Brookline Capital Markets Reiterates Buy Rating on Moderna (MRNA), Phase 2 Initiation Supports Moderna's Competitive Positive in the Market

Brookline Capital Markets analyst Leah Rush Cann reiterated a Buy rating and $506.00 price target on Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA), following the company's announcement it's initiating a Phase 2 study of mRNA-1273.214.

The analyst quotes: "The initiation of the phase II study for mRNA-1273.214 is consistent with Moderna’s announcement on December 20, 2021, that its first line of defense against Omicron will be a booster dose of mRNA-1273, but given the long-term threat demonstrated by Omicron’s immune escape, it would continue to develop an Omicron-specific variant vaccine, mRNA-1273.529, and recently added that it planned to develop a new COVID-19 bivalent booster candidate, mRNA-1273.214, combining its Omicron-specific candidate (mRNA-1273.529) and its FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccine, mRNA-1273. The timing of today’s announcement is as expected. The speed with which Moderna developed mRNA-1273.214 and initiated the phase II study, supports our view that Moderna is now able to address variants, and potential variants, with speed and is approaching a phase where its vaccines can get ahead of COVID-19. The phase II study initiation supports our view for the role and competitive position of Moderna’s COVID-19 variants addressing program and the response by Moderna to-date for the Omicron variant demonstrates Moderna’s ability to address SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern, and continues to support our view that mRNA-1273, and follow-on vaccine candidates, have increasingly superior attributes and that these advantages will make mRNA-1273 and its successors as a preferred COVID-19 vaccine. We estimate Moderna will sell and deliver, globally, an estimated 1.1 billion doses of mRNA-1273 in 2022. Of the 1.1 billion doses of mRNA-1273 by the end of 2022, we estimate 234 million doses will be in the US and 873 million doses will be outside the US. This is in the range of previously announced production and distribution levels of up to 1.0-3.0 billion doses in 2022. "

For an analyst ratings summary and ratings history on Moderna click here. For more ratings news on Moderna click here.

Shares of Moderna closed at $142.49 yesterday.

By Vlad Schepkov | [email protected]

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