Moderna stock reversed higher Friday after Chief Executive Stephane Bancel deflected concerns over Robert F. Kennedy Jr. On Thursday, Kennedy was confirmed to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
Kennedy, who has spent years disseminating scientifically debunked theories about vaccine safety, is now in charge of the agency that oversees the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health.
On the company's fourth-quarter earnings conference call, Bancel said Moderna will work closely with the Trump administration. He noted Moderna also worked with President Donald Trump during his first term on Operation Warp Speed, the government-funded effort to develop Covid shots and drugs.
"We look forward to working with the new team as they get confirmed by the Senate and the different members," he said. "Vaccines are a very important piece of keeping people healthy and we look forward to having these discussions."
On today's stock market, Moderna stock rose 3.4% to 32.99.
Moderna Stock Vs. RFK Jr.
It remains to be seen how Kennedy, or RFK Jr., will approach vaccine development in his new role. After he was sworn in as the new health secretary, RFK Jr. doubled down on his stance that vaccines need additional safety testing.
"I'm not going to take away anybody's vaccine," he said in an interview on CNN. "If people are happy with their vaccines they ought to be able to get them. What we're going to do is give people good science. We don't have good safety studies on almost any of the vaccines."
Kennedy's statement is incorrect.
Like other medical products, vaccines must go through multiple stages of testing to ensure their safety and effectiveness. The annual influenza and Covid vaccines go through an accelerated time frame to capture the most recent strains. Other vaccines, though, can take years to pass muster.
Moderna stock has been under pressure since Trump appointed Kennedy to the HHS role. The biotech company has a deep pipeline of potential vaccines in development. It hopes to have 10 products on the market by the end of 2027, including three applications for approval it's recently filed with the FDA.
The latter group includes its next-generation Covid vaccine and a combination Covid/flu shot.
Moderna is also working to win approval for its respiratory syncytial virus vaccine, mResvia, in people age 18 to 59 who are at high risk of complications from RSV. The vaccine is approved for people age 60 and older, but the CDC only recommends it for people age 60 to 74 who have a high risk of severe RSV and all people age 75 and older.
Moderna Retains Its Sales Outlook
Notably, Moderna kept its outlook for $1.5 billion to $2.5 billion in sales this year, following multiple resets in 2024. At the midpoint, sales would fall 37.5%.
The fourth quarter also came up mixed for Moderna. The company lost $2.91 per share, flipping from a year-earlier gain of 55 cents per share. Analysts expected a smaller loss of $2.68 a share. But sales beat expectations, coming in at $966 million vs. forecasts for $943 million.
Due to the seasonal nature of respiratory viruses, Moderna's sales tend to be the strongest in the third and fourth quarters. But fourth-quarter sales still fell 66% year over year.
Covid vaccine Spikevax generated $923 million in sales, topping expectations for $909 million, according to FactSet. The RSV vaccine, mResvia, brought in $15 million in sales, also coming in ahead of forecasts for $13 million.
Follow Allison Gatlin on X/Twitter at @AGatlin_IBD.
