Moderna (MRNA) stock price will be in the spotlight on Monday after the company announced important outcome of its skin cancer vaccine. The shares, which closed at $157 on Friday, were expected to jump when the markets opened. The stock remains ~28% below the highest point this year.

Moderna cancer vaccine hopes

Moderna has been under pressure in the past few months as the demand for its Covid-19 vaccine has evaporated. After making billions of dollars selling its Covid vaccine, Moderna expects that sales of this vaccine will be just $5 billion this year.

And recently, as we wrote here, the company made headlines when the company’s flu vaccine delivered mixed results in testing.

Therefore, focus is on the company’s cancer vaccine. The firm is researching the drug in collaboration with Merck & Co, one of the biggest companies in the pharmaceutical industry.

In a statement, the firm said that the drug had shown positive results in testing. mRNA-4157 (V940) in combination with KEYTRUDA reduced the risk of recurrence or death by 44% compared to KEYTRUDA alone in stage III/IV melanoma patients with high risk of recurrence following complete resection

Therefore, the two companies will now need to move to a larger trial to prove that the combination of the vaccine and Keytruda works. The third phase of trial will start later this year and take a few months to complete. The statement added:

“These data support the potential of mRNA-4157 (V940) in combination with KEYTRUDA to help fight melanoma earlier and warrant investigation of the combination in a larger Phase 3 trial. We also look forward to studying mRNA-4157 (V940) and KEYTRUDA in a variety of other early-stage cancers.”

For now, the only reason to invest in Moderna is because of its pipeline of vaccines. According to its website, Moderna is building vaccines in the respiratory, adolescent and pediatrics, latent & public health vaccines, and therapeutics among others. Most of these vaccines are in testing, with approvals set to happen in the next few years.

Analysts have mixed views about the Moderna stock price. JP Morgan analysts recently boosted their view of the stock from $127 and $145. TD Cowen upgraded the stock to $180 while RBC increased their rating to $200.

Moderna stock price forecast

(Click on image to enlarge)

MRNA chart by TradingView

The daily chart shows that the MRNA stock price formed a strong bottom at $120.85. It has struggled to move below this level several times since February 2022. The shares are oscillating at the 50-day exponential moving average. It is also a few points below the 23.6% Fibonacci Retracement level.

The stock has formed a small ascending channel and an inverted cup and handle pattern. Therefore, there is a likelihood that the stock will rise after the new cancer vaccine news and then resume the bearish trend and retest the key support at $117.70.

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