Vaccine Race Lifts Biotech Shares As Pharma Giants Trot Along

As the race to deliver the first coronavirus vaccine heats up, many investors are considering buying shares of the companies currently ahead of the pack, hoping for a healthy return in case of a breakthrough. Pfizer and BioNTech were the latest to announce a major milestone on Wednesday, as their vaccine candidate turned out to be 95% effective against COVID-19 in a completed Phase 3 study.

Earlier this week, Moderna had announced a similar efficacy rate for its vaccine candidate based on preliminary Phase 3 trials results, while Oxford University and AstraZeneca announced that their candidate produces a strong immune response in elderly and older adults.

As the following chart shows, the vaccine race hasn’t given the same boost to all companies mentioned above. While Moderna and BioNTech, both smaller biotech firms, saw their share price soar through much of 2020, pharma giants Pfizer and AstraZeneca merely trotted along, with Pfizer’s share price even down 2 percent since the beginning of the year.