Shares of biopharmaceutical company Moderna are up 10% in premarket trading after the company said a new vaccine to fight the Omicron strain of COVID-19 could be ready by early next year (2022).
Moderna’s 10% gain comes after the stock rose 21% during Friday’s market selloff, reclaiming its place as the top performing stock on the S&P 500 index this year. The company mobilized hundreds of workers over the U.S. Thanksgiving weekend to start work on a vaccine against Omicron.
Moderna’s mRNA technology is ideally suited to adapting vaccines to new variants, according to industry analysts.
Current vaccines should provide some protection against the new COVID-19 variant, depending on how long ago a person was first inoculated against the respiratory disease.
Unvaccinated people are being urged to get vaccinated or receive their booster shots, if eligible, governments around the world have been saying.
Year-to-date, Moderna’s stock has risen 195% and closed trading last Friday (November 26) at $329.63 U.S. per share.
