Topic: The Rise of Biotech Firms: Moderna's 'fast-tracked' Success (Read 142 times)

These sales really convey a lack of confidence in the company.

Lorence Kim, Moderna's chief financial officer, exercised 241,000 options for $3 million on Monday, filings show. He then immediately sold them for $19.8 million, creating a profit of $16.8 million. The next day, Tal Zaks, Moderna's chief medical officer, spent $1.5 million to exercise options. He immediately sold the shares for $9.77 million, triggering a profit of $8.2 million.

I thought that the process of creating,testing and licensing a working vaccine against COVID-19 would take at least one year.I guess that some profit hungry pharmaceutical companies are rushing the entire process,which seems kinda illegal to me.Creating a vaccine that has side effects would be devastating.

The need of a vaccine against the coronavirus might be exaggerated.After one year,most of the people around the world might create a group immunity against the virus,which is better than a vaccine.

I wouldn't be surprised if all this is fake news,created to pump the stocks of this Moderna company.

Is it ethical to let people die because they don't have the $$$? To treat people in rich countries instead those in poor countries? This crisis is shining a bright light on some of the questionable ethical standards that underpin the modern world.

Interpreting drug trial data releases is difficult in the best of circumstances. And usually, it's just a problem for the subset of investors who focus on the sector. In the middle of a pandemic, a whole world is throwing money around on press releases, and it's making a mess of expectations and the market.

U.S. stocks soared Monday on the publication of early human vaccine data from Moderna Inc., only to reverse course Tuesday after an article from the excellent health news publication Stat highlighted its limits and the long and highly uncertain path ahead. It’s similar to what happened in late April, when markets reacted and retrenched after a limited rollout of results from a trial of Gilead Science's Inc.'s virus treatment remdesivir. It was enough to get the drug approved on a limited basis, but doctors and investors alike are still waiting for something more than a basic analysis weeks later.

This boom-confusion-bust cycle doesn't benefit anybody, except for companies such as Moderna that raise money at hyped-up valuations. Unsophisticated  investors aren't going to understand the nuances of drug development overnight. All this suggests that when it comes to a race for a vaccine with unprecedented scientific, public health, and policy implications, there ought to be a higher standard on disclosure.

Pharmaceutical companies routinely release so-called "topline" data, an initially limited snapshot of results in a press release, and then follow up with more detailed information at a later date. It's also not at all uncommon to report interim results from incomplete ongoing studies. Even by that standard, Moderna's release has issues. The company's phase one trial was primarily intended as a first look at the vaccine's safety rather than a hard test of whether it works. While the safety disclosures didn't produce big red flags, they also weren't flawless or especially detailed, especially considering that the company's technology has never produced a widely used human vaccine.

Though it wasn't the focus of the trial, efficacy data got the highest billing in the company's press release and the most attention as the world grasps for hope about a quicker route back to normalcy. One of the principal sources of excitement — the claim that the vaccine created neutralizing antibodies equivalent to those in recovered individuals in a subset of patients — came from a group of just eight people. Even though scientists are still in the earliest stages of figuring out the immune response to this virus, Moderna provided no hard data on the level of antibodies produced or the yardstick it was measuring against. The world will have to wait for an indeterminate period for that information, and to see whether it translates to a protective effect in the real world.

It's possible that Moderna had a predetermined plan to release results and followed it. Companies have to disclose material information, and there are more gray areas with this sort of early open-label trial. However, to the extent that there was latitude, investors and the world would arguably have been better served had the company waited a few weeks to get more followup data and released far more detail. The company created the conditions for a narrative to run ahead of the data, and other vaccine developers should avoid its example.

None of this is to say that the results are bad; they're enough to proceed to and help inform larger trials. They're just shaky justification for a huge rally in Moderna’s already elevated stock given the more difficult trials ahead for the vaccine, its uncertain commercial prospects, and the many other candidates in development, let alone for a broader surge. The release confirms that this vaccine is a viable candidate in a long race, not that one is coming dramatically sooner.

