Latest News

Moderna share price took a blow as CEO Stéphane Bancel outlined a diminished guidance for 2025. Credit: Boston Globe / Getty Images

Moderna lost more than 20% of its value on the stock market as the company delivered slashed revenue guidance for 2025, stressing savings as key to its goal of balancing cash flow by 2028. 

Ahead of CEO Stéphane Bancel’s address at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference 2025, being held in San Francisco, the company announced business and pipeline updates that emphasised the company’s conservative tack, with cash cost estimations projected to drop by around $1bn from 2024. The company’s stock was down 21% when the market opened that day [13 January] and remains in the same range a day later. Moderna, which took centre stage during the pandemic, has not had a share price this low since April 2020. 

The company’s strategy moving forward will centre on driving sales from its currently marketed products; its Covid-19 vaccine Spikevax, approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in January 2022, and its RSV vaccine mRESVIA, which received FDA approval in May 2024.

Moderna is set to receive $590m in funding from the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to expedite the development of mRNA-based pandemic influenza vaccines.

The initiative is part of a broader effort to enhance the US’s preparedness for future infectious diseases.

The substantial investment was funded by the part of HHS Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), through the Rapid Response Partnership Vehicle (RRPV) Consortium.

The funds aim to expedite the late-stage development and licensing of the company’s pre-pandemic vaccines.

The agreement will enable the expansion of trials for up to five additional pandemic influenza subtypes.

At the 2025 JP Morgan Healthcare Conference, GoodRx’s recently appointed CEO Wendy Barnes highlighted the company’s strategic position to address the gaps in the US healthcare landscape.

Referring to these gaps as “white space,” Barnes emphasised GoodRx’s ability to bridge the divide between pharmaceutical manufacturers, pharmacies, pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), and healthcare providers. This fragmented ecosystem often results in misaligned incentives, complicating access to affordable medication for patients.

GoodRx operates as a healthcare platform that tracks prescription drug prices and provides consumers with coupons to cut medication costs. During the company’s session on 15 January at JP Morgan, Barnes expressed confidence in the company’s potential to leverage its position amid these complexities: “I cannot think of a better time to be able to influence all of that white space.” 

AstraZeneca has received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor, Calquence (acalabrutinib), for first-line use in mantle cell lymphoma (MCL).

This approval makes Calquence the first BTK inhibitor available for adults with untreated MCL who are unsuitable for autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) and allows its use in combination with chemoimmunotherapy.

The FDA granted approval based on data from the Phase III ECHO trial (NCT02972840). The randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study enrolled 598 patients aged 65 or older with untreated MCL who were unsuitable for HSCT.

Patients were randomised to receive Calquence with chemotherapy bendamustine and Biogen and Genentech’s Rituxan (rituximab) or placebo plus bendamustine and Rituxan.

The US government has unveiled 15 additional drugs that will be covered in the next round of Medicare Part D price negotiations under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

Among the drugs selected in this round are Novo Nordisk’s blockbuster weight loss medication semaglutide, sold as Ozempic and Wegovy, Pfizer’s breast cancer drug Ibrance (palbociclib), and Pfizer and Astellas’s cancer medicine Xtandi (enzalutamide), as well as treatments for asthma and other chronic conditions.

Drug manufacturers have until 28 February 2025, to decide whether to participate in negotiations. After the negotiations with participating drug companies later this year, new prices will become effective in 2027.

The potential inclusion of semaglutide was expected even before the list. This was given the amount of Medicare spending on the drug and this will likely have the most impact, says Cyrus Fan, a research analyst at GlobalData.