Covid-19 vaccine race high stakes as stock market valuations soar – Wall Street Journal

Investors are confident that a coronavoirus vaccine will work, but are hesitant to up stakes because valuations have soared.

Published on:

04 Aug 2020, 4:04 pm

A coronavirus vaccine is the ultimate prize in a race that desperately needs to be won. Gene-based vaccines from Moderna, Pfizer and its partner BioNTech are drawing much enthusiasm, and naturally, valuations have soared. On the one hand, there's good news, as the Wall Street Journal reports that investors believe Covid-19 vaccines will work. On the other, shares of vaccine companies have rocketed so much that investors are hesitant to part with their money. Meanwhile, a vaccine being developed by University of Oxford researchers and AstraZeneca disappointed some investors because it didn't produce in its early-stage trial quite as many neutralising antibodies as the Moderna vaccines did in their Phase 1 trials. AstraZeneca is conducting late-stage studies in the UK, Brazil and South Africa and is expected to start a late-stage US study this month. This high-stakes race is investigated by Gregory Zuckerman and Joseph Walker. – Nadim Nyker