Positive data tends to do well for a lot of companies, especially for biotech stocks like Vaxcyte (NASDAQ:PCVX). Thus, it’s little surprise that the positive data that recently emerged around Vaxcyte’s VAX-24 was enough to send its stock up over 22% at the time of writing.
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VAX-24 is a pneumococcal vaccine designed to target several diseases like bacteremia and meningitis. A study featuring older adults showed that the vaccine reacted to all 24 serotypes of the agent that caused the diseases in question. That, in turn, suggests it’s effective in a wide range of cases. With 207 adults involved in the study, each was given a single injection of VAX-24 in three different levels: 1.1 micrograms, 2.2 micrograms, and 2.2 / 4.4 micrograms.
In perhaps the most exciting part of the study, the results were compared against similar uses of Pfizer’s (NYSE:PFE) Prevnar 20. As it turned out, Pfizer actually faltered against VAX-24 on at least some fronts. For instance, VAX-24 actually had a higher “geometric mean ratio response,” which is a measure of immune response to bacteria, in 16 out of the 20 studied serotypes. Further, VAX-24 was also found to have a similar safety and tolerability profile. Reactions to VAX-24 were found to be “mild to moderate.”
Meanwhile, the analyst community is very much behind Vaxcyte. With six Buy recommendations, analyst consensus calls Vaxcyte stock a Strong Buy. Furthermore, its average price target of $65 implies 46.46% upside potential.
