Moderna Stock Soars 177% on Merck Cancer Vaccine Win
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- Moderna and Merck announced that their experimental cancer vaccine extended the time before melanoma recurred in a clinical trial, the first late-stage study of its kind to succeed, and Moderna's stock closed up 177% on Wednesday.
- Moderna's stock had fallen nearly 90% from its peak — a loss of $170 billion in market value — as demand for Covid-19 vaccines plummeted and Trump administration hostility spooked investors.
- The cancer vaccine uses the same mRNA technology as Moderna's Covid shot but is tailored to each patient's tumor genetics, delivering instructions to produce a tumor fragment that trains the immune system to attack the cancer.
- TD Cowen analyst Tyler Van Buren called cancer Moderna's "by far the most significant pipeline opportunity," while CEO Stéphane Bancel told CNBC the bet reflects Moderna's pattern of taking "very big, scientific clinical bets."
- The two drugmakers announced results in news releases without providing numbers on how much patients benefited, leaving the magnitude of the efficacy win undisclosed.
- Cutting-edge cancer drugs typically cost several hundred thousand dollars per year, signaling that mRNA cancer vaccines could become a hugely lucrative business if the approach works across cancer types.
Why it matters: If mRNA cancer vaccines prove broadly effective, Moderna could reinvent itself from a Covid-vaccine company into a high-margin oncology player — cutting-edge cancer drugs already cost several hundred thousand dollars per year. The 177% one-day rally after a $170 billion wipeout shows how dramatically the market is repricing Moderna's pipeline, though the companies haven't released patient benefit numbers yet.
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