What happened
Biotechnology actions Modern (NASDAQ: MRNA), maker of the COVID-19 vaccine, fell 31.6% in December, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.
For context, the S&P 500 returned 3.8% last month.
Image source: Getty Images.
And
We can attribute the 32% drop in Moderna’s shares last month to profit making. After all, stocks rose an impressive 581% in 2020 through the end of November, so it was no surprise that some investors took some money off the table in December. Moderna’s stock ended the year up 434%.
Moderna’s actions began its long climb in early 2020, when the company announced it was developing a vaccine to immunize against COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.
As the chart below shows, the stock saw a sharp rise in November. It soared 126% that month, driven by a series of big news stories about mRNA-1273, which was then a candidate for messenger RNA-based vaccine. On November 30, Moderna announced the positive final results of its phase 3 study. As I wrote earlier, “She found that her candidate vaccine was 94.1% effective in preventing COVID-19 and did not reveal serious safety problems. In addition, the company said it had submitted an application to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Emergency Use Authorization (USA) for mRNA-1273. ”
Then, on December 18, “the big news” came: Moderna announced that the FDA had authorized the emergency use of mRNA-1273. The shares, which had been falling throughout December, fell almost 3% that day. The reason the stock fell with such incredible news is that this news was widely expected and was already quoted in November.
Distribution of the vaccine in the United States began the following day, and administration of the first of two doses of the vaccine began on December 20.
YCharts data.
What now
On December 18, Moderna said it expected to deliver about 20 million doses to the U.S. government by the end of December 2020. It also expects to have between 100 million and 125 million doses available globally in the first quarter of 2021, with 85 to 100 million of those available in the United States. A total of 200 million doses have been ordered by the United States government, which has the option to purchase up to 300 million additional doses.
The launch of Moderna’s vaccine in the states was slower than expected in December, but it is not her fault. The federal government’s Warp Speed operation is responsible for distribution.