Biotech stock Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) surged over 13% in Tuesday afternoon’s trading after it offered up a great piece of news for those still concerned about COVID-19; its vaccine not only proved effective against the Omicron variant, but it’s also doing well against the latest scourge – Eris.
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Eris, and the surge in cases that’s come along with it, already has several organizations pivoting back toward demanding facemasks, a point of dubious success in previous versions. But Novavax’s success is anything but dubious, according to reports; the updated Novavax vaccine neutralized immune responses in both EG.5.1 and XBB.1.16.6 variants of Omicron. The protein-based shot managed to create antibodies in both animals and non-human primates.
Novavax won’t have a significant advantage in the market for long as both Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) are poised to bring out new versions in the next few weeks. In fact, Moderna has a bit of an edge in the field. It’s the only one that has data on humans so far. The good news, however, is that even with the new version of COVID-19 out in the field, its hospitalization rate has been comparatively low to previous outbreaks.
Meanwhile, Novavax itself enjoys a certain level of analyst support. With three Buy ratings and one Sell, Novavax is considered a Moderate Buy. Furthermore, it comes with 169.69% upside potential thanks to its average price target of $25 per share.
