Moderna Inc (NASDAQ: MRNA), which commenced a late-stage trial of its mRNA vaccine, codenamed mRNA-1273, against SARS-CoV-2 earlier in the week, has been reportedly targeted by Chinese hackers.What Happened: Chinese government-linked hackers had hacked into the computer network of Massachusetts-based Moderna to steal data, Reuters reported, citing a U.S. security official tracking Chinese hacking.The U.S. Justice Department disclosed last week two Chinese nationals were caught spying on the U.S., including three U.S. firms researching on coronavirus treatment/vaccine, according to Reuters. These hackers reconnoitered the computer network of a Massachusetts-based firm working on a coronavirus vaccine in January.Related Link: Moderna Analyst: Coronavirus Vaccine Will Get Approved, Clock B+ In Orders Over Next Few YearsWhy It's Important: Moderna is one of the frontrunners in the coronavirus vaccine race and is expeditiously progressing toward bringing a vaccine to the market. The company was among the earliest inclusions in the U.S. federal government's Operation Warp Speed project.It may also be noted that three Chinese firms have advanced their respective vaccine candidates into the final phase of clinical trials.China has refuted allegations of hacking, Reuters reported.In pre-market trading Friday, Moderna shares were up 0.67% to $78.15.See more from Benzinga * The Daily Biotech Pulse: Spectrum's Positive Dementia Readout, Pfizer, BioNTech Start Late-Stage Coronavirus Trial, resTORbio Receives COVID-19 Funding * The Week Ahead In Biotech: Spotlight On GW Pharma, Ultragenyx FDA Decisions, Pfizer Earnings(C) 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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The U.S. drugmaker said two large trials of the oral antiviral being developed with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics would begin in September. Merck said it can manufacture “many millions of doses” of the drug before year end. Gilead Sciences Inc’s intravenous antiviral remdesivir is currently being widely used as a treatment for hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

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(Bloomberg) — Nvidia Corp. is in advanced talks to acquire Arm Ltd., the chip designer that SoftBank Group Corp. bought for $32 billion four years ago, according to people familiar with the matter.The two parties aim to reach a deal in the next few weeks, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. Nvidia is the only suitor in concrete discussions with SoftBank, according to the people.A deal for Arm could be the largest ever in the semiconductor industry, which has been consolidating in recent years as companies seek to diversify and add scale. But any deal with Nvidia, which is a customer of Arm, would likely trigger regulatory scrutiny as well as a wave of opposition from other users.Cambridge, England-based Arm’s technology underpins chips that are crucial to most modern electronics, including those that dominate the smartphone market, an area in which Nvidia has failed to gain a foothold. Customers including Apple Inc., Qualcomm Inc., Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and Intel Corp., could demand assurances that a new owner would continue providing equal access to Arm’s instruction set. Such concerns resulted in SoftBank, a neutral company, buying Arm the last time it was for sale.No final decisions have been made, and the negotiations could drag on longer or fall apart, the people said. SoftBank may gauge interest from other suitors if it can’t reach an agreement with Nvidia, the people said. Representatives for Nvidia, SoftBank and Arm declined to comment.Divestment Drive“With Nvidia’s low-cost fabless model enabling it to focus on R&D, engineering and programming, the fit with Arm would be perfect,” said Neil Campling, an analyst at Mirabaud Securities.Nvidia is the largest maker of graphics processors and it’s spreading the use of the gaming component into new areas such as artificial intelligence processing in data centers and self-driving cars. Marrying its own capabilities with central processor units designed by Arm may enable it to take on Intel and Advanced Micro Devices in a more comprehensive way, according to Rosenblatt Securities analyst Hans Mosesmann. He estimates Nvidia would have to pay about $55 billion for Arm.“You need control of BOTH CPU and GPU roadmaps and this, of course, includes data centers,” he wrote in a note Friday, referring to central processing units and graphic processing units. “Strategically, Nvidia needs a scalable CPU that can be integrated into its GPU roadmap, as is the case with AMD and Intel.”Billionaire Masayoshi Son has been selling some of SoftBank’s trophy assets as the company seeks to pay down debt at the Japanese conglomerate. SoftBank has offloaded part of its stake in Chinese internet giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and a chunk of its holdings in wireless carrier T-Mobile US Inc.SoftBank has been exploring options to exit part or all of its stake in Arm through a sale or public stock listing, Bloomberg News has reported. The chip-design company could go public as soon as next year if SoftBank decides to proceed with that option, people with knowledge of the matter have said.Arm has become more valuable as it pushes its architecture into smart cars, data centers and networking gear. The company could be worth $44 billion if it pursues an initial public offering next year, a valuation that may rise to $68 billion by 2025, according to New Street Research LLP.Nvidia, based in Santa Clara, California, is the world’s largest graphics chipmaker. The stock has surged more than twenty-fold in the past five years, giving the company more firepower to do large deals. Nvidia’s market value has increased to more than $260 billion in that time, surpassing Intel. The stock was little changed Friday in New York.(Updates with analyst comment in eighth paragraph)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

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One thing we could say about the analysts on Scorpio Tankers Inc. (NYSE:STNG) – they aren't optimistic, having just…

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A look at the shareholders of Arcturus Therapeutics Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:ARCT) can tell us which group is most…

