Novavax NVAX missed Wall Street expectations on Monday after its second quarter earnings showed softer-than-expected demand in global vaccine sales, forcing the company to slash its 2022 outlook by 50% to $2 billion.
The company has not fulfilled orders for low and middle-income countries with LMICs through the global COVAX program, and expects no more orders from the US this year, according to company executives Monday.
Stanley Erck told Yahoo Finance Live Tuesday that it didn't include anticipated authorizations for boosters and adolescents.
We are not forecasting something that we don't have. He said that we're talking with the U.S. government, but we don't have a forecast right now.
Erck said that the company is going to go forward with the help of a booster market, the adolescent market and stronger 2023 sales.
We need to get a couple indications for boosting and for adolescents, both of which we applied for, and our expectations are that we'll get those approvals soon, but we're dependent on the FDA, he said.
The problem with COVAX is that it supplies LMICs, which are facing an oversupply of vaccines right now, Erck said.
We haven't put any projections of sales to COVAX this year. He said he doesn't know what's going to happen next year.
Erck said we're forecasting as conservative as possible and that we're setting the stage for next year.
The company told federal officials that it had a BA. By the fourth quarter, 5 variant-targeting booster would be ready, but the company said on Monday that an October deadline was unlikely.
That isn't far off from competitors, however. The Biden administration has called for a September booster campaign with the newly formulated vaccines, and both Pfizer PFE and Moderna MRNA previously told the FDA they would be able to make the new doses by October.
Moderna CEO St phane Bancel said the company was working hard to meet the September deadline in a recent interview with Yahoo Finance.
Erck remains optimistic about the vaccine's original formula as a booster, which provides broad coverage, including protection against the BA, as well as broad coverage.