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A nurse was preparing to inject a health worker with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in Rome on Monday.
Filippo Monteforte / AFP via Getty Images
There are not enough approved vaccines for Covid-19
Pfizer,
BioNTech and Modern, so that was good news
Novavax
i
Arcturus Therapeutics Holdings
they were advancing to the next stages of testing their vaccines.
But when Novavax (ticker: NVAX) said Monday it was starting the U.S. Phase 3 test, the shares fell 10% on the day, to close at $ 116.85. On Tuesday it rose 1% in early operations. The reaction to Arcturus’ news was even more disconcerting.
Following Monday’s closing, Arcturus (ARCT) said it will conduct a phase 2 trial of its vaccine in Singapore. He published data from his initial clinical study of prey, using messenger-RNA technology in the line of Pfizer (PFE), BioNTech (BNTX) and Moderna (MRNA) vaccines.
Although analysts studied the data from Arcturus, they did not find it impressive. With a wave of bearish declines on Tuesday morning, Arcturus shares fell 52% since Monday’s close to $ 43.93.
Novavax began a Phase 3 study in the UK earlier this year, and this 15,000-person track is already fully registered. The company’s scientists are waiting to see what the difference is in Covid cases between those receiving placebo shots and those taking the Novavax vaccine.
Early tests of the shots generated impressive levels of virus-neutralizing antibodies in receptors. The vaccine contains protein particles that resemble the tips of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which Novavax manufactures through a standard genetic engineering process.
As of this week, Novavax aims to enroll 30,000 volunteers in the United States and Mexico for its phase 3 study. Public health experts have been concerned that hiring these placebo-controlled Covid vaccine tracks will be tougher. , following U.S. authorizations for Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna vaccines. Starting its core test now, Novavax is behind the early beginnings of developers like
Johnson & Johnson
(JNJ), even when Pfizer and Moderna increase production.
As an incentive, perhaps, Novavax plans to administer the active vaccine to two-thirds of its volunteers and placebo to one-third. Previous developers split their tasks in half and half.
The disappointment of the provisional data from Monday’s Phase 1 of Arcturus focuses on the levels of antibodies generated by his shots. The company has fueled hopes that its vaccine will stand out by providing immunity after a single dose. But after the first of the two shots of the phase 1 trial, antibody levels were only comparable to the levels seen in patients who had recovered from a Covid-19 infection. The second booster shot achieved only minimal improvement, Guggenheim analyst Seamus Fernandez noted in a note Tuesday.
The Guggenheim analyst maintained its purchase score on Arcturus, but said in its note that the data “raised more questions than answers.” Rival vaccines, including Novavax, generated much higher antibody levels after two shots. Unless Arcturus can prove that a single dose of its vaccine is superior, Fernandez said, its product may not be a viable competitor.
Other analysts were less lenient. Arcturus shares gained five rebates after Monday’s data, including four that reduced it to a Hold and one that reduced it to a Sell.
At Raymond James, analyst Steven Seedhouse said in a note Tuesday that he was leaving Arcturus in a higher-than-market yield (the equivalent of a hold) because the levels of a single dose of neutralizing antibodies they were “disappointing.”
Data from the phase 3 trial of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines showed that neutralizing antibody levels were correlated with Covid protection from shooting, Seedhouse noted. Thus, with provisional Arcturus data only equal to those of convalescent Covid patients (rather than being several times higher, like other vaccines), investors will not be interested in Arcturus unless they can demonstrate their advantage at one dose in a phase 3 trial, wait.
Write to Bill Alpert to [email protected]