Moderna rises on FDA Covid vaccine guidance that doesn’t destroy its core business
Moderna jumped on Tuesday after the Food and Drug Administration approved its COVID-19 booster shot for people 65 and older or with high-risk conditions.
FDA officials said in the New England Journal of Medicine that the agency will collect data on whether it’s necessary for healthy people under 65. Currently, anybody who wants a Covid booster shot can get one.
Moderna, which was tapped by the federal government to quickly develop a COVID-19 jab, still makes the vast majority of its revenue selling that one product. While the announcement may hurt Moderna’s sales, FDA officials took a less hostile tone to vaccination broadly.
They even said the move was in part to help build trust in vaccination, noting reluctance among some to give their children the measles vaccine, “which has been clearly established as safe and highly effective.”
Other Covid vaccine makers like Novavax and Pfizer also nudged up on the news.
