Moderna CEO's 2024 goal is to increase US vaccination rate

Moderna (MRNA) posted a fourth-quarter profit after beating revenue and earnings estimates. COVID-19 vaccine sales fell by nearly 43% year-over-year. Yahoo Finance Health Reporter Anjalee Khemlani breaks down her interview with Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel, including the pharmaceutical company's plans for its RSV vaccine and where it is integrating AI.

"Last year was a transition year. We right-sized manufacturing, took a big write-off mostly non-cash in the fourth, and now I think we're off to the races — we've been gaining share in the US and the objective this year in 2024 is to increase the vaccination rate," Bancel says.

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Editor's note: This article was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.

Video transcript

SEANA SMITH: All right. Well, let's take a look at one of the big movers of the morning. And that is Moderna shares climbing to the upside, up just about 6% after posting a surprise profit in the fourth quarter despite seeing a 43% slump in COVID 19 vaccine sales. Yahoo Finance's Anjalee Khemlani spoke with Moderna's CEO about those results minutes ago. Anjalee, what did you hear?

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: That's right Seana, Moderna surprisingly coming out with the beat this time, despite the fact that we've seen the waning COVID vaccine story play out for it and other companies. But the company is saying that they do see the market for this, they in fact did increase their market share for COVID vaccines in the last quarter. So really a strong story there.

And it has been a year of transition. That's really the takeaway that CEO Stéphane Bancel told me earlier today. Listen to what he had to say.

STEPHANE BANCEL: Last year was a transition year. As we said all along last year, we right size manufacturing took a big write off mostly non-cash in the fall. And now I think we're off to the races is, we have been gaining share in the US and the objective this year in 2024 is to increase vaccination rate.

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: So as you can see that right off of course with 2.2 billion right sizing manufacturing. And then focusing on the RSV vaccine launch, what they expect to happen this year could add to the revenues for the company. In addition, they're working on their combo flu and COVID vaccine. And they also have that partnership, of course, with Marc for the cancer vaccine and all told looking for a strong future.

But it is interesting also to see where Moderna is playing in the market with a focus on vaccines and infectious diseases. Also, at a time where oncology is big. As well as AI, Moderna being one of the first companies to really use AWS to be able to identify the current COVID 19 vaccine.

I asked Stephane whether or not that is an example of how far along the technology is or whether or not it still has a little bit of a drawback. And here's what he had to say.

STEPHANE BANCEL: If you look at large sets of data, to look at patterns on very large sets of data, this is where machine learning today is actually very adapted. And that's the type of use we are doing. We're not using to report financials. This is still done by standard systems like SAP and standard technology.

But when you're dealing with very large sets of data, the ability of machine learning system to look at patterns and to see things that a human cannot see because they're just so much data. That part of the technology, we believe is ready.

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: So as you can hear, definitely some future in there and whether or not the company continues to grow beyond that. What it has in its pipeline is what investors are waiting to see. But still a strong result and still bullish on the potential COVID market is where Moderna currently stands.

SEANA SMITH: All right. Anjalee, thanks so much. We'll be talking with an analyst from Oppenheimer with an outperform rating on the stock here later this hour get his thoughts on this report. All right. Anjalee. Thanks