Moderna (MRNA) stock surged 58% premarket following Phase 3 trial success showing its mRNA melanoma vaccine plus Keytruda beats Keytruda monotherapy.

The late-stage melanoma trial with Merck’s Keytruda shows both lower recurrence and less spread, with no new safety signals—this is the clearest proof yet that Moderna’s personalized mRNA can work as an add-on to a major checkpoint therapy.

Moderna has now swung violently in both directions for three straight sessions on the same unchanged clinical news, and the options chain hints at why this whipsaw is far from over.

Moderna shares fell sharply despite positive melanoma trial results as Jefferies modeled $54 billion in peak sales for its growing cancer therapy pipeline.

The rally was primarily driven by the strong late-stage trial of Moderna Inc.’s (NASDAQ:MRNA) intismeran autogene—an mRNA-based individualized neoantigen therapy—in combination with Merck’s Keytruda—an immunotherapy drug aimed at helping patients’ immune system fight cancer cells.

Result in high-risk patients validates decades of research into mRNA-based therapeutic cancer vaccines.

Shares of Moderna Inc MRNA had their best day in history as a public company this week, with the stock soaring on positive news from a Phase 3 trial with Merck & Co MRK. The news was a major win for investors in the stock who have seen pressure on financials and shares since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Moderna MRNA stock fell 20%% to $138, compared with Wednesday’s close of $174.38. The decline followed a more than doubling of the shares on August 19 after Moderna and Merck announced positive results from the Phase 3 INTerpath-001 study of their personalized mRNA cancer vaccine, intismeran autogene.