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Tao Value recently released its Q2 2020 Investor Letter, a copy of which you can download here. The fund posted a return of 36.45% for the quarter, outperforming its benchmark, the MSCI All Country World Index (ACWI) which returned 18.81% in the same quarter. You should check out Tao Value's top 5 stock picks for […]

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After a market crushing performance during the first half of the year, one of 2020’s best performers has been struggling of late. The last month has seen shares of Inovio Pharmaceuticals (INO) decline by 27%. The publication of murky data for the biotech’s COVID-19 DNA vaccine candidate INO-4800 and a sense it is lagging behind competitors’ progress have raised concerns amongst investors. Add in an overheated valuation and maybe a sell off was inevitable.As a reminder, despite the souring sentiment, the stock is still up by a majestic 510% on a year-to-date basis.With the public and investors’ focus squarely on COVID-19 related developments, it is easy to forget these companies have other drugs in various states of development.On Thursday, Inovio shares broke out of the downtrend and surged by 9%. For a change the uptick had nothing to do with COVID-19.Which brings us to INO-3107, Inovio’s treatment for recurrent respiratory papillomatosis (RRP). Inovio announced INO-3107 had been designated Orphan Drug status by the FDA. The status is given to rare diseases with a small addressable market that otherwise not be profitable enough to develop, therefore the government steps in to provide support. The designation should provide Inovio with various incentives, including seven years of market exclusivity should the treatment gain FDA approval, a prescription drug user fee waiver, and tax credits for qualified clinical trials.INO-3107 is currently being evaluated in a Phase 1/2 trial with 63 subjects participating in the study. Defined by the growth of noncancerous tumors that can result in life-threatening airway obstructions, there are currently 15,000 RRP cases in the U.S.H.C.Wainwright analyst Ram Selvaraju commented, "These incentives could help the company advance future clinical development of INO-3107 and maximize the DNA medicine’s commercial value, in our view… We believe INO-3107 has the potential to address the underlying recurring virus, delay or eliminate the need for frequent surgery, and provide a long term treatment option to improve the quality of life for both adult and pediatric RRP patients.”However, it is still early days in the drug’s development and for now Selvaraju stays on the sidelines with a Neutral rating. (To watch Selvaraju’s track record, click here)Selvaraju’s colleagues agree. Inovio currently has a Hold consensus rating, based on 2 Buys, 5 holds and 1 Sell. The average price target comes in at $22 and implies shares will remain range bound for now. (See Inovio stock-price forecast on TipRanks)To find good ideas for healthcare stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks’ Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks’ equity insights.

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ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) has had a rough month with its share price down 7.6%. However, stock prices are usually…

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Investors who owned stocks in the 2010s generally experienced some big gains. In fact, the SPDR S&P 500's (NYSE: SPY) total return for the decade was 250.5%. But there's no question some big-name stocks did much better than others along the way.Kodak's Difficult Decade: One underperformer of the last decade was former camera giant Eastman Kodak Company (NYSE: KODK).Kodak's decade was defined by a bankruptcy and two major strategic pivots away from its legacy camera business.Extreme cash burn and a secular decline in Kodak's camera and inkjet printing businesses triggered a Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January 2012. The bankruptcy completely wiped out legacy shareholders, and Kodak's peak market cap of around $30 billion went down to $0.Kodak re-emerged from bankruptcy and relisted shares in November 2013 starting at $26.50 per share. Kodak's updated business model included segments Digital Printing & Enterprise and Graphics, Entertainment & Commercial Films.When the restructured company continued to struggle to gain traction, Kodak made a seemingly desperate move by pivoting to blockchain technology in January 2018 near the peak of the bitcoin bubble. After reporting declining revenues and a $111 million net loss in the first quarter of 2020, Kodak once again pivoted to producing generic drug ingredients in July, announcing a brand new $765 million loan from the U.S. government.After opening at $26.50 post-bankruptcy in late 2013, Kodak shares peaked at $37.73 in early 2014 before resuming the steady march downward that long-time investors had endured since the 1990s.Kodak shares dropped as low as $2.95 in late 2017 before the blockchain pivot sent the stock skyrocketing as high as $13.27 in January, 2018. By late 2018, Kodak was making new lows again.2020 And Beyond: After hitting an all-time low of $1.50 in March 2020, Kodak shares skyrocketed to new all-time highs on the drug news just four months later. Kodak shares peaked at $60 in the days following the announcement before pulling back to around $36.Even after the massive 2020 run, Kodak shares have significantly lagged the S&P 500 since it emerged from bankruptcy in 2013. In fact, $1,000 worth of Kodak stock in 2013 would be worth about $1,384 today.At the same time, $1,000 worth of legacy Kodak stock purchased in 2010 would now be worth $0 due to the bankruptcy.Related Links:Here's How Much Investing ,000 In Nokia Stock Back In 2010 Would Be Worth Today Here's How Much Investing ,000 In Pfizer Stock Back In 2010 Would Be Worth TodaySee more from Benzinga * Kodak Short Sellers Are Getting Obliterated * A Closer Look At The Kodak Chairman's Stock Purchases As Shares Rally 1,500% * Kodak Had Some Very Suspicious Trading Activity Ahead Of Drug News(C) 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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