Moderna shares are higher on Wednesday after the Cambridge, Mass., drugmaker disclosed that it is working with the National Institutes of Health to develop a vaccine to combat coronavirus.
The disease has infected hundreds of people in China. The first U.S. case of coronavirus has been diagnosed in Washington state.
“Moderna’s mRNA vaccine technology could serve as a rapid and flexible platform that may be useful in responding to newly emerging viral threats, such as the novel coronavirus,” the company said in a statement.
“While we have not previously tested this rapid response capability, Moderna confirms that we are working with” the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the Allergy Research Center “on a potential vaccine response to the current public health emergency.”
Moderna disclosed the effort in an 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Coronavirus is a newly identified respiratory virus that causes pneumonia. In addition to the epicenter in China, the virus has been observed in neighboring countries in Asia.
