Moderna Stock Soars Over 100% as Cancer Vaccine Breakthrough Yields Positive Results
Moderna's stock price skyrocketed over 100% in pre-market trading on Wednesday, hitting $122.51 after the company and Merck announced positive results from a Phase 3 trial of their personalized mRNA cancer vaccine.
The INTerpath-001 trial tested a novel approach where doctors read the mutations in a patient's tumor and Moderna builds a custom mRNA shot for that individual, encoding up to 34 tumor targets or neoantigens. This teaches the immune system exactly what to hunt.
In the trial, patients who received the vaccine plus Merck's Keytruda stayed cancer-free longer than those on Keytruda alone, and the combination also slowed the cancer's spread to distant organs.
Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said in a statement that this breakthrough represents a 'pivotal moment for the field of cancer research.'