Moderna jumps to all-time high after its vaccine shows promising result against Delta variant

Moderna Inc share jumped to a record high on Tuesday, after the drugmaker said its COVID-19 vaccine showed promising results in a lab setting against the Delta variant, first found in India, which cleared the import of its vaccine.

Moderna said its vaccine produced protective antibodies against the Delta variant, which emerged in India and has been spreading globally.

The study was conducted on blood serum samples obtained one week after eight participants received the second dose of the vaccine, mRNA-1273.

The first phase clinical trial showed that the vaccine is more effective in producing antibodies against the Delta variant than it is against the Alpha and Beta variants first identified in the U.K. and South Africa, respectively.

However, the two-dose mRNA vaccine remained inferior in all cases to the vaccine’s neutralizing activity against the original ancestral strain of coronavirus first found in China.

“These new data are encouraging and reinforce our belief that the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine should remain protective against newly detected variants,” said Stéphane Bancel, CEO of Moderna.

Delta, now in at least 92 countries, including the United States, is expected to become the dominant variant of the disease worldwide. In the U.S., the prevalence of the strain is doubling about every two weeks.

Earlier in the day, India’s drug regulator has approved pharmaceutical firm Cipla Ltd to import Moderna’s COVID-19 shots for restricted emergency use. The government also granted indemnity to protect against legal liability in case of adverse effects.

The shares surged more than 7.5% to $238.40, breaking through the prior intraday record set last week after the news was published. The trading volume was about 1.2 times the 10-day average, at press time, in New York.

Some analysts had expressed concern about Moderna’s recent surge, which has pushed the Massachusetts-based company’s market value to $95 billion.

Vaccine stocks like BioNTech SE and Moderna have surged over 250% in the past 12 months.

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