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The pharmaceutical company Moderna had a good week on the stock exchange. Reason for this are hopeful results in the first studies on the efficacy of the cancer vaccine that the company developed together with Merck.

In the news: Moderna and Merck have a cancer vaccine in development together. Earlier this week, the pharmaceutical company presented the first results of early-stage testing in patients with head and neck cancer. Those tests show a positive response, something that immediately had a positive effect on Moderna's share price as well.

The details:

  • The new cancer vaccine is designed to train patients' immune systems to recognize and attack specific mutations in cancer cells.
  • Previous studies already showed promise for the new vaccine in treating melanomas.
  • Now it has been shown that the vaccine could also work in other cancers. Moderna reveals to Reuters that their vaccine provides a strong benefit and increases the chances of extending life. That is the conclusion of a trial of 22 patients who were given the mRNA-4157 vaccine in combination with the existing drug Pembrolizumab, better known by its brand name Keytruda.
  • This combination not only proved to be safe and well tolerated in the patients, it also showed positive activation of the immune response.

Stock price: Immediately after the results of the study were announced, Moderna's stock price rose more than 8 percent. Later, the share price did stabilize somewhat, although Moderna's stock will still end the week about 4 percent higher than it started the week. With their promising cancer vaccine, Moderna appears to have possibly found a new source of revenue to offset the decline in covid vaccine sales.

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