COVID-19 vaccine maker CureVac pops 200% in debut
Yahoo Finance's Anjalee Khemlani and Zack Guzman discuss COVID-19 vaccine maker Curevac's public debut and the UK Government signing vaccine deals with J&J and Novavax.
Video Transcript
ZACK GUZMAN: We've been covering the fact that Curevac, the biotech company, they are working on a coronavirus vaccine, has seen shares triple in its debut. But there are other big biotech companies signing some big deals of their own today with the UK government. And for more on that, we're joined by Yahoo Finance's Anjalee Khemlani, who has the details. Anjalee.
ANJALEE KHEMLANI: Thanks Zack Yep. So we are learning more and more about the distribution of vaccines and where we will see them hit first. Right now, we got some news out of the UK signing deals with both Johnson and Johnson for 30 million doses, as well as Novavax for 60 million and looking to distribute that throughout the UK.
Meanwhile, the European Union also making some deals with AstraZeneca for 400 million doses and in talks with Johnson and Johnson for 200 million. Now this is all really important. Because compared to the US, we see AstraZeneca with 300 million doses, Novavax with 100 million, and Johnson and Johnson with 100 million, and looking at news just out of the Trump administration linking up with McKesson for distribution.
And so we've been hearing a lot of concerns about how exactly these doses will be distributed. Because while the governments are in fact making these deals to purchase the doses, it's yet to be determined how they will in fact be distributed. Meanwhile, eyes on Curevac, as you mentioned, IPO today skyrocketing beyond $50 a share.
But also to note that the German government did previously invest in this company but did not in competitor BioNTech, which we know is working with Pfizer right now on a vaccine. So all very interesting how this is all shaping up. Back to you Zack.
ZACK GUZMAN: Yeah very interesting indeed. And the company there, speculation squared, you think about a company that's not profitable, a net loss of more than 100 million last year backed by Bill Gates. A lot of room to run, though, when you think about how much is at stake in the race to find a coronavirus vaccine. But Anjalee Khemlani, appreciate that update there.
