&A and R&D?
All cash cost.
You can get that.
All cash cost. So when we say $4 billion, $4.2 billion for '27, that is all of it. That is all cash used in the business, inclusive of cost of goods. So sometimes people think it's OpEx. I actually think that's -- people get twisted on that one because actually, the OpEx number, if you back into it, is probably more like $3 billion, $2.5 billion to $3 billion because the rest is in the cost of sales. And sales, look, if sales is down, cost of sales comes down with it.
And we will continue to hold on starting any new Phase IIIs, which does not lead to any growth in R&D in '27 and beyond. It actually leads to this decline. We will hold until we have confidence on that revenue trajectory that we're all...
Let's take it one step further. So let's say you could get down to $3 billion. Revenues have to be above $3 billion in order to be profitable and people are not seeing anywhere in the next couple of years that is going to happen. So therefore, the cash is going from $6 billion, and you can do your own math. Do -- what is that -- how does that work?
Yes. Well, I think we would -- I would disagree, I guess, that there's not opportunities to grow revenue. So midpoint of our range is...
That's because we have new vaccines coming...
So midpoint of $2 billion this year. We have very little RSV in it. A lot of that is because it's still the first contract year. We're not into the second year of contracting in RSV. That starts in July of this year.
And we do think we will grow over time to a share of RSV. Our flu and flu-COVID product launches are both, we hope to file them later this year, and that would mean that there would be approvals and contributing by '27 for sure, in '27, '28. And then you have norovirus, which we spoke about. And CMV...
Pfizer is not anywhere in the COVID-flu game or are they still there? Because if that does happen, that's a material change that could...
What I'm aware of...
People do believe that would be a value proposition to take $2 billion.
Yes. I think we believe strongly in the flu-COVID. It is clear from the FDA guidance, the market really is in that older adult and high-risk populations. I don't believe Pfizer is currently in a pivotal study in any of those areas. And so I think they focus more on younger and healthier populations, which obviously is not consistent with the FDA guidance now.
So anyway, I just listed RSV moving forward, but then flu and flu-COVID, norovirus and CMV. That's 5 products. We additionally expect to launch two rare diseases and have, we would hope our first launch of our INT, and Intismeran cancer program with Merck, which will be three more products.
And so if at the end of the day, we're heading towards $2 billion this year, midpoint of the $1.5 billion to $2.5 billion. And we launch 5 to 7 products, depending on your handicapping of that. By '27, '28, we would hope that, that has grown to a number bigger than $3 billion. And that $4 billion seems quite reasonable. That's where we're planning to.
But again, we're going to match cost and revenue in the future. And we have, I think, shown -- I do think that we haven't gotten maybe all the credit about how we've been able to control consistently those costs and bring them down on a glide path.
You definitely have. And I think we got to definitely congratulate and give credit to the fact that the company has been doing that. I think Wall Street is struggling with, can they do it fast enough, do it more. And then one thing is where is the revenue growth. The other thing is managing expenses. But those things have to happen.
And I think the reality is...
And you ever trying to get that...
Yes, totally fair. I think the reality of those 7 products is seeing them through to their approvals is actually the biggest driver of that cost now.
Let's tie that together then because you mentioned INT, which is individualized neoantigen therapy, otherwise to some people have known as cancer vaccine. But first, is that a data readout that could happen next year? Talk about the probability of that happening because I feel like you're saying, I think that was my question last earnings call, but the timing of that?
And then secondly, one of the differences or one of the options between you and some -- another peer BioNTech, is that they have very much pivoted or spent a lot of time focusing on cancer program, which seems to be hotter these days.
And so there's a question as to whether Moderna, given the administration, given the environment we're in, would make more portfolio strategic decisions. I appreciate we also want to keep costs down, but more pivoting towards areas where they might not be so much about respiratory vaccine.
Yes. So great question. And so first of all...
Cancer vaccine and that...
On the cancer vaccine timing question, we...
Cancer overall.
We still expect that in interim analysis, that readout on efficacy next year in 2026. We -- it is an event-driven analysis. So my ability to predict when people's cancer relapse is imperfect, and yet, we still feel like 2026 is the year where we will see...
You know the event track rate. I mean, we're...
We do.
We're in the middle of '25, so it's early. But you're tracking along...
And again, we're standing behind, we think '26 is the year that, that happens.
