Moderna hits four-year high as NYT reports U.S. cancer vaccine effort

Moderna shares rose more than 14% on Friday to $225 apiece, their highest level since January 2022, Yahoo Finance writes. The stock was supported by a New York Times report on a public-private project to accelerate cancer vaccine development, modeled on the program that helped rapidly develop COVID-19 vaccines, Stocktwits explains.

Investors see Moderna as one of the project’s main beneficiaries. Stocks of other drugmakers and biotechs also rose on Friday: Pfizer, BioNTech, and Merck gained 1.65%, 5.32%, and 2.26%, respectively, while Novavax shares closed almost 16% higher.

A major project is set to launch in the U.S. in December: a public-private partnership aimed at accelerating cancer vaccine development. The project will involve the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Foundation for the NIH, researchers, pharmaceutical and biotech companies, advocacy groups, philanthropies, and patients, who will work together to develop and test vaccines.

“We hope this will be like COVID vaccines,” Stacey Adam, a senior clinical officer at the Foundation for the NIH, told the newspaper, referring to a similar partnership that led to the rapid development of coronavirus vaccines during the pandemic. The program will initially focus on potential vaccines for pancreatic, liver, and colorectal cancers, as well as some pediatric tumors, she said.

An unpublished white paper report reviewed by the New York Times says that what is now possible in vaccine development was “largely theoretical a decade ago.” There is no guarantee that the research will deliver on its promise, but enthusiasm for the project is high, the newspaper notes. “We can do things that would not otherwise be done,” said Dr. Anthony Letai, director of the National Cancer Institute, referring to new resources being made available to the NIH. “We can place big bets on new ideas.”

The first phase of the public-private initiative will consist of small studies and take about three years, Letai said. Larger trials in the second phase will take at least four years and be conducted at a national network of clinical trial sites. They are expected to produce definitive results. The ultimate goal, Adam said, is that “in 7-10 years, anyone who walks into a doctor’s office can get a vaccine.”

The New York Times does not name the companies that will take part in the project, but it does mention the results, published in August, of a study of an experimental mRNA vaccine from Merck and Moderna: among patients with advanced melanoma, it delayed recurrence and the spread of cancer. This is the only cancer vaccine study so far “large enough to show definitive results,” having involved 1,137 people. The companies plan to present the full trial data later in October.

In this context, Moderna investors viewed the company as one of the public-private project’s main beneficiaries, Stocktwits writes. The outlet describes Moderna as “the most visible pure-play mRNA company.” Its medicines contain an mRNA molecule with “instructions” for the body’s cells. The cells then produce the required protein, which the immune system learns to recognize and attack. The mRNA eventually breaks down and does not integrate into DNA. Some COVID-19 vaccines work on the same principle.

After the vaccine study results were published in August, Moderna shares more than doubled. They are up more than 660% year to date. Some analysts have already called the rally excessive. One of them is Citi analyst Geoff Meacham, who downgraded the stock from “hold” to “sell” in late September at a target price of $80 per share. That is 64% below Moderna’s last closing price.

Wall Street is generally cautious on the stock: it has 16 “hold” recommendations, six “buy” calls, and five “sell” ratings. The average target price of $116.84 per share is 48% below Moderna’s closing price on Friday, according to MarketWatch data.

Before trading opened on Friday, Moderna shares also rejoined the Nasdaq 100, replacing Warner Bros. Discovery, Stocktwits notes. The outlet points out that BofA raised its target price on Moderna to $200 per share from $170 on Friday. The stock has already surpassed the new target. BofA’s rating on the drugmaker remained “neutral.”