Vaccines makers under pressure amid concerns over new coronavirus strain

 

• As UK health authorities warn of a new highly transmissible variant of COVID-19, the COVID-19 vaccine makers on the other side of the Atlantic are trading lower as the companies start to investigate its impact on vaccine efficacy.
• While the NASDAQ Biotechnology Index has risen +0.4%, the firms with FDA-approved COVID-19 jabs are in negative territory: Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) is down -9.5%, and American Depository Receipts of BioNTech (NASDAQ:BNTX) have lost -6.1% reaching the lows seen in November-end.
• The CEO of BioNTech, Ugur Sahin, thinks the chances of its vaccine working against the new variant, called B.1.1.7, as ‘relatively high.’ An experiment will take about two weeks to yield data and confirm it, he added.
• Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley analyst, David Risinger, predicts mRNA-based vaccines like those from Moderna and Pfizer (NYSE:PFE)/BioNTech should protect against new COVID strains.
• Arguing that the new strain “only carry sporadic point mutations in the spike protein that are believed to be unlikely to disrupt the full immunogenicity,” the analyst, however, does not rule out the possibility of future strains requiring new vaccine development.
• Another mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine developer, CureVac (NASDAQ:CVAC), has said it does not think its product will be less effective against the new variant, adding it could come up with a new version within weeks. Yesterday, the company announced the initiation of its Phase 3 trial for its COVID-19 vaccine candidate.
• https://seekingalpha.com/news/3646806-vaccines-makers-are-under-pressure-amid-concerns-over-new-coronavirus-strain