Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA)stock has rallied by almost 25% since the beginning of this year, currently trading at levels of around $130 per share. There are a couple of developments that are likely driving the gains.
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Firstly, the company said that it was expanding its pipeline, developing three new vaccine candidates against seasonal flu, HIV, and the Nipah virus. Although this is seen as a relatively ambitious effort, considering that some of these diseases have eluded traditional vaccines so far, Moderna is hoping that it can address them with its mRNA technology, which has proven highly effective in the Covid-19 vaccine. The upsides from these potential vaccines could be sizable.
Secondly, Moderna provided updates on the manufacturing of its Covid-19 vaccine, noting that it was increasing the baseline production estimate for this year to 600 million doses, 100 million more than it had initially projected while targeting as many as 1 billion doses. Rivals such as Johnson & Johnson and Novavax have faced manufacturing issues for their experimental vaccines and investors are likely pleased that Moderna is able to scale-up as planned despite its relative lack of a manufacturing track record.
Separately, Moderna’s CEO said that people inoculated with its vaccine were likely to be protected against Coronavirus for at least a couple of years, putting to rest potential concerns that people would require a Covid-19 vaccine every year like a flu shot. This is also likely boosting confidence around Moderna’s vaccine and the stock.