Moderna co-founder Robert Langer is a billionaire once again as stock more than doubles
Moderna co-founder Robert Langer has returned to billionaire status after the biotechnology company’s shares rose 120%, on Wednesday (19 August) following encouraging late-stage trial results for its experimental melanoma vaccine developed with Merck.
Robert Langer, who is believed to retain roughly a 3% stake in Moderna, saw the estimated value of his holding rise to about $1.7 billion by Wednesday, from around $730 million a day earlier. His stake had been valued at roughly $343 million when Moderna shares hit a low of $29.81 on January 2.
Why are Moderna shares surging?
Merck shares climbed more than 10% in morning trading, while Moderna’s stock soared over 120%. The size of those moves reflect the companies’ relative size entering Wednesday: Merck’s market cap was around $333 billion, while Moderna’s sat near $25 billion.
Quick answers to key questions
Robert Langer's wealth surged as Moderna shares rose 120% following positive late-stage trial results for a melanoma vaccine developed with Merck, increasing the estimated value of his stake to about $1.7 billion.
The melanoma vaccine trial demonstrated a reduced risk of cancer recurrence and spreading when combined with Merck’s Keytruda immunotherapy, successfully meeting its main objectives.
The development of the personalized melanoma vaccine is significant as it marks one of the first successful applications of mRNA technology beyond infectious diseases, potentially expanding treatment options for cancer.
The mRNA cancer vaccine could be a critical catalyst for Moderna, positively influencing investor confidence and helping diversify its business beyond COVID-19 vaccines.
Patients with high-risk melanoma may consider participating in trials for the mRNA melanoma vaccine, as it has shown promising efficacy in reducing cancer recurrence, which could offer new treatment options.
Moderna shares surged as much as 156% to about $161 on Wednesday after the company and Merck reported positive results from the first late-stage trial of an mRNA-based cancer therapy.
The personalised melanoma vaccine, given alongside Merck’s Keytruda immunotherapy, met the trial’s main objective by reducing the risk of melanoma returning compared with Keytruda alone. The treatment also reduced the risk of the cancer spreading to other parts of the body, according to the companies.
The results mark the first successful Phase 3 trial for an mRNA-based cancer therapy, giving Moderna fresh momentum as it seeks to expand beyond Covid-19 vaccines.
The trial could also prove important for Merck as it looks to develop new growth opportunities around Keytruda, its best-selling cancer treatment, amid an approaching patent expiry.
Moderna rally boosts fortunes of co-founders
Langer was not the only Moderna insider to benefit from the dramatic rally.
Fellow Moderna co-founder Noubar Afeyan saw his estimated fortune increase by about $184 million to $2.1 billion. Moderna chief executive Stéphane Bancel’s wealth rose by roughly $2.5 billion to $4.8 billion.
Timothy Springer, an early investor in Moderna, also saw his estimated fortune climb by $948 million to approximately $2.2 billion.
Moderna's shares have nevertheless remained well below their pandemic-era peak, despite Wednesday’s sharp rally.
Why the melanoma vaccine matters
The results provide the strongest clinical evidence yet that mRNA technology could have applications beyond infectious diseases. Moderna became one of the most prominent names in biotechnology after its Covid-19 vaccine helped drive a historic expansion of the company.
The personalised vaccine is designed to train the immune system to recognise characteristics specific to a patient's tumour, while Keytruda helps activate the immune response against cancer cells.
Merck and Moderna are studying the vaccine in several trials across other tumors, such as non-small cell lung cancer, bladder cancer and renal cell carcinoma.
About the Author
Sayantani Biswas is an assistant editor at Livemint with seven years of experience covering geopolitics, foreign policy, international relations and global power dynamics. She reports on Indian and international politics, including elections worldwide, and specialises in historically grounded analysis of contemporary conflicts and state decisions. She joined Mint in 2021, after covering politics at publications including The Telegraph. <br> She holds an MPhil in Comparative Literature from Jadavpur University (2019), with a specialisation in postcolonial Latin American literature. Her research examined economic nationalism through Eduardo Galeano’s Open Veins of Latin America. She also writes on political language, cultural memory and the long shadows of conflict. <br> Biswas grew up in Durgapur, an industrial town in West Bengal shaped by migration, which drew families from across India to the Durgapur Steel Plant. As the only child in a joint family, she spent years listening—almost obsessively—to her grandparents’ testimonies of struggle, fear and loss as they fled Bangladesh during the Partition of 1947. This formative exposure to lived historical memory later converged with her training in Comparative Literature, equipping her to analyse socio-economic structures and their reverberations. <br> Outside the newsroom, she gravitates towards cultural history and critical theory, returning often to texts such as Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. As a journalist, she is committed to accuracy, intellectual rigour and fairness, and believes political reporting demands not only clarity and speed, but historical depth, contextual precision, and a disciplined resistance to spectacle.
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