As the Omicron epidemic that swept the United States slowed down and new cases fell rapidly, the shares of new crown vaccine manufacturers such as Moderna and Pfizer fell sharply on Monday (14th).
Modena (MRNA) tumbled 18.85 on Monday Dollaror 11.68% to close at 142.47 Dollar, the biggest drop in the S&P 500 index. Pfizer (PFE-US) fell nearly 2% as its vaccine partner BioNTech (BNTX-US) fell more than 9%. Novavax (NVAX-US) collapsed by more than 11%, while Johnson & Johnson (JNJ-US) fell more than 1%.
The top White House medical adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said last week that the U.S. is emerging from a “full-blown pandemic of the coronavirus.”
According to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, as of Sunday, the U.S. recorded an average of 175,000 new diagnoses per day on the 7th, down 42% from the past week and well below the 7-day average since January 15. The peak level of the epidemic increased by more than 800,000 people.
Moderna’s new crown vaccine is the company’s only commercial product, so once demand for the vaccine falls, its stock price may fall further.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), regarding 64% of the U.S. population has been fully vaccinated with two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
Although the United States continues to promote vaccination efforts, the rate of increase in the national vaccination rate has slowed down much from the initial stage of the epidemic.
It took the U.S. just over two months last summer to get the percentage of Americans fully vaccinated from 40% to 50%, and then another four months to reach 60%, but since Dec. 6, Complete vaccination rates rose by only 4 percentage points.
Vaccination rates then surged once more in December in response to the Omicron outbreak, but have since declined. The U.S. averaged 443,000 daily doses over the past week, according to CDC data as of Feb. 8, a sharp drop from a peak of more than 1.7 million daily doses in early December and a peak of nearly 3.5 million daily doses in April.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday delayed its plan to authorize a new crown vaccine for children under the age of 5. The FDA initially planned to approve the first two doses of the vaccine as early as this month (the vaccine is ultimately expected to have three doses), however, Pfizer and the FDA said they now plan to wait until data for the third dose is complete in April before reviewing.
Pfizer and BioNTech are also developing vaccines once morest variants of Omicron, and Pfizer Chief Executive Albert Bourla has said the Omicron vaccine will be ready in March, but it is unclear whether a new vaccine will be needed if cases continue to decline.
Moderna has also started clinical trials of Omicron variant strain boosters.
Novavax’s vaccine has not yet been authorized by the FDA, and as the public health situation continues to improve, it is unclear how much demand for the vaccine remains in the U.S. market following Novavax’s vaccine receives regulatory approval.
Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel sold 19,000 shares in the company last week for a total of 2.9 millionDollar, and deleted his Twitter account, a move that still raises questions on the social platform, although the account has not been used for more than 2 years. Bancel sold roughly the same number of holdings each week, according to securities filings.