Tempus AI Stock Skyrockets on Promising Cancer Vaccine Results

Tempus AI's stock skyrocketed this week after Merck and Moderna published encouraging trial results for their cancer vaccine. The healthcare AI specialist's share price climbed 39.5% over its close at the end of the previous week's trading, despite valuation pressures across the broader market.

The results showed that patients who took a combination of Merck's Keytruda immunotherapy and Moderna's mRNA vaccine saw significant benefits compared to those who just took Keytruda. Tempus AI is set to acquire Personalis, the company behind the genomic tumor-profiling technology central to the development of Merck and Moderna's cancer vaccines.

The acquisition deal is expected to close late this year or early in 2027. The encouraging phase 3 trial results appear to be a strong validation of Personalis's NeXT Platform for genomic tumor profiling, which Tempus AI will integrate into its own business upon completion of the acquisition.