Leadership shakeup at Moderna ahead of major vaccine rollouts

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Bancel has been instrumental in leading Moderna through the development of its Covid-19 vaccine and pioneering messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics and vaccines.

In February 2022 South Africa's Afrigen Biologics used the publicly available sequence of Moderna's Covid-19 mRNA vaccine to make its own version of the shot. This effort was part of the World Health Organization's mRNA Technology Transfer Hub initiative to build vaccine-manufacturing capacity in low- and middle-income countries.

Bancel is also known for his efforts in driving Moderna's patent infringement lawsuit against Pfizer and BioNTech. Initiated in August 2022, the lawsuit centred on allegations that Pfizer and BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine, Comirnaty, used Moderna’s patented mRNA technology without authorisation.

In May this year, Moderna won its Covid shot patent case against Pfizer-BioNTech in Europe.

Leadership shift ahead

Bancel will retain his role as chief executive officer, but Moderna's commercial responsibilities will be transferred to Moderna’s president, Stephen Hoge who will assume responsibility for sales, as well as medical and research affairs. The news comes on the heels of Trump's recent announcement that he would let anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. make decisions on US healthcare policy.

The activist, who has been criticised for making false medical claims, including that vaccines are linked to autism, said that Trump had promised him control over the FDA, CDC, HHS, and the USDA.

Moderna, however, frames its leadership changes as part of a broader strategy to strengthen its commercial operations ahead of launching several new vaccines by 2025, including the FDA-approved 2024-2025 formula of Spikevax.

"In the second [quarter], we were ready to distribute our doses across many different providers but we were mostly timing it between the third and fourth quarter," Bancel said in a public statement days prior to announcing his step-down as chief commercial officer.

Moderna reports profit

Recapping its third quarter 2024 earnings, Moderna recorded $1.8bn in product sales in the third quarter of 2024.

"This is 4% up from the prior year and also above its guides which Moderna attributes to the earlier FDA approval of its product this season last year," Bancel said. "We reiterated our guidance for product sales for the year which is $3 to $3.5bn."

Year-to-date in 2024, Moderna has unveiled a net profit of $13m, or $0.03 a share. This compares to a loss of $3.6bn a year ago, when Moderna recorded a 92% interim profit drop.