Moderna soars 10% after results show its COVID-19 vaccine is almost 95% effective

• Shares in Moderna rose 10% in early trading Monday after an independent health board said preliminary data indicated the company's COVID-19 vaccine was almost 95% effective.
• Moderna plans to apply for emergency-use authorization with the US Food and Drug Administration in the coming weeks.
• The company's COVID-19 shot is the second major vaccine program to announce success in a late-stage trial.
• Until a vaccine is available for widespread use, markets can be expected to remain volatile and to reflect the general nervousness felt by investors, a financial analyst said.

Moderna's stock price leaped as much as 10% in early trading Monday after the company announced that preliminary data from a late-stage trial found its coronavirus vaccine to be 94.5% effective against COVID-19.

The US drugmaker said an independent group of experts found clear signs of effectiveness after reviewing the preliminary data from the ongoing 30,000-person trial.

The company plans to submit an application for emergency-use authorization with the US Food and Drug Administration in the coming weeks on the basis of the final analysis of 151 cases and a median follow-up of more than two months.

Moderna's vaccine shot is the second major vaccine program to announce success in a late-stage trial.

"This positive interim analysis from our Phase 3 study has given us the first clinical validation that our vaccine can prevent COVID-19 disease, including severe disease," Stéphane Bancel, Moderna's CEO, said in a statement.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on NBC News' "Today" show: "Now we have two vaccines that are really quite effective. I think this is a really strong step forward to where we want to be about getting control of this outbreak."

Fauci said vaccine doses should be available by the end of December for people considered most at risk of infection.

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There's no way of telling whether Moderna will be able to keep up with what will no doubt be extraordinarily high demand for its vaccine, said Adam Vettese, an analyst at the multi-asset investment platform eToro. "Until it is available for widespread use, then I expect markets to remain volatile and to reflect the general nervousness currently felt by investors."

"However, once — or even if — that happens, you can expect fresh rally in share prices, particularly for stocks in sectors most affected by coronavirus, such as oil, retail and travel," he said.

Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech said last week that preliminary data indicated their experimental COVID-19 vaccine was over 90% effective in preventing infection.

Developing an effective vaccine against a novel virus in less than a year is an unprecedented feat in medicine.

A third vaccine being developed by Janssen, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, is entering large-scale clinical trials in the UK on Monday. Six thousand British volunteers have signed up to participate in the phase 3 trial.

Investors are also waiting on progress reports from AstraZeneca, which has partnered with Oxford University.

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