Pfizer’s Pill, Shot Help Push Stock to Record as Variant Emerges

(Bloomberg) -- Pfizer Inc. jumped to a record Friday on the promise of its Covid-19 vaccine and antiviral pill even as fears of a new variant tamped down much of the rest of the U.S. stock market.

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The drug maker added more than $17 billion to it market value as the shares climbed 6.1% at 12:02 p.m. in New York trading. Pfizer’s vaccine with BioNTech SE is now the best-selling drug product on a yearly basis and received backing from a European regulatory panel on Thursday to expand its use into children as young as five. BioNtech shares surged 21%.

New York-based Pfizer is waiting to hear back from U.S. regulators on a new Covid pill, Paxlovid. The company filed for an emergency use authorization for the medicine on Nov. 16. Friday’s results from Merck & Co.’s competing pill appeared less effective than prior estimates. 

The new variant, B.1.1.529 also being called “Nu,” was first identified in South Africa and infected two people quarantined in a hotel in Hong Kong. “In the event that [a] vaccine-escape variant emerges, Pfizer and BioNTech expect to be able to develop and produce a tailor-made vaccine against that variant in approximately 100 days, subject to regulatory approval,” a company spokeswoman said in an email. 

The next two weeks will be critical, said $Citigroup Inc(C-N)$. analyst Andrew Baum. “Concern over Nu needs to be balanced against the failure of other concerning variants such as Beta (also first identified in Africa) to out-compete delta,” he said. The new antivirals should still work against the variant though resistance may eventually appear, he wrote in a research note. 

Pfizer’s stock is up more than 45% this year. Other vaccine stocks also rallied on Friday with Moderna Inc. jumping as much as 28% for the biggest climb in over 17 months.

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