Why Inovio Shares Are Soaring Today While Moderna and Novavax Shares Are Sinking

You might call it a case of coronavirus stock mayhem. Shares of Inovio Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: INO) were soaring 14.8% as of 10:38 a.m. EST on Tuesday. At the same time, shares of two other biotechs that are developing experimental coronavirus vaccines, Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA) and Novavax (NASDAQ: NVAX), were sinking by 7.5% and 12.3%, respectively.

These moves were caused by the same news. Inovio announced before the market opened on Tuesday that it was accelerating the timeline for developing its DNA vaccine INO-4800 for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

Inovio plans to begin human clinical trials in the U.S. in April, with clinical trials following shortly thereafter in China and South Korea. The results are expected to be published in the fall of 2020. Inovio plans to produce 1 million doses of its experimental COVID-19 vaccine by the end of the year.

Source Fool.com