What happened
Three of the top coronavirus stocks, Pfizer (PFE +0.31%), BioNTech (BNTX 0.25%), and Moderna (MRNA +0.59%), saw plenty of action on the market Thursday. Encouraging news for Pfizer and BioNTech's Comirnaty coronavirus vaccine pushed the share prices of those two companies slightly higher on the day, by a respective 1.4% and 6.7%, with fellow jab maker Moderna cruising along for the ride with a 1.5% gain.
So what
A report published Thursday morning in The New York Times stated that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) plans to authorize booster shots of Pfizer and BioNTech's vaccine for people aged 12 to 15. Citing "people familiar with the agency's deliberations," the newspaper said the FDA also aims to authorize a booster for younger children (aged 5 to 11) burdened with immune deficiencies.
Image source: Getty Images.
If the article is accurate, it illustrates the regulator's wider goal to get more shots in arms generally -- hence the similar investor reaction with Moderna stock.
Comirnaty is an appropriate first choice for the new demographics, as it is so far the only coronavirus vaccine fully approved by the FDA, as opposed to having Emergency Use Authorization. Like Moderna's mRNA-1273, it has shown outstanding performance in late-stage clinical testing, and is a go-to jab throughout the U.S. and in other jurisdictions around the world.
Now what
No matter how the situation plays out with the omicron variant, the world will have to contend with the coronavirus for quite some time. We can fully expect pharmaceutical giant Pfizer to remain on the radar of a great many investors; the same can be said for the high-profile biotechs BioNTech and Moderna.
