Moderna drops its first profit, and the US (potentially) drops Covid-19 vaccine patents

Another one... (DJ Khaled). On Wednesday, Pfizer delivered the first Covid-19 vaccine profit. Yesterday, Moderna delivered its first profit — period.

• $1.7B: Moderna's Covid vax sales from January to March — a major glow up from last year, when it made just $8M in total revenue.
• $1.2B: Moderna's big-shot profit. Pfizer did double Moderna's vax sales, but its vax profit is estimated at just $900M.

Terrible earnings timing... On Wednesday, the Biden admin announced it supports a WTO proposal to temporarily waive companies' intellectual property protections for Covid-19 vaccines, to help end the pandemic. The US was originally opposed, saying IP protection provides a key incentive for innovation. If the proposal passes, others could develop shots using public patents (without getting sued). Vax-makers' recipes would be open to all.

• The reasoning: New Covid cases are hitting global records. But as of mid-April, 87% of vax doses distributed went to wealthy countries. The WTO thinks sharing IP would allow poorer nations to develop vaccines.
• The investor response: Moderna shares have plunged 10% since Wednesday, and Pfizer shares dropped 5%. J&J, which isn't taking vax profits, barely budged.
• The company response: Pfizer's CEO said patent-sharing would discourage companies from developing products for the next pandemic. The two who decided to profit from the vaccine (Pfizer and Moderna) were the fastest to get FDA-authorized. Moderna said the proposal won't affect it because it's already not enforcing Covid patents during the pandemic.