Moderna stock is up more than 600% this year and still climbing

Moderna $MRNA stock has risen more than 600% this year, pushing it toward levels not seen since its pandemic-era peak, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The stock gained 18% last week alone, closing at its highest level in more than four years. According to the Wall Street Journal, two factors drove the gains: the New York Times reported that the National Institutes of Health is preparing a public-private initiative to speed cancer vaccine development, and Moderna's stock joined the Nasdaq $NDAQ-100 index, replacing Warner Bros. Discovery after its acquisition by Paramount $PARA Skydance.

The stock's broader surge this year accelerated in August, when Moderna and Merck $MRK reported that a Phase 3 trial of their personalized mRNA cancer vaccine showed it reduced the recurrence or spread of cancer in certain melanoma patients, according to the Journal. The companies plan to release full trial data later this month and are preparing to seek regulatory approval of the treatment next year.

Other vaccine makers also moved on the cancer vaccine news. Shares of Merck and BioNTech rose 2.3% and more than 5%, respectively. Novavax, an infectious-disease vaccine maker that has been looking into entering the cancer vaccine space, also advanced 16%.

Moderna's gains this year began well before the August melanoma trial results. The company's stock surged in May after investor attention turned to its early-stage hantavirus research and new clinical data on its experimental flu vaccine, mRNA-1010. In that Phase 3 trial, mRNA-1010 showed a relative vaccine efficacy of 26.6% compared to a standard-dose seasonal flu vaccine in adults 50 and older; in participants 65 and older, the figure was 27.4%, Moderna said. Regulatory submissions for mRNA-1010 were under review in the U.S., Europe, Canada, and Australia at the time, the company said, with an FDA goal date of Aug. 5, 2026, for a decision.

Moderna confirmed at that time that it has been conducting early-stage hantavirus vaccine research in collaboration with the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases and the Vaccine Innovation Center at Korea University College of Medicine. "These efforts are early-stage and ongoing and reflect Moderna's broader responsibility to develop countermeasures against emerging infectious diseases," the company said in a statement.