[ad_1]
The announcement of the Astra Zeneca vaccine was received with bitterness on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. Analysts see logistical challenges regarding the vaccine candidates now running.
Astra Zenecas vd Pascal Soirot. Stock Photography.
On Monday, Astra Zeneca announced that the Swedish-British pharmaceutical company’s coronavirus vaccine candidate “achieved the main objectives” according to the preliminary results of the study. CEO Pascal Soriot calls the result “an important milestone in the fight against the pandemic,” but on the Stockholm Stock Exchange, Astra Zeneca fell 2.8 percent.
Erik Hultgård, a Carnegie pharmaceutical analyst, sees an explanation in Astra’s test results.
– The bar has been raised quite a bit in terms of effects results, with Pfizer and Moderna reporting an effect of around 95 percent. In light of that, Astra’s results are a bit lower and that’s the explanation, he tells TT.
Competitors Pfizer / Biontech and Moderna have reported a result of more than 94 percent efficiency for each company’s vaccine. Astra Zeneca, in turn, claims that it achieves at least a 62% effect with one dosage regimen and a 90% effect with another regimen.
Pressure on Astra’s stock increased in the afternoon when investment bank Statistics Sweden Leerink assessed that the company’s candidate will never be approved in the United States and that Astra Zeneca has painted the results very well.
In the stock market, the three companies have had different developments in the last quarter. Modern has sped up just over 50 percent, Pfizer is down about 7 percent, and Astra has lost about 3 percent.
Different companies have also had different points of view. While Pfizer and Moderna have made it clear that they intend to make a profit from the vaccine, Astra has announced that during the pandemic itself, the company does not intend to make money from the vaccine.
– But if the corona virus remains for a period of ten years, you obviously have a chance to make money. So, of course, it’s good for the Astra brand and goodwill that the company can go out and show that Astra can develop something that is good for all of humanity.
The different vaccine candidates differ markedly. While the candidates for Pfizer and Moderna are so-called synthetic mrna vaccines, Astra has developed a more traditional variant. Especially when it comes to logistics, there is a big difference, Erik Hultgård points out:
– One challenge is that they (Moderna and Pfizer candidates) are not stable at room temperature but must be distributed in minus 20-75 degrees, which is a big challenge when there are such large volumes and especially in developing countries. Astra vaccine, on the other hand, can be stored at refrigerator temperature.
Several countries now hope to be able to start mass vaccination soon, in the US Vaccination of high-risk groups is expected to begin around December 11-12. Astra says it will be able to distribute three billion doses next year, while Pfizer and Moderna, in turn, will be able to distribute one billion doses each. Erik Hultgård sees the production goals as completely realistic, but sees other question marks:
– Production capacity will be gradually expanded in 2021, but the challenge will be administration and distribution, to get billions of people to take the vaccine in two separate doses. So there should be as many needles available as there are doses of vaccine.
Many are now confident that the pandemic will stop as soon as vaccination begins. However, the situation is more complex than that, Erik Hultgård emphasizes:
– It will be a highly selected vaccination of risk groups that will not stop the pandemic in the near future. Until at least this summer, the vaccine will likely not be available in such volumes that it will slow the spread dramatically. It’s more about protecting risk groups and reducing pressure on medical care.
