Novavax stock crumbled Monday after the Food and Drug Administration signed off on updated Covid boosters from rivals Pfizer and Moderna.
The news comes as Novavax plans to present its vaccine data before a panel of advisors to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday. This gives Pfizer and Moderna a slight lead with their messenger RNA shots compared with the protein-based technology used by Novavax.
"Novavax is currently responding to the FDA's requests to facilitate final review, and timing is ultimately at the discretion of the FDA," the company said in a news release. Novavax is aiming to vaccinate people age 12 and older in the U.S.
On today's stock market, Novavax stock tumbled 12.9% to close at 7.82. Pfizer stock fell a fraction while Moderna stock skidded 1.7% to 105.80.
Novavax Stock: Covid Booster Trails Slightly
Specifically, the FDA fully approved Pfizer's BioNTech-partnered shot and Moderna's shot for people age 12 and older, and authorized the same vaccines for children age 6 months to 11 years old.
The vaccines, including Novavax's, all block the XBB.1.5 subvariant of omicron. At the time the FDA directed the companies to target that strain, it was dominant in the U.S. Now it accounts for roughly 3% of all sequenced cases.
Instead, the dominant strains are now EG.5 and FL.1.5.1. From Aug. 20 to Sept. 2, they accounted for a combined 36% of all sequenced cases in the U.S.
The companies all say their updated booster shots can take on the leading EG.5 variant.
Pfizer says its shot has also shown promise against the emerging pirola variant, which appears to be more highly mutated than its predecessors. Moderna says its shot has shown promise against FL.1.5.1, while Novavax notes its updated vaccine generates antibodies against several XBB strains.
Moderna says it's planning to begin shipping doses to vaccination sites across the U.S., with updated shots available "in the coming days." Pfizer says it's working with pharmacies to "ensure rapid access to this season's vaccine." Meanwhile, Novavax says doses of its updated vaccine arrived in the U.S. today.
Vaccine Stocks Under Pressure
All three vaccine stocks have struggled since 2021, however, and demand for their Covid boosters will be key. As of May, the last available data set, just 17% of eligible people in the U.S. had received one of the first updated booster shots from Pfizer and Moderna.
Today, all three stocks have poor IBD Digital Relative Strength Ratings, a 1-99 measure of a stock's 12-month performance. Novavax stock has an RS Rating of 30. That leads Pfizer stock and Moderna stock with RS Ratings of 17 and 15, respectively.
Follow Allison Gatlin on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, at @IBD_AGatlin.
