Tag: COVID vaccine

Pfizer shares hit 52-week high after co claims its COVID vaccine is over 90% effective

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The share price of drugmaker Pfizer rallied over 19 percent to hit a 52-week high in the early trade on Tuesday after the company said that its vaccine has proved to be 90 percent effective in preventing COVID-19.

The stock gained as much as 19.46 percent to a fresh high of Rs 5,875.00 apiece on the BSE.

Pfizer and BioNTech, on Monday, said their COVID-19 vaccine has proved to be effective in preventing the disease caused by the new coronavirus, putting the candidate ahead of others in the vaccine race.

After a discussion with the FDA, the companies decided to analyse 94 cases from the 43,538 cases under study and an independent committee found a vaccine efficacy rate above 90 percent.

The interim analysis indicated that protection was achieved 28 days after the first dose in the two-dose vaccine. No serious safety concerns were reported and the study continues to collect additional safety and efficacy data as planned.

Read here: Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine explained: What we know so far and what it means for India

Pfizer said the Phase 3 clinical trial of BNT162b2 began on July 27 and has enrolled 43,538 participants to date, 38,955 of whom have received a second dose of the vaccine candidate as of November 8, 2020.

Pfizer Inc did not provide any more details about those cases and cautioned the initial protection rate might change by the time the study ends. Even revealing such early data is highly unusual.

At 10:00 am, the shares of Pfizer were trading 7.74 percent higher at Rs 5,298.35 on the BSE as against a 0.68 percent gain in the benchmark Sensex.

Catch all the latest updates from the stock market here.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Pfizer COVID vaccine unlikely to make its way to India: Biocon’s Shaw

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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On Monday, US drug-maker Pfizer released preliminary data from late-stage human trials of the COVID-19 vaccine it developed with German biotech firm BioNTech, and said that vaccine has been found more than 90 percent effective.

However, this may be of little cheer to India, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Executive Chairperson of Biocon said in an interview with CNBC-TV18.

“The Pfizer vaccine is unlikely to make its way to India,” Shaw said, “…because the ultra-cold chain that it requires of minus 70 degrees is something that we may not be in a position to handle. It is not something that will be conducive for India,” she added.

“We need to watch out for the Astrazeneca vaccine, the J&J vaccine, the Novavax vaccine,” she said.

Pfizer vaccine is an mRNA vaccine against the spike protein, which produces the spike protein against which one’s body creates antibodies. She believes, most vaccines are looking at spike proteins. So if it has worked well in this case, the assumption is that it will work well for other vaccines which have addressed the spike protein, she explained.

According to her, Pfizer discovering a vaccine with over 90 percent effectiveness is certainly a welcome news. “However, I don’t think we have crossed the finishing line. The efficacy data, the interim analysis was done on 94 patients, so we need to wait for a while. The data looks good, promising because we have 90 percent efficacy but we need to wait for a little while longer before we get more data,” she said.

Durability of response of the vaccine takes 1-2 years to prove. “It will take at least a year or two before we know how durable this vaccine is and how safe this vaccine is,” she said.

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Pfizer COVID vaccine game changer; emerging Asia looks good: Citi

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Pfizer has discovered a vaccine for COVID-19 with an effectiveness rate of 90 percent. Is a victory in the war against COVID finally in sight? Are there more legs to global equity rally? Steven Wieting, MD and Global Chief Investment Strategist of Citi Private Bank shared his thoughts with CNBC-TV18.

“Putting an effective vaccine in place through the public is a game changer for the world economy,” he said in an interview with CNBC-TV18.

He believes this development is far more crucial than the US Presidential Elections.

“A vaccine and a medical solution to COVID-19 is the most important news for the world economy and 2021,” he added.

“I am excited by the prospects of a vaccine, I think that there is tremendous opportunity for the world economy to recover from it. Let us be a tiny bit careful about initial news headlines and the effect on markets,” he said.

According to him, the split government in the US is favourable for asset prices.

“For global markets, the most important thing is that we will move back to traditional policy-making, towards rules-based trading systems, gone will be escalating tariffs and tariff threats, this created a tremendous amount of business apprehension over the last few years and President-elect Joe Biden and US President Donald Trump would have had extremely different international policies,” he said.

“Biden will run a very different foreign policies that will make US dollar in all likelihood – which is on a downward trajectory – we won’t see these bouts of risk aversions related to trade policy,” he added.

