AstraZeneca to resume its late-stage clinical trial of the experimental COVID-19 vaccine

AstraZeneca plc (LON: AZN) said on Monday that it is set to resume its late-stage clinical trial of the experimental COVID-19 vaccine. The optimism was well received as the pharmaceutical company’s stock rallied to deliver the strongest boost to the FTSE 100 on Monday.

Shares of the company opened about 1% up on Monday but lost the entire gain in the next hour as President Donald Trump ordered drug companies to reduce prices in the United States that resulted in a blow to the pharmaceutical stocks.

At £84 per share, AstraZeneca is now a little under 10% down year to date in the stock market after recovering from a low of £62 per share in March when the impact of Coronavirus pandemic was at its peak. Learn more about how can you start trading on the stock market.

AstraZeneca’s late-stage trials were suspended last week

The British company’s trial for its candidate COVID-19 vaccine has been the talk of the financial markets in recent months as governments from across the world expressed confidence that it was the best bet to combat the novel health crisis.

Last week, AstraZeneca’s late-stage trials were suspended as a patient faced serious adverse effects. In a statement, the company had highlighted in response that adverse reactions can occur by chance in trials as big as the one for its experimental COVID-19 drug. Suspending the trial and launching a meticulous investigation, it had added, was standard procedure.

AstraZeneca had suspended its trials following the incident of an adverse reaction in multiple locations, including the United Kingdom. As of Monday, authorities in Brazil have nodded on resuming trials. As per the Serum Institute of India, it is awaiting approval from India’s Drugs Controller General.

Valneva to deliver COVID-19 vaccine to the UK

In related news, Valneva revealed on Monday that 190 million doses of its VLA2001 (candidate COVID-19 vaccine) will be delivered to the UK. The French vaccine maker said that it will supply 60 million doses initially in the fiscal H2 of 2021 for £434 million.

AstraZeneca published its earnings report for the fiscal second quarter in the last week of July in which it revealed its net profit to have jumped to £581.18 million.

AstraZeneca performed fairly upbeat in the stock market last year with an annual gain of about 25%. At the time of writing, the Cambridge-based multinational pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical company has a market cap of £110 billion and a price to earnings ratio of 65.56.