What happened
Durable coronavirus stock Moderna (MRNA 1.27%) rose by over 3.5% in price on Monday, nearly quadrupling the percentage gain of the S&P 500 index on the day. The move followed news that the company racked up yet another approval from a healthcare authority for a new booster version of its Spikevax coronavirus vaccine.
So what
Late Friday after market hours, Moderna announced that the second of its two bivalent booster vaccines targeting the coronavirus had been authorized for use in Canada. The booster, which includes mRNA encoding for both the original strain and the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants of the omicron variant, can be administered to recipients 18 years of age and older.
Health Canada, the country's healthcare regulatory agency, granted the authorization barely two months after doing so with the booster's predecessor. This jab targeted both the original strain of the coronavirus and the BA.1 omicron subvariant.
In its press release trumpeting the latest authorization, the company quoted President and General Manager of Moderna Canada Patricia Gauthier as saying, "This approval demonstrates that our mRNA platform enables rapid development of vaccines and various options to address variants of concern."
Now what
Moderna has been a clear leader in the fight against the coronavirus from nearly the get-go, so this latest regulatory green light isn't exactly surprising. Nevertheless, it buttresses the company's Spikevax as a top COVID-19 vaccine as the disease continues to persist, although the number of both cases and deaths in Canada are well below the spikes experienced in late 2021 and early 2022.
