Moderna and Novavax shares fall amid reports of 10 likely deaths after vaccination

Shares of two major manufacturers of COVID-19 vaccines fell on Dec. 1 after a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) spokesman said coronavirus vaccinations likely caused the deaths of 10 children. The agency also said it would tighten its standards for approving vaccines, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Shares of Moderna and Novavax, which rely heavily on sales of COVID-19 vaccines, were down about 6% and 3.5%, respectively.

By contrast, shares of Pfizer, for which coronavirus vaccine sales take up a smaller share of total revenue, rose slightly early in the trading day but then still lost about 1%.

Vinay Prasad, head of the FDA's vaccine division, sent an email to staff in late November saying that an initial review of reports of vaccine side effects had identified at least 10 deaths that were "likely related" to COVID-19 vaccinations. The FDA did not specify which manufacturer's vaccines appeared in that data, nor did it provide additional evidence, the newspaper noted.

However, given this data, Prasad said the FDA will revise how it evaluates annual flu vaccine updates and require companies to conduct larger vaccine studies.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor