Moderna climbs 5% as Fauci calls its early COVID-19 vaccine data 'quite promising'

• Dr. Anthony Fauci made a series of positive comments about Moderna's early COVID-19 vaccine data on Thursday night and Friday morning, sending shares higher by more than 5%.
• Fauci called Moderna's vaccine data "quite promising" and "better than we thought" in an interview with NPR on Friday morning.
• Fauci also said in a CNN interview on Thursday that he is "cautiously optimistic" about the Moderna vaccine.
• The comments come after Moderna released encouraging data from its Phase 1 COVID-19 vaccine trial on Monday, which sent shares soaring to record highs.
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Dr. Anthony Fauci made a series of positive comments on Moderna's early COVID-19 vaccine data, sending shares more than 5% higher on Friday.

Fauci made the comments in a CNN interview on Thursday night and in an interview with NPR on Friday morning.

"Although the [Phase 1] numbers were limited, it was quite good news because it reached and went over an important hurdle in the development of vaccines," Fauci told CNN's Anderson Cooper and Sanjay Gupta. "That's the reason why I'm cautiously optimistic about it."

Fauci is "excited" about Moderna's recent data reveal, despite it being a partial data set, he told NPR in an interview on Friday morning.

"Having looked at the data my self, it is really quite promising in the sense that...the vaccine induced what we call neutralizing antibodies as opposed to just binding antibodies," Fauci said.

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Fauci added that while it is reasonable to have questions or be skeptical about the totality of the Moderna Phase I data, it will all be published in a peer-reviewed journal for everyone to review in "i'd imagine in a couple of weeks."

Still, despite the encouraging data from Moderna, Fauci still thinks it will take 12 to 18 months to have a commercial ready vaccine to battle the coronavirus.

"I said it would likely be between a year and 18 months before we'd likely have a vaccine. I think that schedule is still intact," said Fauci.

Moderna released encouraging Phase 1 data of its vaccine on Monday, sending its shares soaring higher to new records. It joins a slew of companies, including Pfizer and AstraZeneca, rushing to develop a successful vaccine for COVID-19.

Moderna shares have surged roughly 255% year-to-date.

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