What happened
Shares of several COVID-19 vaccine makers soared this week as of the market close on Thursday. Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) was the biggest winner, with its stock skyrocketing 31.7%. BioNTech's (NASDAQ:BNTX) shares vaulted 23.3% higher. Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) stock jumped 17.7%. Shares of Dynavax Technologies (NASDAQ:DVAX) rose 10.6%.
Was there a common denominator for all of these vaccine stocks? Increasing fears about the delta variant likely played a role to some extent. However, each company also had good news of its own.
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Novavax announced on Wednesday that the European Commission agreed to purchase up to 200 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine NVX-CoV2373. The deal includes an initial order of up to 100 million doses with an option to buy an additional 100 million doses through 2023.
However, Novavax provided its second-quarter update following the market close on Thursday. The company now expects to file for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) in the U.S. in the fourth quarter of 2021 instead of in the third quarter. Its shares gave up some of the week's gains in after-hours trading.
BioNTech and its partner Pfizer benefited from a report that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will likely approve their COVID-19 vaccine by early September. The New York Times stated that the expected FDA approval could spur more vaccine mandates by employers.
Moderna announced on Tuesday that it had received FDA Fast Track Designation for its respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine candidate mRNA-1345. The company also reported strong second-quarter results on Thursday and projected vaccine sales of $20 billion for the full year.
Dynavax reported positive Q2 results on Wednesday. The company's revenue of $52.8 million blew past the consensus estimate of $41.6 million.
So what
Novavax had the biggest news of these vaccine makers. The company's European deal could generate a hefty amount of additional revenue over the next couple of years.
Of the two companies reporting quarterly results, Dynavax delivered the greater upside surprise. Its Heplisav-B hepatitis B vaccine raked in $13.7 million in sales, the highest quarterly figure so far.
Moderna also beat expectations with Q2 revenue of $4.4 billion. Arguably the most important update from the company, though, was that it has already secured supply deals for 2022 totaling $12 billion plus options for another $8 billion.
The report about a potential quick FDA approval for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine lit a fire beneath BioNTech stock. However, this really wasn't surprising.
Now what
All four companies could have more good news on the way. Novavax is working to file for Emergency Use Authorization for its COVID-19 vaccine candidate by the end of the third quarter in the U.K. and, as previously mentioned, in Q4 in the U.S. Dynavax expects key data readouts this year from several partners who are using its CpG 1018 adjuvant with their experimental COVID-19 vaccines.
Both BioNTech and Moderna hope to win full FDA approval for their respective COVID-19 vaccines. The companies are also angling to line up more supply deals for 2022 and beyond.