Moderna skyrockets 11% after receiving additional $472 million of funding, starting phase-3 trial of COVID-19 vaccine

• Moderna on Sunday announced it had received a commitment of up to $472 million in additional funding from its contract with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority.
• The company on Monday announced that participants in the phase-three trial of its COVID-19 vaccine had started receiving doses.
• Shares of Moderna surged as much as 11% on Monday.
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Shares of Moderna surged as much as 11% on Monday after the company announced a new round of funding and the start of a phase-three trial of its coronavirus vaccine candidate.

On Sunday, Moderna announced it had received a commitment of up to $472 million in additional funding from its contract with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority to "support late stage clinical development including the expanded Phase 3 study of the Company's mRNA vaccine candidate."

In April, when the experimental vaccine was in early-stage trials, the authority awarded the company $483 million. The total value of the award is now about $955 million.

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On Monday, Moderna announced that participants in its the phase-three trial had started receiving doses. Moderna is working closely with BARDA and the National Institutes of Health to conduct the trial under the Trump administration's Operation Warp Speed.

Read more: The untold story of Moderna's founding and how the biotech grew into one of the most consequential startups of all time as it races to develop a coronavirus vaccine

"We look forward to this trial demonstrating the potential of our vaccine to prevent COVID-19, so that we can defeat this pandemic," Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said in the statement on Monday.

The company said it was on track to deliver about 500 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine per year beginning in 2021.

Read more: There are 24 coronavirus vaccine candidates now in human trials. Here's how drugmakers see the race for a cure playing out in 2020.

Moderna stock has surged more than 314% year-to-date.