China rushes to develop Moderna-style cancer vaccines amid market frenzy

A group of Hong Kong-listed biotechnology companies have seen their stock prices surge in the wake of Moderna’s breakthrough cancer vaccine trial, as the Chinese companies push forward with similar vaccine programmes.

The companies – from Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals to Li Ka-shing-backed CK Life Sciences – already have a slew of cancer vaccines in development, which could have a large potential market given that nearly 2.6 million people die from cancer in China alone each year.

“China is moving quickly and has already built a large pipeline of more than 100 cancer vaccine programmes,” said Cui Cui, head of healthcare research for Asia at Jefferies.

“The next challenge is how to replicate Moderna’s breakthrough in other tumour types, as melanoma alone is not a big market,” Cui added, referring to a severe form of skin cancer.

It also remains to be seen whether the companies can manufacture personalised vaccines quickly and at a reasonable cost, according to the analyst.

Markets reacted with euphoria after Moderna and Merck announced last week that their personalised mRNA vaccine had cut the risk of melanoma returning or spreading in a phase three trial of about 1,140 patients – a first for an mRNA cancer vaccine.