Moderna may have “similar results” to Pzifer. Stocks have soared – Executive Digest

The modern biotechnology company has announced that the results of its vaccine against Covid-19 will arrive in the coming days. He did not specify an exact date, but his shares have already risen 8.4% on the stock market this Wednesday and increased another 5% this Thursday.

Several experts estimate that Moderna’s vaccine has an efficacy similar to that of Pfizer – more than 90% – and that it obtains approval of the results before the end of the month.

Preliminary data from Moderna’s study is being prepared for submission to the supervisory board, the company said in a statement. The vaccine is in the third and final stage of development and the Data Safety Monitoring Board, responsible for monitoring the quality of the vaccine, must issue one of the following verdicts: it is effective, it does not work, or the trial must continue because the results are inconclusive.

The bet among leading experts in the field is that Moderna, which uses mRNA technology similar to Pfizer, is likely to prove highly effective, in line with the announcement made earlier this week, which points to 90% effectiveness.

“Overall, I expect similar results” from the Moderna trial, said Drew Weissman, an immunologist and mRNA expert at the University of Pennsylvania, USA, who helped develop key modifications used in vaccines using this technology.

“It is difficult to imagine how it could be very different,” said the expert, whose laboratory receives research funding from BioNTech, Pfizer’s partner company.

The Pfizer result “validates the use of mRNA,” said Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government’s leading infectious disease specialist, in a statement to the media on Monday. Fauci added that “Moderna is a candidate in the mRNA, which we hope will have similar results”.

News of the Pfizer vaccine was enthusiastically received by the stock exchanges, especially in the European market.

Moderna is a much smaller company than Pfizer, with no previous manufacturing experience, and its success depends a lot on the result of this vaccine. Its shares rose 8.4% on the stock market this Wednesday and advanced another 5% this Thursday.

So far this year, Moderna has risen about 300% compared to the price quote for Pfizer shares.

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