MRNA Stock Jumps 8%, Fauci Says Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine as Effective as Pfizer’s

UTC by Bhushan Akolkar · 2 min read
MRNA Stock Jumps 8%, Fauci Says Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine as Effective as Pfizer’s
Anthony Stephen Fauci. Photo: 2011 Caribbean HIV Conference / Flickr

Moderna said that it had enough data to back its COVID-19 vaccine claims and that it had conducted more than sufficient trials during its Phase 3 study.

Moderna Inc (NASDAQ: MRNA) one of the forerunners in making the COVID-19 vaccine released the first-stage data from the late-stage test of its vaccine candidate on Wednesday, November 11. The impressive results pushed Moderna stock north with an over 8% surge.

On Wednesday closing, MRNA stock was trading at a price of $82.4 with the company’s market cap of $32.6 billion. With a major focus on developing the COVID-19 vaccine, MRNA also remains the top-performing stock on Wall Street. Moderna stock has appreciated nearly 300% year-to-date.

On Wednesday, Dr. Fauci, the leading infectious diseases expert in the US, also said that Moderna COVID-19 vaccine candidate can be as effective as Pfizer’s. Earlier this week, Pfizer Inc (NYSE: PFE) and BioNTech SE (NASDAQ: BNTX) announced that their COVID-19 vaccine has shown a 90% efficacy rate.

This is big news considering that the world is eagerly waiting for a vaccine at this stage. The second wave has already hit the US and part of Europe. Moreover, even some European countries have initiated measures of partial lockdown. The positive news of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine pushed the market higher with hopes of recovery. Amid hopes of the vaccine arrival by January 2021, banking giant Goldman Sachs said that the global economic recovery in 2021 will be faster than previous estimates.

Moderna Cites COVID-19 Vaccine Data to Back Its Claims

The biotech company Moderna Inc said that it has sufficient data to back its claims. On Wednesday, it stated that it has discovered enough cases of coronavirus during its Phase 3 study. Thus, with this data in hand, it can soon start with an interim analysis of the vaccine’s effectiveness.

In Moderna’s study, the data monitoring committee asked for only 53 confirmed cases of Coronavirus among healthy volunteers. But with the recent spike, Moderna said that it already has more than enough cases to start analyzing the data. Speaking at the FT Live Global Pharmaceutical Summit, Dr. Fauci said that Moderna would start assessing data from its late-stage COVID-19 vaccine test in a week’s time.

Dr. Fauci has high hopes from Moderna’s vaccine candidate. He also added that he would be surprised if he didn’t see a similar degree of efficacy from the Moderna vaccine, like that shown by Pfizer and BioNTech.

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