Elon Musk Says mRNA Has ‘Tremendous’ Potential After Moderna, Merck Cancer Vaccine Breakthrough — MRNA Stock Falls Over 11% in Premarket (UPDATED)

Editor’s Note: The story has been refreshed with the latest market price action and a revised headline.

Elon Musk said Wednesday that mRNA technology could fundamentally change how diseases are treated, a shift that would make medicine more of a software problem than a biological one, as Moderna Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) and Merck & Co Inc. (NYSE:MRK) posted a major cancer-vaccine trial win.

mRNA Has ‘Tremendous’ Potential

“Despite its obvious misuse during Covid, mRNA has tremendous promise for curing diseases,” Musk said in a post on X. “Artificial RNA essentially makes curing diseases a software problem.”

Musk was replying to Eric Topol, scientist and founder of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, who said that the Phase 3 melanoma trial breakthrough builds on “signs of success” in personalized mRNA vaccines targeting pancreatic cancer, triple-negative breast cancer, and non-small cell lung cancer.

Despite its obvious misuse during Covid, mRNA has tremendous promise for curing diseases.

Artificial RNA essentially makes curing diseases a software problem.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 19, 2026

A First-of-Its-Kind Cancer Trial Result

Moderna and Merck announced positive Phase 3 results for an individualized mRNA cancer vaccine, marking the first successful late-stage trial of its kind, with the treatment showing significant improvement in recurrence-free and metastasis-free survival in melanoma patients when combined with Merck’s Keytruda.

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Musk’s Push for AI As Healthcare Solutions

Musk has promoted artificial intelligence as a path to transforming healthcare, saying in June that advances in synthetic RNA could make medicine increasingly programmable and potentially “cure almost anything,” and that Tesla Inc.‘s Optimus humanoid robot combined with AI “will enable universal excellent healthcare that is better than anyone receives today.”

On Tuesday, Musk backed AI to deliver major medical breakthroughs after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said AI companies must prove their value through results such as curing cancer rather than through optimistic marketing, to which Musk responded, “AI will do it.”

mRNA Peers Rally Too

BioNTech SE (NASDAQ:BNTX) gained 21.96% Tuesday to close at $113.12, as the company develops a similar individualized mRNA cancer immunotherapy, Autogene cevumeran, using the same tumor-targeting mechanism as Merck and Moderna’s melanoma therapy. The stock fell 0.55% in after-hours trading.

Arcturus Therapeutics Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:ARCT), which is collaborating with Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) to advance an mRNA therapy for cystic fibrosis, closed 25.21% higher at $10.28 and gained another 0.78% in extended trading. Thermo Fisher rose 4.16%.

Price Action: Moderna shares skyrocketed 176.97% to close at $174.38 on Wednesday, while Merck closed 12.6% higher at $152.20. MRNA stock fell 11.11% at 155 during Thursday premarket, according to data from Benzinga Pro.

Benzinga edge rankings show Moderna’s stock has a Momentum score in the 95th percentile and a positive price trend across the short, medium, and long-term.

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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

Photo Courtesy: Frederic Legrand – COMEO on Shutterstock.com