Vaccine News Boosts Pharmaceuticals

2020 will go down in history as the year of the pandemic. With the ”second wave” of COVID-19 sweeping the planet and more national lockdowns announced around the globe, there is not much to look forward to now. However, there is a glimpse of hope that we may be able to return to some normality soon. That hope? A vaccine.

Pharmaceutical companies around the world have been working hard to produce a vaccine for COVID-19 and with the first results of tests released, we have seen the shares of pharmaceutical companies surge over the last few days.

Who is making the moves?

Pfizer/BioNTech

First, we saw Pfizer and BioNTech announce their vaccine candidate against the virus last week.

”Vaccine candidate was found to be more than 90% effective in preventing COVID-19 in participants without evidence of prior SARS-CoV-2 infection in the first interim efficacy analysis.”

”Today is a great day for science and humanity. The first set of results from our Phase 3 COVID-19 vaccine trial provides the initial evidence of our vaccine’s ability to prevent COVID-19,” said Dr. Albert Bourla, Pfizer Chairman and CEO.

About Pfizer

Pfizer is one of the world’s premier innovative biopharmaceutical companies, discovering, developing, and providing over 170 different medicines and vaccines healthcare products to help improve the lives of millions of people in the UK and around the world every year.

Founded: 1849
Founders: Charles Pfizer and Charles F. Erhart
Headquarters: New York, United States
Number of employees: 88,300

About BioNTech

BioNTech SE is a German biotechnology company dedicated to the development and manufacture of active immunotherapies for a patient-specific approach to the treatment of serious diseases.

Founded: 2008
Founders: Uğur Şahin and Özlem Türeci
Headquarters: Mainz, Germany
Number of employees: 1,323
Pfizer and BioNTech shares rose by 11% and 12% respectively following the latest news on the vaccine last week.

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) – Daily Chart

BioNTech (NYSE:BNTX) – Daily Chart

This week, we saw Moderna, an American biotechnology company that focuses on drug discovery, drug development, and vaccine technologies announce their results of the vaccine.

The vaccine showed that it protects against Covid-19 is nearly 95% effective, early data showed – beating its competitors.

”This is a pivotal moment in the development of our COVID-19 vaccine candidate. Since early January, we have chased this virus with the intent to protect as many people around the world as possible. All along, we have known that each day matters. This positive interim analysis from our Phase 3 study has given us the first clinical validation that our vaccine can prevent COVID-19 disease, including severe disease,” said Stéphane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer of Moderna.

The company plan to apply for approval to use the vaccine in the next few weeks.

The shares of Moderna were up by over 17% in the pre-market following the announcement.

About Moderna

Founded: 2010
Founders: Derrick Rossi
Headquarters: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Number of employees: 830

Moderna (MRNA) – Daily Chart

With the virus not going anywhere any time soon and the vaccine proving the only way to end the pandemic, these stocks may be the ones to watch out for over the coming months.

Sources: Pfizer, BioNTech, Moderna and TradingView