If you look to the portfolio question, I'll point to the fact that in the second quarter, we did update as a part of our annual portfolio review, we actually removed the tenth product on our 10 product launches was a younger adult combination flu-COVID vaccine. And we removed it and said, we're going to take that money and invest it in a new cancer therapeutic, something called 4359. And we're quite enthusiastic about the early clinical data we're seeing there.
What is 4359?
It is a combination -- it used to be called checkpoint as a therapy approach. We'll say more about it in the future, but it is a combination immunotherapy that expands T cell responses against your immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. We've been testing it in a Phase I study in multiple histologies. We've seen some early -- we're quite encouraged -- they're early, I don't want to overstate it.
Is it a novel target?
It is a novel approach to generating T cell immunity against immune suppressive signals.
Right. It's an mRNA that induce -- creates an antigen, it creates antibodies against some target that you think is...
So we're looking forward to sharing that data at an upcoming medical meeting. But it was sufficient for us as a strategic decision to say, we're going to take one of these respiratory vaccines away, take that money and allocate it to another cancer therapy.
So to your question, I think we've already started making those moves. And in fact, at the end of this next couple of vaccines, respiratory vaccines, there are no more coming in our pipeline. And so we are completing the work, we do expect to have a really strong portfolio commercially at that point, but we don't expect to continue investing in respiratory beyond that.
We've got a lot of great FDA and regulatory clarity recently. You got the COVID vaccine approved a week or so ago. So you can see that the agency is pushing forward and reasonably rational. You heard about that from Marty yesterday. And the recommendations and things, these are not surprising. In fact, the stock went up anyway after that. And you're working on the cost structure and you've got some more things coming.
So we continue to look forward to the progress this year. People are watching this and trying to obviously figure it out. And so we appreciate your time and given us the outlook. So thank you very much Stephen.
Thank you, Mike.
Okay. Thank you.
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Moderna — Jefferies Global Healthcare Conference 2025
Moderna — Jefferies Global Healthcare Conference 2025
🎯 Kernbotschaft
- Kern: Moderna sieht dank jüngster Entscheidungen der US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) und Empfehlungen von ACIP (Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices) und CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) mehr regulatorische Klarheit. Management bestätigt Guidance, betont Marktchance für COVID‑Booster trotz engerer Label, und setzt auf Kostenabbau plus mehrere anstehende Produkt‑Starts.
🔎 Strategische Highlights
- Finanz‑Guidance: Umsatzrange für 2025 $1,5–$2,5 Mrd.; erwartetes Kassenende ~ $6 Mrd.; Cash‑Use ~ $5,5 Mrd. (Nettoverwendung ≈ $3 Mrd.).
- Regulatorik: FDA verlangt Placebo‑kontrollierte Studien für Label‑Erweiterungen; Moderna akzeptiert post‑market commitments (z.B. 50–64 Jahr).
- Portfolio‑Fokus: File‑Plan: bei positivem Flu‑Datensatz noch 2025 Flu‑Mono und Flu‑COVID‑Kombi einreichen; norovirus und CMV Phase‑III laufen; Mittel umgeschichtet zugunsten Krebsprogramm 4359 und INT (neoantigene Therapie) mit Lesart auf 2026‑Readout.
🔭 Neue Informationen
- Zulassung & Label: mNEXSPIKE (mRNA‑1283) kürzlich von der FDA zugelassen — Indikation primär ≥65 und 12–64 mit Komorbiditäten; vorherige BLA für Combo wurde zurückgezogen, Neubewerbung geplant nach Flu‑Efficacy‑Daten im Sommer. Norovirus‑Hold aufgehoben; CMV final noch geblindet.
❓ Fragen der Analysten
- Schwerpunkte: Analysten drängten auf Timing der CMV‑Finalanalyse und Event‑Akkumulation, Nachfrage‑/Umsatz‑Sichtbarkeit nach Label‑Einschränkungen, und Pfad zur Reduktion der Cash‑Kosten auf $3–4 Mrd. Management war konkret bei Kostendisziplin und Cash‑Zielen, vager bei exakten Umsatzprognosen und CMV‑Zeitpunkten.
⚡ Bottom Line
- Fazit: Regulatorische Klarheit reduziert Unsicherheit; der Werttreiber bleibt das Gelingen der anstehenden Daten‑ und Zulassungsereignisse (Flu, CMV, Norovirus, INT). Kostenreduktion ist glaubwürdig, aber für Bewertung entscheidend sind Umsatz‑nachweise aus den Produktstarts — Ergebnisse dieses Jahres werden den operativen Ausblick und die Cash‑Runway maßgeblich beeinflussen.
