AstraZeneca Pressure Mounts as Investors Await Oxford Vaccine Data
Moderna, another front-runner, released results Tuesday that showed its vaccine raised levels of antibodies that fight the virus.
(Bloomberg) -- Pressure is growing on AstraZeneca Plc to deliver positive results from early tests evaluating the coronavirus vaccine it’s developing with University of Oxford researchers as investors await data expected on Monday.
The U.K. pharma company is staying quiet after British media reports said results of phase 1 tests to be published in The Lancet medical journal were promising, driving the shares up late Wednesday. A paper is undergoing final editing and preparation and is due to be published on July 20, The Lancet said in an email. The trial started in April and saw more than 1,000 shots tested on healthy adult volunteers.
AstraZeneca has said that it will sell the shot at cost during the pandemic crisis. The shares rose 5.2% on Wednesday, adding about 5.9 billion pounds ($7.4 billion) to the company’s market valuation. The stock fell as much as 0.7% in London Thursday. A spokesman for Cambridge, U.K.-based Astra declined to comment.
The vaccine results will be closely scrutinized as governments around the world seek to end a pandemic that’s killed almost 600,000 people and triggered economic turmoil since erupting earlier this year. Moderna Inc., another front-runner, released results Tuesday from an early-stage test in 45 people that showed its vaccine raised levels of antibodies that fight the virus.
The Oxford vaccine has already begun final-stage testing. AstraZeneca has said it may begin delivering doses of the vaccine to the U.K. as early as September.
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