Moderna's Cancer Vaccine Breakthrough Sparks Rally Among Related Stocks

The stock price of Moderna [MRNA] more than doubled after its personalized mRNA cancer vaccine, intismeran, met the primary endpoints in a Phase 3 trial for patients with high-risk melanoma. This breakthrough has significant implications beyond melanoma, as similar approaches are being investigated for lung, kidney, and bladder cancers.

The treatment is designed to target each patient's unique tumour mutations. After surgery, the tumour is genetically sequenced to identify these mutations, which are then encoded into a personalized mRNA vaccine administered alongside Keytruda, an immunotherapy manufactured by Merck [MRK].

Illumina [ILMN] and Pacific Biosciences [PACB], sequencing companies critical to this process, saw their shares rise 16% and 18%, respectively. Other developers of mRNA-based cancer therapies, such as BioNTech [BNTX], also gained ground.