Great News: Vaccine for COVID-19

[dan_s]

From Bank of America Equity Research on July 22:

US agreement a positive sign for Pfizer’s program

Pfizer this morning announced a deal with the US government for $1.95B to supply 100M doses for its partnered mRNA -based vaccine (BNT162) for COVID-19. We think this is a very positive sign for the pandemic decelerating especially since the US government has the optionality to acquire an additional 500M doses if needed (600M total ; assuming a 2-dose regimen could cover 90%+ of US population); Americans will receive the vaccine for free. While phase 1 data were positive and immune responses encouraging, we don’t see these programs as fully de-risked and expect additional data to mature as phase 3 trials get underway. Indeed, Pfizer remains on track to begin a phase 2b/3 trial later this month with regulatory review as early as October 2020.

If this opens up the economy, oil prices will rise rapidly in 2021.