Share price rises

Moderna shares hit a new high on Monday, ending trading up 17% on news of Australia ordering 25 million Moderna vaccines from COVID-19 and recent research showing greater efficacy from the Delta strain of Moderna vaccine than Pfizer/BioNTech.

Moderna (MRNA) shares hit an all-time high on Monday, closing up 17% at $484.47 per share.

The key driver behind Moderna stock's 2330% rise from early 2020 (the share price was then under $20) to close Monday was the mRNA-1273 vaccine against COVID-19 developed in conjunction with US national institutes.

Moderna's new record share price on Monday followed news of pre-registration and purchase of 25 million doses of Moderna vaccines by the Australian government.

In addition, on Sunday, two studies were published on specialist website medRxiv: the Mayo Clinic Health System supported by nference to help with data processing and the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute in Toronto, its study was conducted in nursing homes in Ontario.

These studies showed that the vaccine Moderna:

• Gives stronger and longer lasting protection against the Delta strain of coronavirus than the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.
• Forms stronger and longer lasting immunity in older people than the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, which is probably due to the higher dosage of the drug.

However, it is worth noting that shares of Pfizer (PFE) and BioNTech (BNTX) did not fall, but instead also rose 2% and 15% respectively on Monday, to new highs. Investors reacted positively to BioNTech's released record financial report and annual outlook. Moderna reported quarterly results a week earlier. Shares of Novavax (NVAX), another COVID-19 vaccine manufacturer, also rose 12% on Monday as investors are likely to be generally optimistic given expectations that the COVID-19 vaccine will become annual.