Vaccine-related news might not be as big of a catalyst as it was a few months ago, but investors and traders alike are still taking advantage of any potential moves they can get. Specifically, COVID-19 vaccine announcements have the potential to send a stock surging, especially if it’s a smaller company. However, even large pharmaceutical giants can see big stock moves as well. Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) reported on Thursday that it was seeking emergency authorization for its own COVID-19 vaccine candidate from U.S. health officials.
Last week, the company announced that its single-shot vaccine was around 66% in treatment severe COVID-19 cases. If Johnson & Johnson receives approval, which seems likely at this point, it’s prepared to rapidly scale up production immediately. Considering that there have been production roadblocks that have slowed down vaccine rollout in the U.S., adding another vaccine company to produce doses seems like an easy decision for authorities.
“Upon authorization of our investigational Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use, we are ready to begin shipping,” said J&J Chief Scientific Officer Paul Stoffels in a statement on Thursday. “We are working with great urgency to make our investigational vaccine available to the public as quickly as possible.”
At the moment, only Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA) and Pfizer (NASDAQ: PFE) have approved vaccines currently being distributed in the U.S. At the moment, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has scheduled an advisory committee to come together and discuss whether or not to recommend JNJ’s vaccine for approval. This has been standard procedure for the FDA in regards to COVID-19 vaccines, with every advisory committee scheduled so far having approved the particular vaccine it was assigned to review.
While some investors are looking at all this as just a formality, there are still some medical experts that are skeptical about the seemingly lower efficacy rate of JNJ’s vaccine in comparison to others. The company has responded by saying that this vaccine is being tested on newer, harder to treat strains.
Shares are up around 2.7% in response to the news, which is still a decent bit for a $426.5 billion market cap company like JNJ. However, for the most part, new vaccine approval news doesn’t seem to be that much of a catalyst anymore, unless you’re a small biotech company. Unlike so many other stocks, Johnson & Johnson is relatively unchanged since 12 months ago, kind of a disappointment for many analysts that were previously optimistic about the company.
Johnson & Johnson Company Profile
Johnson & Johnson is the world’s largest and most diverse healthcare company. Three divisions make up the firm: pharmaceutical, medical devices and diagnostics, and consumer. The drug and device groups represent close to 80% of sales and drive the majority of cash flows for the firm. The drug division focuses on the following therapeutic areas: immunology, oncology, neurology, pulmonary, cardiology, and metabolic diseases. The device segment focuses on orthopedics, surgery tools, vision care, and a few smaller areas. The last segment of consumer focuses on baby care, beauty, oral care, over-the-counter drugs, and women’s health. Geographically, close to half of total revenue is generated in the United States. – Warrior Trading News
