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Blackstone Funding Trims Moderna’s Research Bill By $69 Million — With Future Sales Payments Attached

A revised cost estimate helped lower research expenses, while the flu vaccine’s launch triggered Blackstone’s royalty rights.

Matteo Parrino Jonathan Ponciano

Matteo Parrino, Jonathan Ponciano

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Blackstone Funding Trims Moderna’s Research Bill By $69 Million — With Future Sales Payments Attached

Moderna, which develops mRNA medicines and vaccines, reduced its third-quarter research bill by $69 million through Blackstone funding, including a $33 million catch-up from revised estimates, according to its quarterly report filed Friday. The same arrangement now gives Blackstone rights to payments from future influenza and combination-vaccine sales, following the September commercial launch of mFLUSIVA.

The $583 Million Research Bill

Moderna’s research and development expenses totaled $583 million in the third quarter of 2026, against $801 million a year earlier. The $218 million decline, or 27%, combines lower development costs with the effect of recognizing outside funding against those costs.

Clinical trial expenses accounted for $127 million of the decline. That amount includes the $33 million Blackstone estimate adjustment; personnel costs and stock-based pay accounted for another $75 million of the reduction. Treating the full decline as a reduction in underlying spending would miss the funding component.

The trial savings came principally from reduced spending on late-stage studies involving the flu-and-COVID combination vaccine, congenital cytomegalovirus, RSV and norovirus. For the first nine months of 2026, research expenses fell $474 million, or 20%, to $1.883 billion. Required follow-up studies for COVID vaccines tempered those savings.

Funding Recognition Can Move Between Quarters

Blackstone Life Sciences committed up to $750 million to Moderna’s influenza-vaccine development under an agreement reached in March 2024. Moderna records the funding as an offset to flu-program expenses rather than as revenue, because Blackstone assumes a substantive share of the financial risk.

The expense offset follows the costs incurred on the funded work. Estimates of the remaining cost to finish that work help determine how much funding Moderna recognizes, so a change in those estimates can produce a catch-up in the current quarter for earlier periods.

The third-quarter funding benefit compares with $24 million in the second quarter of 2026 and $25 million in the third quarter of 2025. Moderna’s previous quarterly report also described a $62 million benefit from revised Blackstone estimates in the second quarter of 2025.

The longer-period comparison runs in the opposite direction: Blackstone funding reduced research expenses by $143 million in the first nine months of 2026, versus $274 million in the corresponding 2025 period. The quarterly increase therefore does not describe the funding benefit across the year to date.

mFLUSIVA Starts The Payment Rights

The first commercial sale of mFLUSIVA in September activated Blackstone’s entitlement to royalties of a few percent and sales milestone payments of up to $750 million. Royalties depend on net sales of influenza and combination vaccines; milestone payments require specified cumulative net sales targets.

The milestone ceiling is separate from Blackstone’s funding commitment, even though both carry the same maximum amount. One describes money committed to development; the other describes potential payments tied to commercial sales. Moderna said it had accrued neither royalties nor milestone payments under the arrangement as of September 30, 2026.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved mFLUSIVA in August for adults 50 and older, with accelerated approval for those 65 and older. Canada has also approved the vaccine. Moderna’s U.S. launch for the 2026–2027 season is limited because approval came after the annual contracting cycle. Third-quarter mFLUSIVA sales were immaterial, which Moderna attributed to launch timing and uncertainty over uptake.

COVID Still Pays The Bills

Moderna’s expanding respiratory portfolio includes Spikevax and mNEXSPIKE for COVID, mRESVIA for RSV, and its flu-and-COVID combination vaccine, branded mCOMBRIAX in Europe and mCOFLU in Canada. COVID vaccines still generated $1.244 billion of third-quarter product sales, compared with $29 million from RSV vaccines.

On Friday, Moderna lowered its 2026 research forecast to approximately $2.7 billion from approximately $2.9 billion. The company also raised its expected full-year revenue growth to 15%–25%, from up to 10%.

“Building on this momentum, we increased our full-year revenue growth outlook to 15%-25%, while continuing to reduce costs and strengthen our balance sheet,” Stéphane Bancel, Moderna’s chief executive officer, said in the earnings release.

For holders, the research-expense line measures both the cost of development and the funding recognized against it. Blackstone’s contribution lowers that bill today; its commercial payment rights depend on the vaccine sales that follow.

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