Finanzdaten von Moderna
Umsatz
Der Umsatz stellt die Summe aller Einnahmen eines Unternehmens z. B. für dessen Produkte oder Dienstleistungen dar.
Umsatz (TTM) einfach erklärtDirekte Kosten
Direkte Kosten sind die Kosten, die direkt im Zusammenhang mit der Herstellung des Produkts oder der Dienstleistung entstehen.
Bruttoertrag
Der Bruttoertrag gibt an, wie viel vom Umsatz nach Abzug der direkten Herstellkosten im Unternehmen verbleibt. Berechnet man den prozentualen Anteil vom Umsatz, spricht man von der Bruttomarge (engl. Gross Margin).
Brutto Marge einfach erklärtVertriebs- und Verwaltungskosten
Die Vertriebs- & Verwaltungskosten (engl. Selling, General & Administrative expenses, kurz SG&A) beinhalten alle Aufwände für Marketing und den Verkauf sowie die allgemeine Verwaltung des Unternehmens.
Forschungs- und Entwicklungskosten
Die Forschungs- und Entwicklungskosten (engl. research & development costs, kurz R&D) geben Auskunft darüber, wie viel das Unternehmen in die Forschung und die Entwicklung seiner Produkte investiert. Vor allem prozentual vom Umsatz und im Vergleich zu direkten Wettbewerbern sind die Kosten interessant.
EBITDA
Das EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) ist der Gewinn des Unternehmens vor Zinsen, Steuern und Abschreibungen. Berechnet man den prozentualen Anteil vom Umsatz, spricht man von der EBITDA-Marge.
Abschreibungen
Abschreibungen stellen Wertminderungen von Vermögensgegenständen des Unternehmens dar (z.B. durch Abnutzung von Maschinen).
EBIT (Operatives Ergebnis)
Das EBIT (engl. Earnings Before Interest and Taxes) ist der Gewinn des Unternehmens vor Zinsen und Steuern, das auch als operatives Ergebnis bezeichnet wird. Berechnet man den prozentualen Anteil vom Umsatz, spricht man von
der EBIT-Marge.
Nettogewinn
Der Nettogewinn stellt den Gewinn oder Verlust nach Abzug aller Kosten dar.
Nettogewinn einfach erklärtaktien.guide Premium
| Mär '26 |
+/-
%
|
||
| Umsatz | 2.225 2.225 |
30 %
30 %
100 %
|
|
| - Direkte Kosten | 1.446 1.446 |
45 %
45 %
65 %
|
|
| Bruttoertrag | 779 779 |
64 %
64 %
35 %
|
|
| - Vertriebs- und Verwaltungskosten | 979 979 |
12 %
12 %
44 %
|
|
| - Forschungs- und Entwicklungskosten | 2.925 2.925 |
33 %
33 %
131 %
|
|
| EBITDA | -2.890 -2.890 |
6 %
6 %
-130 %
|
|
| - Abschreibungen | 235 235 |
22 %
22 %
11 %
|
|
| EBIT (Operatives Ergebnis) EBIT | -3.125 -3.125 |
4 %
4 %
-140 %
|
|
| Nettogewinn | -3.194 -3.194 |
5 %
5 %
-144 %
|
|
Angaben in Millionen USD.
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Firmenprofil
Moderna, Inc. beschäftigt sich mit der Entwicklung von transformativen Medikamenten auf der Basis von Boten-Ribonukleinsäure (mRNA). Die Produktpipeline umfasst die folgenden Modalitäten: prophylaktische Impfstoffe, Krebsimpfstoffe, intratumorale Immunoonkologie, lokalisierte regenerative Therapeutika, systemische sezernierte Therapeutika und systemische intrazelluläre Therapeutika. Das Unternehmen wurde 2010 von Noubar B. Afeyan, Robert S. Langer, Jr., Derrick J. Rose und Kenneth R. Chien gegründet und hat seinen Hauptsitz in Cambridge, MA.
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| Hauptsitz | USA |
| CEO | Mr. Bancel |
| Mitarbeiter | 4.700 |
| Gegründet | 2010 |
| Webseite | www.modernatx.com |


