Moderna's Q2 2026 revenue rose 2% to $145M as manufacturing and partnership fees offset a 20% drop in COVID vaccine sales; cost cuts narrowed the net loss to $782M ($1.97 per share).
Revenue
$145M
+2.1% YoY
Net income
-$782M
Diluted EPS
$-1.97
Operating margin
-562.1%
Q2 2026 in one line: a seasonal trough quarter where cost cuts, not sales, narrowed the loss
Moderna's second quarter is the quiet point of its year. Its products are respiratory vaccines (COVID and RSV), and most doses are bought and given in the autumn and winter. So a $145 million revenue quarter against a $782 million net loss is expected for the season. It does not mean demand collapsed this quarter. The number to watch is spending: total operating expenses fell 8% year on year to $960 million, and the net loss narrowed by $43 million, from $825 million to $782 million. Revenue barely moved (+2%), and it only held flat because non-product income made up for weaker COVID vaccine sales.
Key figures
Metric
Q2 2026
Q2 2025
YoY Change
Total revenue
$145M
$142M
+2.1%
Net product sales
$94M
$114M
-17.5%
— COVID vaccines (Spikevax + mNEXSPIKE)
$91M
$114M
-20.2%
— RSV vaccine (mRESVIA)
$3M
$0M
n/m
Other revenue (manufacturing, collaboration, grants)
$51M
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Operating margin is operating loss divided by total revenue: the share of each sales dollar left after running the business, before interest and tax. Here it is deeply negative because a low-revenue quarter still carries a full year's research budget. "n/m" = not meaningful. Loss per share is the same on a basic and diluted basis, because new shares from stock awards would reduce a loss per share, so they are left out of the count.
Revenue: COVID sales fell, and two small non-product lines covered the gap
Product sales fell 18%, to $94 million. According to the 10-Q, the decline was "primarily due to lower COVID vaccine sales in the United States and South America, partially offset by product deliveries in the United Kingdom." By region:
Net product sales by region
Q2 2026
Q2 2025
United States
$70M
$88M
Europe
$16M
$0M
Rest of world
$8M
$26M
The UK deliveries come from a long-term supply partnership with the British government. Moderna has also signed similar deals with other countries (the Q2 press release names a new Brazil manufacturing collaboration). These contracts are the main reason the first half looks very different from the second quarter alone: half-year product sales rose 123%, to $446 million from $200 million, and Europe went from nothing to $255 million. Most of those deliveries landed in Q1. Q2 by itself shows the underlying market is still shrinking: US COVID vaccine demand is down again in the off-season.
mRESVIA, the RSV vaccine, is still a rounding error: $3 million this quarter and $10 million for the half-year. One quarter proves little because RSV shots are also seasonal. Still, more than two years after its May 2024 US approval, mRESVIA has not become a meaningful second revenue source. The EU joint-procurement contract for up to 24 million doses, signed during the quarter, is the first sign of scale, and it will only show up in revenue once doses ship.
Other revenue nearly doubled to $51 million, and that increase kept total revenue from falling. It had two parts:
Stand-ready manufacturing revenue rose to $31 million from $17 million. These are fees governments pay Moderna to keep local vaccine plants ready to produce, whether or not doses are ordered. Moderna attributes the increase partly to facilities that "became operational during the second half of 2025."
Collaboration revenue rose to $15 million from $4 million, "primarily related to our collaboration with Recordati" on mRNA-3927, its propionic acidemia treatment (a rare inherited metabolic disorder).
Neither line depends on how many people get vaccinated, which makes them steadier than product sales. But at about $50 million a quarter, they are small next to a cost base of nearly $1 billion a quarter.
Costs: the real story of the quarter
Cost of sales fell 22%, to $93 million. That figure includes $41 million of inventory write-downs (vaccine written off as it expired or as demand forecasts were cut), $23 million of "unutilized manufacturing capacity" (the cost of idle plant capacity), and $11 million of royalties. Cost of sales was 74% of product sales plus stand-ready revenue, down from 91% a year earlier, "primarily due to lower unutilized manufacturing capacity costs." In plain terms, Moderna is paying less for factories it does not use. Even so, in an off-season quarter, most of the revenue still goes to production costs and write-offs.
Research and development fell 7%, to $651 million. The 10-Q breaks this down: $76 million lower clinical trial costs, $27 million lower personnel and stock-based pay, and $18 million lower outside services. Those savings were partly offset by a one-off from last year: Q2 2025 R&D had been reduced by a $62 million benefit from revising estimates under the Blackstone R&D funding arrangement. Without that prior-year benefit, the year-on-year cut would look closer to 15%. The first-half figure (-16%) supports that reading. Moderna says the lower trial spending comes from "the wind-down of several late-stage programs," including the flu-plus-COVID combination vaccine, congenital CMV, and norovirus programs.
Selling, general and administrative costs fell 6%, to $216 million, which Moderna attributes to lower commercial and marketing spending and lower employee costs.
