Moderna's Post-IPO Losses Deepen After Cancer Conference, Lockup

(Bloomberg) -- Moderna Inc. shares sank as much as 12% for their biggest intraday drop since the biotech’s first day of trading in December.

Shares are on track to lose ground for the fifth day as updated results for its cancer vaccine were presented on Saturday at the annual ASCO meeting in Chicago and insiders had their first chance to sell shares. The biotech is working on an experimental personalized cancer vaccine, and investors got a first peek last month. Shares have fizzled since early May as it appears early results may no longer be holding investors’ interest.

Moderna’s “vaccine data need time to mature,” SVB Leerink Jonathan Chang wrote in a client note after a doctor told him the results were pretty clearly “not a home run.” His bank doesn’t cover the company. For the 10 banks that do cover Moderna in data compiled by Bloomberg, all rate the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company at the equivalent of buy with an average 12-month price target of almost $30.

The stock was initially priced at $23 a share on Dec. 6 before falling 19% on its opening day to close at $18.60. Shares of Moderna were trading at $18 as of 11:45 a.m. Wednesday.

Today was the first chance insiders in Moderna’s IPO got a chance to sell shares after the 180-day lockup period expired, and that may be fueling the fire sale. Trading volume Wednesday has been 11 times the average for this time of day.

To contact the reporter on this story: Cristin Flanagan in New York at cflanagan1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Catherine Larkin at clarkin4@bloomberg.net, Jeremy R. Cooke

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