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Moderna Stock Crash: Losses Top $140 Billion as Insiders Sell Millions of Dollars in Shares
Shares of Moderna plummeted Monday as COVID-19 vaccine-makers led a turbulent market decline, pushing the stock to its lowest level in nearly a year after disappointing study results and a slew of sales from the firm’s top executives added to concerns that have made one of last year’s top-performing stocks crash more than 70%.
Moderna stock fell as much as 13% on Monday to a 10-month low of less than $140, pushing shares down more than 30% over the past month amid a sell-off largely centered on technology and healthcare firms that skyrocketed in value during the pandemic.
Moderna’s recent losses also follow a slew of regulatory filings released Friday evening which showed four Moderna executives — including billionaire CEO Stéphane Bancel — sold a combined 23,281 shares for about $3.6 million last week.
Pfizer Director Dr. Scott Gottlieb: Shots for Kids Under 5 Delayed Due to Low COVID Cases in Trial
The Food and Drug Administration’s plan to fast-track Pfizer’s COVID vaccine for children under 5 years old was delayed because of a “low number of cases overall in the clinical trial,” Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC on Monday.
“Most kids are not getting symptomatic COVID,” said the current Pfizer board member and former head of the FDA. “One case in one direction or another can tip the perception of the vaccine’s overall effectiveness.”
“I suspect there’s only going to be 15% to 20% of parents who go out and get their young kids vaccinated,” should shots for children under 5 get emergency authorization, Gottlieb said.
Gottlieb said he expects the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to institute a “permissive recommendation,” rather than a mandate for children under 5 to get vaccinated.
White House Seeks Another $30 Billion for COVID Battle
The Biden administration is telling Congress that it needs an additional $30 billion to press ahead with the fight against COVID-19, officials said.
Two people familiar with the administration’s plan confirmed key details on Tuesday: $17.9 billion for vaccines and treatments, $4.9 billion for testing, $3 billion to cover coronavirus care for uninsured people, and $3.7 billion to prepare for future variants. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss deliberations between the administration and lawmakers over the supplemental funding.
According to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, Congress has already approved $5.8 trillion to battle the pandemic in a series of major bills spanning the Trump and Biden administrations. That’s not counting actions by the Federal Reserve to help keep the economy going.
A State Bill Will Allow Ivermectin Prescriptions, Though It’s Already Legal
A Republican-held state House has passed a bill allowing the antiparasitic drug ivermectin to be prescribed, even though it was already legal in the state.
Lawmakers in the South Dakota House of Representatives passed House Bill 1267, legalizing the prescription of ivermectin by doctors, according to the Grand Forks Herald, 40 to 28 in favor. Following this vote, it will now head to the state Senate.
Despite the bill passing successfully, it was already legal in South Dakota, and the rest of the country, for doctors to prescribe ivermectin to patients for any reason.
Moderna’s CEO Says It’s ‘Reasonable’ to Suggest the COVID Pandemic Is in Its Final Stages
Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel has said it is “reasonable” to consider the COVID-19 pandemic almost over.
Speaking to CNBC’s Squawk Box Asia on Wednesday about whether he believed that the pandemic was in its final stages, Bancel said: “I think that is a reasonable scenario.”
Bancel said he thinks there was “about an 80% chance” that as the virus evolves, it will become “less and less virulent.” If this were the case, Bancel still expects people older than fifty, and those at high risk of severe illness, to be boosted against COVID-19 each year.
“This virus is going to stay with humans forever, like the flu, and we’d have to live with it,” he said.
39% of Americans Approve of Biden’s Handling of the Pandemic: Poll
Only 39% of Americans say they approve of President Biden’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new poll released on Wednesday.
A new Politico-Morning Consult poll found that just 39% of Americans surveyed gave an excellent or good rating for the president’s handling of the pandemic, while 41% gave it a poor rating, and 16% said it was “just fair.”
COVID Booster Shot Uptake Is at All-Time Low in the U.S., CNN Analysis Finds
The pace of people getting COVID-19 vaccine booster shots in the United States has dropped to the lowest it has ever been, and many public health experts are concerned.
As of Monday, about 64% of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19 with at least their initial two-dose series, and 28% have received a booster shot.
But the pace of booster doses going into arms is the lowest it has been in months — since the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention first recommended boosters for seniors and other at-risk adults in September, according to a CNN analysis of CDC data. The agency expanded its recommendation for booster doses in November to include all adults.
Exclusive: Short AstraZeneca Shelf Life Complicates COVID Vaccine Rollout to World’s Poorest
The relatively short shelf life of AstraZeneca Plc’s (AZN.L) COVID-19 vaccine is complicating the rollout to the world’s poorest nations, according to officials and internal World Health Organization documents reviewed by Reuters.
It is the latest headache to plague the COVAX vaccine-sharing project, co-led by the WHO and aimed at getting shots to the world’s neediest people.
WHO: New COVID Cases Drop by 19% Globally, Deaths Stable
The number of new coronavirus cases globally fell by 19% in the last week while the number of deaths remained stable, according to the World Health Organization.
WHO said that all other coronavirus variants, including Alpha, Beta and Delta, continue to decline globally as Omicron crowds them out. Among the more than 400,000 COVID-19 virus sequences uploaded to the world’s biggest virus database in the last week, more than 98% were Omicron.
Merck Struggles to Win European Approval for COVID Antiviral Pill
The European Medicines Agency is unlikely to grant conditional marketing authorization to Merck’s COVID-19 antiviral pill this month as it grapples with “problematic” data, according to people familiar with the approval process.
It is “possible” the oral COVID drug Molnupiravir will not receive approval at all, one of the people said. The EMA declined to comment on its ongoing review.
According to European officials, national healthcare systems in Europe are favoring Pfizer’s Paxlovid, another COVID antiviral pill, whose efficacy in reducing death and hospitalisation has been confirmed at 89%.
UK to Offer COVID Vaccine to All Children 5 to 11
British authorities will offer a coronavirus vaccine to almost six million children from age 5 to 11, officials said Wednesday. The government said young children will be offered a low-dose COVID-19 shot on a “non-urgent” basis beginning in April in England. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland also announced similar measures.
“Parents can, if they want, take up the offer to increase protection against potential future waves of COVID-19 as we learn to live with this virus,” Health Secretary Sajid Javid said.
The government’s independent vaccine advisory committee said while the virus does not pose a threat to most children, a very small number who are infected will develop serious disease.