Two smaller items went against the company. Interest income fell to $67 million from $81 million because the investment balance is smaller and rates are lower. Other expense swung to a $19 million loss from an $8 million gain. That is why pre-tax loss improved by only $51 million, even though operating loss improved by $92 million.
The one-off that distorts the half-year: the Arbutus/Genevant settlement
In March 2026, Moderna settled all of its lipid-nanoparticle patent litigation with Arbutus and Genevant. It booked $884 million of related charges in cost of sales in the first half, nearly all of it in Q1 (only $6 million fell in Q2). This is why half-year cost of sales was $1.05 billion against $209 million a year earlier, and why the half-year net loss grew to $2.13 billion from $1.80 billion even though Q2 alone improved. The $950 million cash payment went out in July 2026. It was still an accrued liability at June 30, so it does not appear in the Q2 cash balance. It will reduce Q3 cash.
A new dispute has replaced it. In July 2026, Sanofi subsidiaries (including Translate Bio) sued Moderna in New Jersey. They claim Moderna's COVID and RSV vaccines infringe mRNA-delivery patents, and they seek unspecified damages.
Cash: what the runway looks like
Cash, cash equivalents and investments were $6.9 billion at June 30, down from $7.5 billion at March 31 and $8.1 billion at December 31, 2025. The reported first-half operating cash outflow of $1.16 billion looks better than it really is: the $950 million settlement was accrued but not yet paid at June 30. If you treat that payment as having gone out, the outflow looks more like $2.1 billion for the half.
The balance sheet has changed twice since quarter-end:
July 2026: the $950 million settlement payment left, which puts cash at roughly $6.0 billion before any other flows.
September 1, 2026: Moderna closed a $3.0 billion offering of 0% convertible senior notes due 2032. These are bonds that pay no interest and can be converted into shares, at an initial price of about $210.58, a 47.5% premium to the $142.77 share price at pricing. Net proceeds were about $2.96 billion. Moderna spent $329 million of that on "capped call" hedges that limit dilution if the notes convert, which leaves roughly $2.6 billion of new cash. Moderna said it may use the money for "invest[ing] in the growth of its oncology business and repayment of debt." Moderna also has $600 million drawn on its Ares-led term loan, with $900 million more available under conditions.
The company's year-end 2026 cash guidance of $4.7–5.2 billion was issued on July 31, before the convertible offering. It excludes further term-loan draws, so the notes should come on top of that range. As of this report's source filings, Moderna had not published an updated figure.
Guidance and what to watch
Management's 2026 framework (July 31 release):
Revenue: "up to 10% growth" over 2025, split roughly 50/50 between the US and international markets. About 55% of second-half revenue is expected in Q3, so Q3 should be the strongest quarter of the year.
Costs lowered: cost of sales about $1.7 billion (from about $1.8 billion; this includes the roughly $0.9 billion settlement charge), R&D about $2.9 billion (from about $3.0 billion), SG&A about $1.0 billion. Capital spending is expected at $0.2–0.3 billion.
Pipeline catalysts named for 2026: a US decision on mFLUSIVA (mRNA-1010, seasonal flu vaccine; the FDA target date was August 5, after this filing, and an FDA advisory committee voted unanimously in its favour), Phase 3 adjuvant melanoma data for intismeran autogene (the individualised cancer vaccine developed with Merck), and registrational data for mRNA-3927 in propionic acidemia. The norovirus vaccine (mRNA-1403) missed its early-success threshold at a Phase 3 interim analysis, and the trial will enroll an additional cohort.
Our read: In this quarter, profitability improved almost entirely because of cost cuts. Revenue did not help. The guided full-year operating expenses (about $5.6 billion including the settlement, about $4.7 billion without it) are still several times what "up to 10% growth" on a shrinking COVID franchise can cover. So break-even depends on new products, not on cutting further. The three that matter most are mFLUSIVA (a first product in the much larger flu market), the intismeran melanoma readout (which would move Moderna into oncology), and whether mRESVIA's European contract finally turns RSV into real revenue. The convertible notes give Moderna time: roughly $8.6 billion of pro-forma liquidity against a first-half underlying burn of about $2 billion. But they also add $3.0 billion of debt that must be repaid or converted by 2032. Q3 results, which carry most of the second half's revenue, will be the first real test of the growth target.
Takeaway: Moderna's Q2 loss narrowed because it spent $89 million less, not because it sold more. COVID vaccine sales fell another 20%, RSV sales were $3 million, and flat total revenue depended on manufacturing and partnership fees. The company is using cost cuts and a new $3 billion convertible bond to buy time until new products (flu, cancer, rare disease) can replace a COVID business that is still shrinking.
Note: the 10-Q (filed July 31, 2026) is the primary source. Details of the $3.0 billion convertible note offering come from Moderna's Form 8-K filed September 1, 2026.