Shares of Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA) were skyrocketing 24.3% higher as of 10:21 a.m. ET on Tuesday. The huge gain came after the company, along with its partner Merck (NYSE: MRK), announced positive results from a phase 2 clinical study evaluating experimental personalized messenger RNA (mRNA) cancer vaccine mRNA-4157/V940 in combination with immunotherapy Keytruda as an adjuvant treatment for stage III/IV melanoma. 

You know clinical results have to be spectacular for a vaccine stock with a market cap of greater than $60 billion to jump more than 20%. And they were.

Moderna and Merck reported that the combination of mRNA-4157/V940 and Keytruda reduced the risk of recurrence of melanoma or death by a whopping 44% compared with Keytruda alone. The safety profile for the combo looked pretty good as well. Serious treatment-related adverse events occurred in 14.4% of patients receiving the personalized mRNA cancer vaccine plus Keytruda compared to 10% of patients receiving only Keytruda.

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Source Fool.com