Healthcare stocks gained Friday afternoon, with the NYSE Healthcare Index rising 1.1% and the State Street Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLV) adding 1.5%.

The iShares Biotechnology ETF (IBB) climbed 2.8%.

In corporate news, shares of Moderna (MRNA) and other vaccine developers rose after The New York Times reported that the US National Institutes of Health is part of a public-private partnership to accelerate the development of cancer vaccines. Moderna shares jumped 11%. Merck (MRK), Novavax (NVAX) and BioNTech (BNTX) shares were up 2.4%, 13% and 4.9%, respectively. Vaxcyte (PCVX) and Vir Biotechnology (VIR) shares popped 8.5% and 6.3%, respectively.