On Monday, Moderna (MRNA) stock price jumped 20% after the company reported a positive date for its early-stage human trial for the COVID-19 vaccine – mRNA 1273. Now Moderna shares are around 3% down.
Late Monday, May 18, a biotech company and a leading candidate for coronavirus vaccine – Moderna Inc (NASDAQ: MRNA) – announced that it plans to issue another 17.6 million shares at $76 each. With this, the company plans to raise gross proceeds worth $1.34 billion with the offer closing this Thursday.
Additionally, Moderna is also giving underwriters a buy-option for 2.64 million shares in common stock. Reportedly, Morgan Stanley will help Moderna is running the entire stock deal.
On Monday, Moderna stock was trading at $80 per share with a market cap of $29.70 billion. Besides, the biotech company also reported a positive date for its early-stage human trial for the COVID-19 vaccine. The company’s successful trial in 45 participants pushed its stock surging 20% on Monday.
Further Development of COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate – mRNA 1273
Moderna said that all the proceeds raised will help towards funding towards the manufacturing and distribution of the vaccine. However, Moderna is currently waiting for federal regulatory approval for its vaccine candidate – mRNA 1273. The company said it would use additional proceeds:
“To fund clinical development and drug discovery in existing and new therapeutic areas; to fund further development of its mRNA technology platform and the creation of new modalities; or to fund working capital and other general corporate purposes.”
Speaking on this matter, Moderna’s Chief Medical Officer Tal Zaks said:
“The interim Phase 1 data, while early, demonstrates that vaccination with mRNA-1273 elicits an immune response of the magnitude caused by natural infection. When combined with the success in preventing viral replication in the lungs of a pre-clinical challenge model at a dose that elicited similar levels of neutralizing antibodies, these data substantiate our belief that mRNA-1273 has the potential to prevent Covid-19 disease and advance our ability to select a dose for pivotal trials.”
To read more about coronavirus vaccine progress, you can follow this link.
Moderna (MRNA) Shares Performance
Since the beginning of 2020, Moderna’s stock price has quadrupled or appreciated by 300%. Looking at the recent developments, Wall Street analysts have turned bullish giving buy ratings. Needham’s Alan Carr has raised the stock price target to $94. He explained:
“Based on these data, we believe the vaccine is likely to be found effective for the prevention of infection in a Phase 3 trial. Given collaboration with Lonza, we expect Moderna to have a meaningful supply by 4Q20. We have therefore added an mRNA-1273 revenue stream to our model and are raising our price target to $94”.
At the time of writing, MRNA stock is trading at $76.92, falling by 3.84%.
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