Pfizer up 8.5%; parent firm's potential Covid-19 drug shows positive result

Pfizer and Germany's BioNTech are in a race with companies including AstraZeneca Plc, Moderna Inc. to come up with a safe and effective vaccine against Covid-19

Shares of Pfizer India jumped 8.5 per cent to Rs 4,313.4 apiece on the BSE on Thursday after the company's US-arm said that one of its Covid-19 vaccines showed encouraging results in very early testing of 45 people.

At 9:50 am, the stock was ruling 5 per cent higher at Rs 4,176.85 on the BSE, as against 365 points, or 1 per cent, gain in the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex. A combined 145,933 shares have changed hands on the counter on NSE and BSE till the time of writing of this report.

Study volunteers given either a low or medium dose of one of the four vaccines that the company is testing, along with German partner BioNTech, had immune responses in the range expected to be protective, when compared to some COVID-19 survivors, according to the preliminary results. READ HERE

"These first trial results show that the vaccine yields immune activity and causes a strong immune response," said BioNTech's co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Ugur Sahin.

In the US, Pfizer Inc’s shares rose more than 3 per cent during the overnight trade on Wednesday.  

According to media reports, BioNTech and Pfizer will now pick the most promising of four experimental vaccines for a trial involving up to 30,000 healthy participants, which is likely to begin in the United States and Europe in late July, if it gets the regulatory green light.

Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech are in a race with companies including AstraZeneca Plc, Moderna Inc. and dozens of other biopharmaceutical outfits and academic groups to come up with a safe and effective vaccine against Covid-19. With almost 10.5 million confirmed cases around the globe and over half a million deaths, drugmakers are under increasing pressure to deliver.

During the March quarter of FY20, Pfizer reported a 5.90 per cent decline in net profit at Rs 103.01 crore compared to net profit of Rs 109.47 crore in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.

Revenue from operations stood at Rs 502.01 crore for the quarter under consideration. It was at Rs 535.66 crore in the same period a year ago, the company said in a regulatory filing.

In another development, Pfizer is among the 11 potential candidates which, according to ICICI Securities, could be included in the futures & options (F&O) segment. READ HERE