As new cases of bird flu were reported in the U.S. and Australia on Wednesday, stocks related to vaccines went up sharply.
Shares of CureVac N.V. (CVAC, 2.30%) went up 18.8% on Wednesday. Moderna Inc. (MRNA, 0.11%) stock went up 13.7%, and BioNTech SE’s ADRs (BNTX, -2.27%) went up 11.1%.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Wednesday that a dairy farm worker in Michigan has been diagnosed with bird flu. This is the second case of bird flu in a person in the United States this year. The CDC said that, like the earlier case in Texas, the patient only had eye symptoms.
This is the second case of H5N1 bird flu in humans. The first case was reported Tuesday by the health department in Victoria, Australia, which is in the southeast. The child caught the virus in India and got sick in March. However, the health department says the child is now fully recovered.
The health department said that there is no evidence of human transmission in Victoria. They also said that the chances of more human cases are “very low” because the virus doesn’t easily spread from person to person.
The CDC says that the risk to the public is still low, but the agency is keeping a close eye on things and working with states to keep an eye on people who are around animals. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says that wild birds have been infected with bird flu in at least nine states.
A company representative told MarketWatch that Moderna is testing vaccines for H5 influenza as part of a pandemic flu vaccine trial that is still going on. H5 influenza is in the same group of viruses that are currently causing outbreaks.
The CEO of CureVac, Alexander Zehnder, said on the company’s April earnings call that the company had just started a new phase 1/2 avian flu vaccine study with GSK PLC. On Wednesday, GSK’s American depositary receipts GSK, -0.90% went up 3%.
Leerink Partners analysts said in a note Wednesday that both the CureVac and Moderna bird flu vaccine projects are still in their early stages. The stock price changes today are “likely an overreaction to headlines,” the analysts wrote. “It’s similar to trading around the emergence of novel subtypes with COVID-19.”
Novavax Inc. NVAX, -0.38%, up 5.3%, and Pfizer Inc. PFE, -2.24%, up 3.6% were two other vaccine-related stocks that went up on Wednesday.
