Moderna raises its revenue outlook - but all eyes are on what happens next with its cancer vaccine

By Jaimy Lee

The company lifted its sales outlook for the year, saying it now expects revenue to grow as much as 25% in 2026

Moderna's top-selling product is still Spikevax, its mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine.

Moderna, best known for advancing mRNA technology, raised its revenue outlook for the year, saying it now expects revenue to grow as much as 25% in 2026.

The biotech company announced Friday that it anticipates revenue growth of 15% and 25% this year. It had previously guided for 10% in revenue growth.

The stock (MRNA), which has soared in recent months on expectations for its experimental cancer vaccine, was up 8% in morning trading on Friday.

"Building on this momentum, we increased our full-year revenue growth outlook to 15% to 25%," Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said in a statement.

Moderna's revenue rose 29% to $1.3 billion in the third quarter, which is usually the company's highest-revenue quarter based on the seasonality of COVID, RSV and flu vaccines. That's up from $1 billion in the same three months of last year. The FactSet estimate was for $890 million.

Nearly all of the company's revenue still comes from Spikevax, the COVID vaccine.

Moderna did not share sales figures for mFlusiva or its RSV vaccine, which was first approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2024. The mRNA-based flu vaccine, which received approval in August, is on the market in the U.S. for the first time, though the company described the launch of mFLUSIVA as "limited" this year.

Adjusted earnings per share were 38 cents a share. The FactSet estimate had anticipated a loss of 80 cents. It reported net income of $162 million.

That said, much of the excitement around Moderna is focused on the therapeutic cancer vaccine that it's developing with Merck (MRK). The companies had announced in August that intismeran met the primary endpoint in a Phase 3 trial. Then, at a cancer conference last month, it released the full data from the trial, which showed the treatment cut the risk of recurrence and death when administered alongside Merck's cancer drug Keytruda. Moderna said Friday that it plans to submit the vaccine to regulators by the end of the year, with a goal to have an FDA decision in 2027.

The stock has soared 682% so far this year, making it the top gainer in the S&P 500 SPX, which is up 7.2% year to date.

The company is hosting an analyst day on Nov. 12.

-Jaimy Lee

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11-06-26 1009ET