Moderna Shares Explode After Announcing Omicron Vaccine Will Be Ready Early 2022

Moderna Inc. had its best two day really in a year after revealing that a new vaccine to fight the new omicron variant of the coronavirus may be ready by early 2022 if needed.

Shares soared to their highest level since September 30th on Monday with a gain of 12%.

This past Friday the company’s shares had also skyrocketed 21%.

Moderna had mobilized hundreds of workers on Thanksgiving Day last Thursday in order to start work on omicron, Chief Medical Officer Paul Burton said over the weekend.

Moderna’s mRNA technology is ideally suited to adapting vaccines to new variants, said Piper Sandler analyst Edward A. Tenthoff, who has an overweight rating on the stock.

“Moderna is in a better position to develop novel Covid-19 vaccines, and now has capacity to manufacture several hundred million vaccine doses every month,” Tenthoff wrote to clients. “SARS-CoV-2 is not going away and will provide years of future revenues.”

Michael Yee of Jefferies also said the latest spread should encourage people to get boosted sooner rather than later, while the biotech focuses on a new version for 2022. Moderna “can advance new candidates to clinical trials within 60-90 days,” he said.

BioNTech SE also closed 4.2% higher in U.S. trading after the company said it is working to adapt its Covid-19 vaccine to address the omicron variant and expects to have a new version ready within 100 days if necessary.

The biotech and its Covid vaccine partner Pfizer Inc. put plans into place months ago.

Disclaimer: We have no position in any of the companies mentioned and have not been compensated for this article.