The US pharmaceutical company and vaccine maker Moderna announced a deal, along with Japanese pharmaceutical company Takeda and Japan’s government, to produce 50M doses of COVID vaccinations for the Japanese population.
In that sense, Moderna will participate by taking care of manufacturing and supply activities, while the Japanese government and Takeda will handle regulatory and logistical issues. The order will take effect for next year. The 50 million doses may include a reinforced variant vaccine booster, in case it gets approved.
This agreement is similar to the one signed by the same parties in October last year, and in the end, it will mean a total of one hundred million doses of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine for Japan. Stéphane Bancel, Moderna’s CEO, commented, “We thank the MHLW (Japan’s Ministry of Health) and Takeda for their support and for partnering with us to bring our mRNA COVID-19 vaccine to Japan. We remain committed to making our vaccine available around the world as we seek to address the pandemic.”
Analysts seem optimistic but remain cautious about Moderna’s stock, giving it a rating of Moderate Buy. The average price target assigned by analysts of $206.55 implies a 32.8% downside potential from current prices. However, stocks now trade 280% higher than 12 months ago when they traded for $73.21 per share.
Moderna started trading within the S&P 500 index today, July 21. On previous days, stock prices have remained volatile; especially since the news came out, winning more than 23% in the past week. Five days ago it closed at a price of $251.13 per share.
At the time of writing, MRNA stocks had closed at $321.11. However, after market hours, the stocks remained volatile, trading at $319.30.
Do you think this deal will boost Moderna’s stock price? Has this stock peaked?
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