The enormous import of the ongoing work from Moderna and other companies and the public funds flowing in their direction should come with extra responsibility.

Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-05-20/moderna-vaccine-whiplash-demands-better-data-disclosure

That's great that a successful vaccine might be on the horizon relatively soon, but as far as the stocks of companies that make vaccines (even ones that get widely used, like for seasonal flu), I don't think Moderna or any other biotech company is going to be able to hold onto gains like 39% over the long term. 

I remember the biotech boom of the late 90s, though for the life of me I can't remember what sparked that, and that turned out to be a bubble just like any other one.  A biotech company or big pharma firm might make a bockbuster drug, but it takes a lot of money up front to do so, plus they only have the patent on the drug for about 14 years. 

But we'll see.  I'm not sure if coronavirus is going to turn out to be a fast-mutating virus, where a new vaccine is going to have to be developed every year, or if a vaccine will impart lifelong immunity.  If the latter is the case, a COVID-19 vaccine might not be the big moneymaker people think it's going to be.

That's great that a successful vaccine might be on the horizon relatively soon, but as far as the stocks of companies that make vaccines (even ones that get widely used, like for seasonal flu), I don't think Moderna or any other biotech company is going to be able to hold onto gains like 39% over the long term. 

I remember the biotech boom of the late 90s, though for the life of me I can't remember what sparked that, and that turned out to be a bubble just like any other one.  A biotech company or big pharma firm might make a bockbuster drug, but it takes a lot of money up front to do so, plus they only have the patent on the drug for about 14 years. 

But we'll see.  I'm not sure if coronavirus is going to turn out to be a fast-mutating virus, where a new vaccine is going to have to be developed every year, or if a vaccine will impart lifelong immunity.  If the latter is the case, a COVID-19 vaccine might not be the big moneymaker people think it's going to be.

These companies are the only hope to mankind now. Covid-19 shook the entire world and we are now standing on the verge of an economic collapse. Millions have lost their lives and other millions are fighting with it. Currently, the world is simple unsure about which direction it would go.

Seasonal flu kills 291,000 to 646,000 people worldwide each year, according to a new estimate that's higher than the previous one of 250,000 to 500,000 deaths a year.
The new figures from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other groups were published Dec. 13 in The Lancet medical journal.

There are still some rooms for failure for Moderna's vaccine, but for the mean time, people are waking up and trying to put some money on an industry that has long been neglected by the wealthy elite and the average Joe's alike. Perhaps in 2020 we will see a trend wherein biotech firms outdo other companies in terms of stock performance, or as long as there is the threat of COVID-19 lingering around every corner.

Moderna skyrockets 39% after its early trial of a coronavirus vaccine produced antibodies in all 45 patients (MRNA)

• Moderna announced on Monday that all 45 patients in an early trial of its coronavirus vaccine candidate produced antibodies that could help protect them against COVID-19.
• Shares of the company surged 39%.
• The company is aiming to have a vaccine ready for emergency use in the fall.

Moderna soared on Monday after announcing that an early trial of its coronavirus vaccine candidate produced positive results.
Shares of the pharmaceutical company surged as much as 39% in premarket trading in New York after it said that all 45 volunteers in the trial produced antibodies that may help protect them against COVID-19.
The phase-one trial was conducted by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health.

Moderna is aiming to have a vaccine ready for emergency use in the fall — a timeline that has never been seen for vaccine development. The company hopes to soon start a mid-stage study of the vaccine candidate after the phase-one trial and move to a late-stage trial in July.
Moderna is one of a handful of pharmaceutical companies whose shares have skyrocketed during the coronavirus crisis as they race to develop drugs and vaccines to prevent or treat COVID-19. The pharmaceutical company had gained 241% this year through Friday's close.

Source: https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/moderna-stock-price-positive-vaccine-trial-results-antibodies-coronavirus-covid19-2020-5-1029210803