Are These Multibillion-Dollar Vaccine Stocks Still a Buy?
Pharmaceutical companies Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA) and Merck (NYSE: MRK) saw their shares rise 19.6% and 1.7%, respectively, on Tuesday after they announced impressive early results from their mRNA cancer vaccine to prevent melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer.
Both companies' shares continued to gain on Wednesday. The question is, are those gains warranted, and regardless of the study's results, do the stocks merit a buy?
First, a little background. This would be a vaccine against cancer, not just against a virus that could cause cancer (like the human papillomavirus and hepatitis B virus vaccines). It's also different from two other "cancer vaccines," Sipuleucel-T and Talimogene laherparepvec, which are used on advanced prostate and melanoma patients, respectively, because this vaccine would be a preventative used on patients who have had prior melanomas excised by surgery and have not yet seen any signs of recurrence.
Source Fool.com
