The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention green-lighted updated Covid boosters from Pfizer and Moderna, giving final regulatory authorization for the shots, but the vaccine stocks largely dipped Friday.
In a late Thursday decision, the CDC's advisory group voted 13-1 to recommend the bivalent boosters. These updated shots target the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants of omicron as well as the original strain of the Covid-causing virus. With the CDC blessing in hand, companies can now start shipping the shots.
Anyone age 12 and older is eligible for an updated booster if they're at least two months out from their primary vaccine or a booster shot. The CDC says it expects to sign off on updated boosters for younger children "in the coming weeks."
"The updated Covid-19 boosters are formulated to better protect against the most recently circulating Covid-19 variant," CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said in a written statement. "They can help restore protection that has waned since previous vaccination and were designed to provide broad protection against newer variants."
On today's stock market, vaccine stocks sank. Pfizer stock slid 2% to 45.70. Shares of its partner, BioNTech, rose a small fraction to 147.90. Moderna stock dipped 0.3% to 138.57.
Vaccine Stocks Tackle BA.4, BA.5
It's important to note, the Food and Drug Administration authorized and CDC recommended the new boosters without any human testing data in hand.
At a meeting in June, the FDA asked Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna to develop updated boosters to block the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants, which are now dominant in the U.S. The companies had already developed and tested boosters targeting the earlier BA.1 subvariant.
To expedite the process, the FDA said it would consider human test data from the BA.1 boosters and laboratory test results from the BA.4 and BA.5 boosters. Still, vaccine stocks have largely struggled this year.
Dr. Pablo Sanchez, a CDC advisor from The Ohio State University, said the data so far look promising. But he offered the lone no vote on Thursday, according to NPR.
"I understand the constant shift of these variants, but studies with the BA.4 and BA.5 are ongoing in humans and I just wonder if it's a little premature," he said. "I voted no because I feel like we really need the human data. There's a lot of vaccine hesitancy already. We need human data."
Other advisors were more comfortable, noting annual flu shots are approved based on animal tests.
Vaccine stocks jumped Thursday ahead of the vote, which came after the market close. Moderna stock leapt 5.1% to 138.95. Pfizer stock surged 3.1% to 46.63. BioNTech shares rose 2.2% to 147.81.
Follow Allison Gatlin on Twitter at @IBD_AGatlin.
