Vaccine stock Valneva: Big gain thanks to Pfizer

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by Julia Gro, Euro on Sunday

Valneva is making the headlines again: The US pharmaceutical group Pfizer is investing EUR 90.5 million in Valneva as part of the collaboration on a Lyme disease vaccine and now owns 8.1 percent of the company’s shares. The course shot in Verabout 60 percent higher than last week.

The French vaccine developers are now contributing more to the development costs of the vaccine, and the agreement on possible royalties has also been changed – whether to the advantage or disadvantage of Valneva remains an open question. In addition, sales-related milestone payments from Pfizer to Valneva amounting to USD 100 million were agreed. Overall, it is difficult to judge whether this deal is really only positive for Valneva on the bottom line. The company was battered after delays and canceled orders for its Covid vaccine. The transaction underscores Pfizer’s interest in the product, which is believed to generate billions in sales – but the Americans may have used Valneva’s weakness to get better terms for themselves. Bryan Garnier analyst Jean-Jacques Le Fur believes the deal is a possible first step towards a full takeover of Valneva. We continue to view the stock as a holding position.

Notice of Conflicts of Interest:
The majority owner of the sole shareholder of Finanzen Verlag GmbH, Mr. Bernd Frtsch, has taken direct and indirect positions on the following financial instruments mentioned in the publication or related derivatives that may benefit from any price development resulting from the publication: Biontech, Curevac, GlaxoSmithKline , Novavax, Pfizer, Valneva.

INVESTOR INFO

The stock has recently bucked the trend. On the one hand, the paper benefits from the approval of the Covid vaccine for children from six months – with two injections, Moderna’s Spikevax parents should be more sympathetic than Pfizer’s and Biontech’s three-dose regimen. On the other hand, the Americans have also presented data on an adapted vaccine for the fall, which should be available from August, ahead of the competition. In addition, sooner or later they are likely to make additional purchases and enter into cooperation agreements in order to broaden their product range and cushion the decline in Covid sales. There are almost 20 billion dollars in the account for this.

Furthermore, it tends to be the large corporations that shine with positive news. Recently, for example, GSK reported that the phase 3 study of the new RSV vaccine in older people had provided positive data. The respiratory tract infection can be particularly dangerous for babies and seniors. Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and Moderna are also working on an RSV vaccination, they are represented in the iShares S&P 500 Healthcare ETF, which contains around 70 American companies. In addition to pharmaceutical stocks, these also include stocks from the equipment, insurance and medical technology sectors. Good defensive health investment.

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Image sources: mundissima / Shutterstock.com, Finanzen Verlag