I Hope At Least Some Of You Picked Up Some Moderna Shares, In Nov. 2024 (During The Silly Anti-COVID VAX Doldrums) -- Or Earlier, This Year -- As We Suggested...

Moderna has done considerably better than I forecast. This morning it is trading above $135. It was around $25 a share in December of 2025 -- less than a year ago. I felt that $85 a share was a very sensible -- conservative, even -- fair value for the stock, then. And I said so.

The potential for a "cancer vaccine" is aligning in early trials almost perfectly -- and is boosting Merck's stock, as well -- now at around $150 (MRK was around $110 in early May of this year). So here is all that good news, from STAT+:

. . .A personalized mRNA cancer vaccine, added to an existing treatment, slowed the return of melanoma and its spread to other parts of the body in a late-stage clinical trial, the drugmakers Merck and Moderna announced Wednesday, results that could herald a new, powerful approach in oncology.

So-called “neoantigen” vaccines have long been seen as having potential as cancer treatments, but this is the first randomized Phase 3 clinical trial aimed at definitively proving their benefit. In this case the personalized vaccine, intismeran, was combined with Merck’s Keytruda in adjuvant melanoma, meaning patients’ disease had been surgically removed.

If the results hold up — the drugmakers did not immediately release detailed data — they could deliver new hope and potentially longer lives for patients. They could also be a further testament to the power of mRNA as a platform to develop both traditional vaccines and therapeutics. . . .

Onward -- for a road trip to the tops of some 14,000 foot peaks today -- under azure Summer skies. Smile. Be excellent to one another -- always.

नमस्ते