“The US and China both led global equity markets in 2020. We think that there is a catching up opportunity for many markets. Emerging Asia looks particularly attractive right now for us. COVID is not an unstoppable trend, it will end and we will see a rebound in the many depressed assets that have been held back sharply by this pandemic,” Wieting said.

He believes, Asia is an unstoppable uptrend at the moment. “It is the region of the world that has the most attractive long-term growth rates. India, specifically, is a very long-term development story that should be part of international investors’ portfolios,” he added.

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Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Opening Bell: Sensex, Nifty pare gains after opening at record highs; financials lead

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Indian indices opened at a record high on Tuesday tracking gains in Asian peers as the progress of a coronavirus vaccine which lifted confidence in a world economic recovery.

However, the benchmarks pared some gains on profit-booking soon after but continued trading higher. At 9:18 am, the Sensex was trading 137 points higher a new high of 42,737 while the Nifty was up 45 points at a record high of 12,506.

The Sensex rose 362 points in intra-day deals to hit a new of 42,959 while the Nifty rose as much as 96 points to its record high of 12,557.

Pfizer Inc said its COVID-19 vaccine, developed with German partner BioNTech was more than 90 percent effective in preventing infection, marking the first successful results from a large-scale clinical trial.

Back home, gains were mainly led by financials with 4 of 5 top gainers on the Nifty from that space. ICICI Bank, HDFC, SBI, IndusInd Bank, and L&T were the top gainers while Infosys, Tech Mahindra, Cipla, HCL Tech and Divi’s Labs led the losses.

Broader markets were mixed for the day with Nifty Midcap in the red and Nifty Smallcap up 0.1 percent.

Among sectors, Nifty Bank and Nifty Fin Services jumped the most, up 1.7 percent each. Meanwhile, Nifty IT lost over 2.5 percent capping some gains.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Whatever money is needed for vaccine, will be provided for: DEA Secy Tarun Bajaj

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The pricing of the COVID vaccine, when it is launched, and also the outlay is not clear at this point. But money will not be a constraint in the vaccine reaching the masses, DEA secretary Tarun Bajaj said in an interview with CNBC-TV18’s Shereen Bhan.

“Whatever the money is needed for the vaccine and whatever the health ministry decides in consultation with other ministries will be provided for,” he said.

“We still don’t know what the cost is going to be, so the vaccine is still not out, we don’t know the pricing, we don’t know how much would be required, so I am saying this very categorically to assure the country that money will not be a constraint when it comes to the vaccine,” he added.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Coronavirus News Nov 6 Highlights: India tally above 84 lakh; long-term exposure to air pollution may increase COVID-19 death risk, says study

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Coronavirus News Nov 6 Highlights: India’s COVID-19 caseload went past the 84 lakh mark, while the number of people who have recovered from the disease surged to 77.65 lakh, pushing the national recovery rate to 92.32 percent, according to Union Health Ministry data updated on Friday. India’s total coronavirus cases mounted to 84,11,724 with 47,638 new infections being reported in a day, while the death toll climbed to 1,24,985 with 670 new fatalities, data updated at 8.00 am showed. A total of 77,65,966 people have recuperated from COVID-19 so far, pushing the national recovery rate to 92.32 percent, while the case fatality rate stands at 1.49 percent. The number of active COVID-19 cases remained below 6 lakh for the eighth consecutive day.
There are 5,20,773 active cases of coronavirus infection in the country as
on date, which comprises 6.19 percent of the total caseload, data stated.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Vaccine for votes: BJP’s Bihar promise sparks a controversy

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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For the first time in India’s political history a vaccine has made it to an election manifesto. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has promised free COVID-19 vaccine for every person in Bihar once it is available sparking a controversy.

The manifesto was released earlier today and the first promise was free vaccines. The move triggered political backlash with opposition questioning the party for using a vaccine to further a political agenda.

The RJD slammed the BJP saying, “The political use of the vaccine shows that they have no choice but to sell their fear of disease and death.”

The head of the BJP IT cell Amit Malviya defended the party saying “Like all programs, the center will provide vaccines to states at a nominal rate. It is for the state governments to decide if they want to give it free or otherwise. Health being a state subject, Bihar BJP has decided to give it free. Simple.”

He did not respond to the charge of exploiting people’s fears in the midst of a pandemic.

SY Quraishi, former chief election commissioner, discussed who should get the vaccine and whether or not the government should prioritise healthcare workers and the elderly who are most vulnerable. He also discussed the lack of the distribution plan by the central government.

“The government cannot make any new announcements after the code of conduct comes into play,” he said.

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Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow