TEM, BNTX, MRVI, RGEN, NVAX Stock Rallies As Moderna-Merck Cancer Vaccine Clears Late-stage Trial

TEM stock rose as investors connected the upbeat clinical results to Tempus’s planned $1.5 billion acquisition of Personalis, announced last month.

• In a joint announcement earlier today, Merck and Moderna said their Phase 3 INTerpath-001 study met its main goal of keeping patients free from cancer longer after surgery.
• BNTX, NVAX, MRVI, and RGEN are also rallying on the news. 
• Leerink said the unexpected Phase 3 success should support positive momentum for Merck into the fall while helping cancer-vaccine stocks overall, though any BioNTech gains may prove temporary.

Shares of Tempus AI (TEM) climbed 22% on Wednesday after Merck and Moderna reported positive late-stage trial results for their personalized mRNA cancer treatment.

Why Tempus Is Rallying

Investors are tying the favorable outcome directly to Tempus’s announced $1.5 billion purchase of Personalis from last month. Personalis furnishes the high-precision genomic sequencing that pinpoints each patient’s unique tumor mutations, which Moderna then uses to engineer the corresponding individualized mRNA dose.

Tempus already works with Personalis on cancer monitoring tests and will take ownership of the technology once the transaction closes. Observers are treating the late-stage trial success as preliminary validation that the platform functions effectively in a real late-stage clinical environment, thereby strengthening conviction in the strategic upside Tempus is poised to capture.

Merck-Moderna Trial Results

In a joint announcement earlier today, Merck and Moderna said their Phase 3 INTerpath-001 study met its main goal of keeping patients free from cancer longer after surgery. It also met a key secondary goal of lowering the risk that the cancer would spread to distant parts of the body. The trial tested an individualized mRNA therapy called intismeran autogene, given with Merck’s Keytruda, against Keytruda alone.

It enrolled 1,137 patients with high-risk melanoma that had been completely removed by surgery and who had received no prior systemic treatment. At a planned interim look, the combination delivered statistically significant and clinically meaningful gains on both measures compared with Keytruda alone. No new safety concerns appeared. The companies plan to share full data at a future medical meeting and discuss possible approval filings with regulators.

Other Stocks To Rally On The News

Related equities also advanced on the news. BioNTech and Novavax advanced as investors weighed broader implications for cancer vaccines. Maravai LifeSciences, a supplier of key ingredients for mRNA production, and Repligen, a maker of specialized bioprocessing tools, posted gains on the prospect that further progress with this class of cancer therapy could expand demand across manufacturing and supply-chain infrastructure.

BNTX traded 20% higher at the time of writing, while MRVI and RGEN gained 25% and 6%, respectively.  NVAX added 6%.

Analyst notes underscored the sector lift. Leerink said the unexpected Phase 3 success should support positive momentum for Merck into the fall while helping cancer-vaccine stocks overall, though any BioNTech gains may prove temporary.

Wells Fargo pointed to potential benefits for suppliers such as Repligen, Danaher, Thermo Fisher, and Maravai, noting that validation of the approach could encourage further investment. Stifel called the results good for Repligen, which has ties to the program, and conceptually positive for Maravai as vaccine work beyond COVID gains traction.

How Did Retail Traders React?

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around TEM improved from extremely bearish to bullish territory over the past 24 hours, while message volume increased from ‘low’ to ‘high’ level.

According to data from Koyfin, eight of the 16 analysts covering TEM rate it ‘Buy’ or higher, while seven rate it ‘Hold’ and one ‘Sell.’ The 12-month average price target on the stock is $62.64, implying a potential upside of about 27% from the stock’s last close.

TEM stock has gained 2% year-to-date. 

For updates and corrections, email newsroom[at]stocktwits[dot]com.<