Moderna’s fourth-quarter profit tumbled 70% as COVID-19 vaccine sales fell and the drugmaker caught up on a royalty payment.

Moderna said Thursday that its cost of sales jumped nearly a billion dollars to $1.9 billion in the final quarter of 2022. That included a $400 million payment to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases tied to a new license agreement started in December.

The drugmaker’s profit fell to $1.46 billion, or $3.61 per share.

Total revenue dropped 29%to $5.08 billion.

Analysts expected earnings of $4.60 per share on $5.02 billion in revenue, according to FactSet.

Moderna’s Spikevax is the company’s main source of revenue, outside of grants and money from collaborations.

The company had said last month that it recorded $18.4 billion in sales from its COVID-19 vaccine last year, and it expects about $5 billion in 2023.

Shares of Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Moderna Inc. slipped 1% to $156 in premarket trading.

(AP)