What happened
Americans might not be as coronavirus-weary as some fear. Actually, these days they might be more coronavirus-wary. On the back of early take-up data for the latest COVID-19 vaccines that came out on Friday, investors traded up the partners behind one of the major jabs. Pfizer (PFE 0.55%) stock rose more than 3% in value, while BioNTech (BNTX 0.58%) leaped nearly 6.5% skyward.
So what
Pfizer and BioNTech teamed up, very successfully, to develop and get to market Comirnaty, a go-to vaccine on the front lines of the coronavirus fight. Currently, Comirnaty is one of only three shots either approved or authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to help block the disorder; the other two are Moderna's Spikevax and Nuvaxovid from Novavax.
With updated vaccines becoming available, recent take-up has been more encouraging than some expected. According to data compiled by healthcare researcher IQVIA Holdings, roughly 1.8 million individuals received a Covid vaccine dose in the week ended Sept. 22. Around 1 million of these were inoculated with Comirnaty.
Of the total, Reuters quoted IQVIA's senior research director Michael Kleinrock as saying that "It feels like a good number."
In part, according to him, this is because "The imperative to be vaccinated was part of the public discussion to a much greater degree."
Now what
The government's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended on Sept. 12 that the public receive shots of the updated vaccines. Prior to that, some healthcare professionals were pessimistic about take-up. Last week, Pfizer CEO said at an industry conference that his company expected a 24% Covid vaccination rate for 2023 against an anticipated flu jab rate approaching 50%.