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| Pfizer and Modena/AFP=News1 |
US biotech company Modena’s stock price plummeted close to 10%. It was the worst day since the end of November.
Moderna closed at $125.88, down 9% from the New York Stock Exchange on the 22nd (local time). Bioentech, Germany, which developed a vaccine jointly with Modena, also plunged 5.5%. Another vaccine competitor, Pfizer, fell by 1.7% and evaporated $10 billion (about 11.07 trillion won) from the market cap of the three bio stocks in one day.
Pfizer, Modena, and Bioentech are all companies that have developed vaccines for the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19). The Pfizer vaccine was first approved in the United States two weeks ago, and last week, the Modena vaccine was also approved for emergency use.
However, with the emergence of a new corona 19 mutant virus in the UK, vaccine stocks plunged at once. The mutant virus may have already spread to the United States, Germany, France, Switzerland and Australia beyond the UK, followed by comments from health authorities.
To date, there is no proven evidence that neither Moder nor Pfizer’s vaccines are useless against mutant viruses. Vaccine developers have emphasized the effectiveness of prevention to address these concerns. Bioentech said it will conduct experiments on the new mutation within two weeks. The European Food and Drug Administration (EMA) and the World Health Organization (WHO) also focused on vaccine efficacy.
Morgan Stanley also saw that vaccine stocks still have additional upside potential. David Risinger, an analyst at Morgan Stanley, said in an investment note, “If the vaccine doesn’t have a preventive effect, it will be a serious retreat for society.”
Bloomberg points out that we can’t be pessimistic about vaccine stocks, even though individual investors are still running on bio stocks like fire moths for profits. Modena, Bioentech, and Pfizer were all-time highs after US approval. Moderna plunged close to 10% on the 22nd, but this year as a whole, it rose more than 600%. Bioentech also rose by nearly 300%.