MRNA
Saturday Night Quarterback says, For the week ahead expect…
The week will bring lots of important news on inflation and on the auto sectors and from Adobe on developments in AI. With some strange wrinkles in timing due to the short Good Friday schedule.
Moderna shares jump today on positive results in skin cancer vaccine trials
Shares of Moderna (MRNA) closed up 925% today, December 14. A personalized vaccine developed by Merck and Moderna helped prevent the recurrence of severe skin cancer for three years, according to new results released today. Patients with severe melanomas who got the vaccine and Merck’s cancer drug Keytruda were 49% less likely to die or have their cancer return than those who got Keytruda alone. The news is especially important for Moderna.
Moderna shares popped 3.2% yesterday–here’s why
Shares of Moderna (MRNA) closed up 3.18% yesterday, September 13, on news that
1. The Food & Drug Administration has approved updated Covid-19 vaccine boosters (including one from Moderna) and that the Centers for Disease Control was recommending the boosters for adults and children older than 6 months. 2. The company announced that the newest results from Phase 3 clinical trials for an updated version of its flu vaccine, mRNA-1010, had met all primary endpoints in a Phase 3 trial, Compared to Glaxo’s Fluarix, Moderna’s vaccine showed higher antibody levels for all four influenza strains (two each for influenza A and B) recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) as well as higher seroconversion rates. This comes after an earlier version of the vaccine failed to demonstrate superiority for the B strains. The company expects to meet with regulators very soon and, depending on guidance received, the flu shot could launch as soon as next year, CEO Stephane Bancel told Fierce Biotech. “We’ll know more in a few months when we speak to regulators, but [we’re] trying to go as fast as we can,” he said. Of these two pieces of news I’d say No 2 is way, way more important
Please Watch My New YouTube video: Quick Pick Moderna
Today’s Quick Pick is Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA). You’re familiar with Moderna as the developer of one of the RNA-Covid vaccines. The stock market has been treating the stock like the company was a one-trick pony with sales dependent totally on the demand for Covid-19 vaccines. But I think of the MRNA Covid-19 vaccine as proof of the validity of Moderna’s technology platform which takes a lot of the risk out of what is still an early-stage biotech stock. The company now has 36 other vaccines in its development pipeline using the mRNA technology that was proven effective in the Covid vaccines. Around six of those are expected to launch in the next few years. The huge jump in revenue from the Covid vaccines “shot” the stock up around 900%. (The company’s revenue was $155 million in 2018, and at the end of 2022 its revenue was $19.3 billion.) But more recently, the shares have been in a steep decline and Morningstar now calls them 40% undervalued. The stock has pulled back further in the last week or so on news that results from some trials have not been positive enough to lead to early termination of the trials. The huge revenue–and the resulting profitability–from the Covid-19 vaccines put Moderna in a unique position for such a young biotech company. They’re able to fund their own research, clinical trials, and the development of new products internally. That means the company doesn’t have to sell off a share of future profits and revenue on new drugs or vaccines in order to fund research and development. I’ll be adding the stock to my Jubak Picks portfolio tomorrow, April 14.
