Moderna shares rise 18% as cancer-vaccine hopes lift stock

what happened

Moderna shares climbed 18% over the past week, closing at their highest level in more than four years, Dow Jones Newswires reports. The advance followed a Friday report from The New York Times saying that the National Institutes of Health plans to create a public-private initiative to accelerate cancer-vaccine development.

The company was also added to the Nasdaq-100, replacing Warner Bros. Discovery after Paramount Skydance acquired the business. Moderna stock has risen more than 600% this year, moving back toward levels seen around its pandemic-era peak. The latest leg higher started in August, when Moderna and Merck said their personalized mRNA cancer vaccine had delayed recurrence or spread of the disease in a Phase 3 trial involving certain melanoma patients.

The companies expect to publish complete results later this month and are preparing to pursue regulatory approval for the treatment next year. Merck shares rose 2.3% on Friday, while U.S.-listed BioNTech, which is working on comparable pancreatic-cancer vaccines, advanced more than 5%. Novavax gained 16%.

why it matters

The market reaction extended beyond Moderna, with gains also recorded by Merck, BioNTech and Novavax. That response highlights investor attention to the potential development of cancer vaccines, while Moderna’s Nasdaq-100 inclusion gives the company greater visibility within a major U.S. equity benchmark.

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