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Less than a year before the Covid-19 pandemic ravaged the world, Novavax was facing delisting from the Nasdaq. The pharmaceutical company had poured hundreds of millions of dollars into research and development for vaccines — and yet, at 33 years old, was approaching middle age without a single approved shot.
Investors were scorning, rather than rewarding, foresight. In January 2020 short interest hit 30 per cent, according to S3 Analytics. Even after the company began work on its Covid-19 vaccine, shortseller Citron Research reportedly dismissed it as a “serial promise and non-deliver [er]”.
Now the Maryland-based company is on the verge of getting approval in the UK, which will probably be followed by the US. Interim data have shown that its vaccine has an efficacy rate up there with the shots developed by BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna, based on revolutionary messengerRNA technology. However, it is cheaper and easier to transport and can be stored at room temperature for at least 24 hours.
Citron has deleted its critical tweet and did not respond to a request for comment.
“It’s a Cinderella story,” said Stacey Schultz-Cherry, an infectious disease specialist at St Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in Tennessee. “A little company that was on the verge of potentially closing has really been able to play with the big boys in the race for the Covid vaccine.” Experts saw promise in its technology worth paying for: the US vaccine programme Operation Warp Speed gave Novavax $1.6bn to expand manufacturing, while Covax, the World Health Organization programme to supply the developing world, has ordered 1.1bn doses.
More at https://www.ft.com/content/22d3805e-c304-4d95-ae32-f559ff34886a
Investors were scorning, rather than rewarding, foresight. In January 2020 short interest hit 30 per cent, according to S3 Analytics. Even after the company began work on its Covid-19 vaccine, shortseller Citron Research reportedly dismissed it as a “serial promise and non-deliver [er]”.
Now the Maryland-based company is on the verge of getting approval in the UK, which will probably be followed by the US. Interim data have shown that its vaccine has an efficacy rate up there with the shots developed by BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna, based on revolutionary messengerRNA technology. However, it is cheaper and easier to transport and can be stored at room temperature for at least 24 hours.
Citron has deleted its critical tweet and did not respond to a request for comment.
“It’s a Cinderella story,” said Stacey Schultz-Cherry, an infectious disease specialist at St Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in Tennessee. “A little company that was on the verge of potentially closing has really been able to play with the big boys in the race for the Covid vaccine.” Experts saw promise in its technology worth paying for: the US vaccine programme Operation Warp Speed gave Novavax $1.6bn to expand manufacturing, while Covax, the World Health Organization programme to supply the developing world, has ordered 1.1bn doses.
More at https://www.ft.com/content/22d3805e-c304-4d95-ae32-f559ff34886a
