what happened
Shares of biotechnology Modern (NASDAQ: MRNA), manufacturer of a COVID-19 vaccine, fell 31.6% in December, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.
For context, the S&P 500 yielded 3.8% last month.
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Approximately
We can attribute the 32% drop in Moderna share to profit-taking last month. After all, the shares had risen by 581% by the end of November, so it was not surprising that some investors took money off the table in December. Modern share ended the year with a profit of 434%.
Shares of Moderna began their long climb in early 2020 when the company announced that they were developing a vaccine to immunize against COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.
As the chart below shows, the stock rose sharply in November. It shot up 126% that month, driven by a series of good news about mRNA-1273, which was then a messenger RNA-based vaccine candidate. On November 30, Moderna announced the positive final results of its Phase 3 study. As I wrote earlier: ‘It has found that the vaccine candidate is 94.1% effective in preventing COVID-19, and it has not discovered any serious safety issues. In addition, the company said it had submitted a request to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). ) for Emergency Authorization (EUA) for mRNA-1273. ”
Then came the big news on December 18: Modern announces that the FDA will authorize the use of mRNA-1273 in emergencies. Shares, which had been moving down all of December, had fallen by almost 3% that day. The reason why stocks fell on such tremendous news is that the news was generally expected to be priced during November.
The U.S. distribution of the vaccine began the next day and the administration of the first two-dose vaccine began on December 20th.
Data by YCharts.
Now what
On December 18, Moderna said it would deliver about 20 million doses to the U.S. government by the end of December 2020. He also expects that in the first quarter of 2021 it will have between 100 and 125 million doses available worldwide, with 85 to 100 million of those available in the US. has to buy up to 300 million doses.
The rollout of Moderna’s vaccine to the states was slower than expected in December, but that’s not his fault. The federal government’s Warp Speed operation is responsible for the distribution.