Moderna Falls As FDA Vows To Impose New Vaccine Rules

Watch Moderna Falls As FDA Vows To Impose New Vaccine Rules - Bloomberg on Dailymotion

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00:00So walk us through what exactly this memo said and what it means for Moderna.

00:05Yeah, so the main focus of the memo, this is from Vinay Prasad, he's a top FDA official.

00:10He's looking at, really focused on cases of myocarditis, which is inflammation of the heart,

00:17and he's saying that the FDA has found about 10 cases where children have died and linking that

00:24to COVID vaccination. There's still a lot we don't know here. He didn't present any real

00:29detailed evidence of how he came to this conclusion. So I think there's a lot of skepticism

00:34among vaccine experts. He also didn't go into great detail about what he might actually do.

00:40But investors, I think, are very on edge about the vaccine space and how the regulatory landscape

00:47is going to look ever since RFK Jr. took over as HHS secretary. Yeah, absolutely. So we're keeping

00:54an eye on shares of Moderna, as you can see, down 6 percent. But talk us through the landscape here.

00:59We're talking about Moderna because we're talking about COVID vaccines. But I have to imagine that

01:03this would have implications for other vaccine makers as well. Yeah, I mean, this memo, it really

01:07was long and very detailed. I mean, he talked about, you know, companies that make vaccines to

01:14prevent pneumonia. So some of the companies that work on that also saw their stock get hit. But yeah,

01:19I mean, this is something that really ever all year long, we've seen that ever since this

01:25administration has really been taking aim at vaccines. The COVID vaccines has been a real

01:30focus. We've already seen the population of people who are approved to get COVID vaccines has been

01:36narrowed. You know, and I think that another thing to keep in mind for a company like Moderna is a lot

01:42of the people who are getting vaccines, even though that number is declining, a lot of those people are

01:46older, you know, over 65. So, you know, they're looking at Vinay Prasad and the FDA are looking

01:52at these younger cases. But it's really the older population that's still getting vaccinated.

01:56Right. And put this into context for Moderna specifically, because we know that Moderna

02:01soared to really dizzying heights when it comes to the height of the COVID pandemic. But over the last

02:07five years, they're down about 83 percent on a total return basis. It feels like they've been trying to

02:13diversify away from their reliance on the COVID vaccines. But I have to imagine that this is a

02:18setback. Yeah, I mean, I think the big hope for a lot of Moderna investors is the potential for a

02:23cancer treatment in a few years. But another thing that's worth looking at in Vinay Prasad's memo is

02:28he talks about reevaluating how the FDA looks at flu vaccines. And what Moderna is hoping in the next few

02:34years is that they'll also get approval, not just for a flu vaccine, but also a vaccine that protects

02:39against both COVID and flu in one shot. So this is not just a threat to their COVID vaccine business,

02:46but also could affect some of the other products they're hoping to get to market in the next couple

02:50of years. And before we let you go, Jerry, how does this memo fit into the broader mosaic of what

02:55we've been seeing from the Trump administration? Yeah, I mean, I think that this is just more

02:59pressure on vaccine companies. I think it's been very clear since day one of this administration

03:05that they are going to take a really hard look at vaccine companies and how those products are reviewed.