Moderna started the week on a roll after it announced a successful Phase 1 clinical trial for its mRNA vaccine against the novel virus. It is one of the front-runners in developing it, and it has now become the first company to announce the test results split into separate phases:
Phase 1: Participants were tested for 43 days, and two doses have been administered. Patients who took one of the two treatments had the same or even higher level of antibodies compared to those who recovered from Covid-19. The lowest dose administrated was 25 micrograms. Of course, there were some side effects, among which were severe skin reactions.
Phase 2: FDA approved the second trial, which is said to begin as soon as possible, and it will include different quantities of doses (50 and 100 micrograms). Six hundred participants are expected to enroll in this phase.
Phase 3: is scheduled to start in July if the Phase 2 trial is successful.
The study has been conducted in partnership with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, with federal funding worth at least $483 million. Moderna looks for self-financing – it wants to sell $1.34 billion worth of stock (17.6 million shares priced at $76/share), meant to fund the vaccine manufacture.
Soon, the trial results raised some questions about the durability and efficacy of the vaccine – many specialists consider the two weeks between the second dose and the blood tests are not enough to determine if the vaccine is working or not.
The announcement of the sale of the shares wasn't promising because it fell 10% Tuesday.
After it announced that it would work on developing a vaccine, on January 23rd, its stock price has increased by 241%. In the same period USA500 lost 11.3%.
Sources: fool.com, marketwatch.com, washingtonpost.com