Moderna, Inc.
Moderna, Inc., a biotechnology company, provides messenger RNA medicines in the United States, Europe, and internationally. The company's respiratory vaccines include spikevax, mNEXSPIKE, mRESVIA, COVID, RSV, seasonal influenza, combination, and pandemic influenza vaccine; latent vaccines comprise cytomegalovirus, epstein-barr virus, and human immunodeficiency virus vaccines; enteric viruses include norovirus; public health vaccines consist of Zika, Nipah, and Mpox vaccines; and bacterial diseases vaccines, such as lyme vaccines. It also provides oncology therapeutics, such as intismeran autogene, cancer antigen therapy, t-cell engager, and cell therapy enhancer; and rare disease products, including propionic and methylmalonic acidemia, and cystic fibrosis. It has strategic alliances and collaborations with Merck & Co., Inc; Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated; Vertex Pharmaceuticals (Europe) Limited; immatics N.V.; Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency; Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority; Institute for Life Changing Medicines; The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; and OpenAI. The company was formerly known as Moderna Therapeutics, Inc. and changed its name to Moderna, Inc. in August 2018. Moderna, Inc. was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
What does it do?
Moderna is a biotech company that makes medicines using mRNA technology — the same science behind its famous COVID-19 vaccine. Think of mRNA as a set of instructions you inject into the body that tells your cells to build a defense against a specific disease. Beyond COVID, Moderna is working on vaccines for flu, RSV (a common respiratory virus that can be dangerous for babies and elderly people), and even HIV. It is essentially a platform company: one core technology, applied to many different diseases.
Moderna became a household name during COVID, but the real question for investors is whether mRNA technology can win beyond that one product. The company's revenue has collapsed from $3.2B to $1.9B in a single year as COVID vaccine demand dried up, and it lost $2.8B last year — so this is a turnaround story, not a growth story right now. The next 12-18 months will show whether Moderna can launch enough new products to replace what it lost.
How does it make money?
Moderna makes almost all of its money selling vaccines directly to governments and health agencies. Its COVID vaccine, Spikevax, was the engine that generated billions during the pandemic. In 2024, that revenue has shrunk dramatically as COVID vaccination rates fell globally, bringing total revenue down to $1.9B. The company has very little other commercial revenue yet — its newer products like mRESVIA (an RSV vaccine) are just beginning to reach the market, so meaningful new income is still in the early stages.
Why do investors care?
The bull story on Moderna is that mRNA is a genuinely new and faster way to make vaccines, and Moderna has more experience with it than almost anyone. If its pipeline of 40+ programs delivers even a few hits — like a combination flu and COVID shot, or a cancer vaccine — the company could grow into a much larger business. The key things that need to go right: new vaccines need FDA approval, doctors need to actually prescribe them, and Moderna needs to manage its cash burn before it runs out of runway. It currently holds around $9B in cash, which buys it several years to make this transition.
Deep Dive
MemberA full investor briefing on Moderna, Inc. — history, leadership, risks, and outlook.