What happened Shares of Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA) rose by 6.5% on Thursday after the biotech said it had collected enough data from the phase 3 study of its experimental COVID-19 vaccine to trigger an interim analysis. So what Moderna said enough people in its clinical trial had contracted COVID-19 for the independent Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) to begin a review of the effectiveness of its coronavirus vaccine candidate, mRNA-1273. Moderna's stock climbed on Thursday as investors looked ahead to a potentially positive outcome for its phase 3 trial of mRNA-1273. Image source: Getty Images. Moderna does not yet know whether the study participants who contracted COVID-19 received its vaccine candidate or a placebo. The drugmaker also did not specify when it expected the results of the interim analysis to be announced. Now what Investors are optimistic about Moderna's vaccine candidate, particularly after Pfizer and BioNTech said their coronavirus vaccine candidate appeared to be more than 90% effective at preventing COVID-19. Moderna's vaccine-development platform uses similar messenger RNA, or mRNA, technology as that used by Pfizer. If Moderna's experimental vaccine proves to be similarly effective at preventing the dangerous and rapidly spreading disease, shareholders could be in store for even larger gains in the days ahead. 10 stocks we like better than Moderna INCWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.* David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the ten best stocks for investors to buy right now... and Moderna INC wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys. See the 10 stocks *Stock Advisor returns as of October 20, 2020 Joe Tenebruso has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.Source