Shares of Moderna skyrocketed more than 24% on Tuesday after the company announced mouth-watering results from a cancer treatment trial in combination with Keytruda.
The stock was trading at $204.66 at 11:50 a.m. ET.
The company said results from a 150-week volunteer study revealed that using Moderna’s personalized cancer vaccine alongside Merck’s Keytruda reduced risk for patients by nearly 44%, compared to just using Keytruda alone.
The two firms are planning to launch a more extensive study next year for additional research and also said they’re willing to test the combined therapies against other forms of cancer.
Moderna became a household name at the start of the pandemic with the rollout of its COVID-19 vaccines, alongside shots from Pfizer and BioNTech. Moderna CEO, Stéphane Bancel, said the results from the cancer treatment study are very significant and show promise for what’s to come.
“We want to go aggressively in many different cancer at the same time,” he told CNBC on Tuesday. “It’s a big deal for patients.”
