What happened
Shares of Moderna (MRNA -3.00%) rose by 6.5% on Thursday after the biotech said it had collected enough data from the phase 3 study of its experimental COVID-19 vaccine to trigger an interim analysis.
So what
Moderna said enough people in its clinical trial had contracted COVID-19 for the independent Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) to begin a review of the effectiveness of its coronavirus vaccine candidate, mRNA-1273.
Moderna's stock climbed on Thursday as investors looked ahead to a potentially positive outcome for its phase 3 trial of mRNA-1273. Image source: Getty Images.
Moderna does not yet know whether the study participants who contracted COVID-19 received its vaccine candidate or a placebo. The drugmaker also did not specify when it expected the results of the interim analysis to be announced.
Now what
Investors are optimistic about Moderna's vaccine candidate, particularly after Pfizer and BioNTech said their coronavirus vaccine candidate appeared to be more than 90% effective at preventing COVID-19. Moderna's vaccine-development platform uses similar messenger RNA, or mRNA, technology as that used by Pfizer.
If Moderna's experimental vaccine proves to be similarly effective at preventing the dangerous and rapidly spreading disease, shareholders could be in store for even larger gains in the days ahead.
